‘Stop Apologizing’ to Outrage Twitter, Says Bill Maher After Lin-Manuel Miranda Flap. ‘This is Why People Hate Democrats!’
Comedian Bill Maher hit a now familiar theme on Real Time last night when he talked about there being too much apologizing to people angry or offended by something, and used the example of Lin-Manuel Miranda having to apologize “to Twitter” as his example.
Speaking with CNN’s Paul Begala and Jane Coaston of the New York Times, Maher brought up a recent controversy over Miranda’s hit new film, In the Heights. Miranda ended up apologizing following complaints, particularly on social media, about the racial make-up of his play about a neighborhood in New York’s Washington Heights.
Maher gave some background on Miranda, essentially establishing both his creative credentials and his authentic lived experiences, before saying that the complaints were out of line and that the apology was not just unnecessary but should not have been offered.
“The committee that makes note of everyone’s skin-tone” took note of the racial make-up of the cast, said Maher, who then read part of Miranda’s apology.
“Please stop the apologizing,” he said. “You’re the guy who made the founding fathers Black and Hispanic! I don’t think you have to apologize to Twitter. For fuck’s sake!”
“This is why people hate Democrats,” said Maher. “It’s cringey.”
His comments were quickly followed by Democrat Paul Begala making a cringey comment that included saying “as a white boy I had to look this up because it’s not my lived experience.”
Coaston said “this is one of those moments in which I kind of want to be like, wait, who is mad?”
“Do we need to have a dartboard that identifies, like, who is mad at who, like maybe like with a little chart or something like that?” Coaston continued. “We’ve been mad about things forever, because being mad is an irreplaceable resource.”
Maher said apologies like Miranda’s are just what’s necessary to do in order to avoid the news cycle.
“At some point people are going to have to stand up to these bullies,” said Maher. “It’s just bullying. It’s ‘I can make you crawl like a dog and I enjoy it.'”
“I mean he’s a Latino making a Latino movie with a Latino cast — not good enough! Nothing is ever good enough for these people, they’re like children,” said Maher. “We don’t raise our children right, and it’s reflected in the media. No one ever tells their children, ‘shut the fuck up. Sit down, listen to your elders, stop bitching.”
Watch the clip above, via HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher.
