Bill Maher sounded off on all the hype surrounding NASA’s Artemis II mission ahead of its splashdown on Friday, suggesting we should be more focused on Earth than the moon.
During Friday’s monologue for “Real Time With Bill Maher,” which taped just before the Artemis II astronauts successfully returned to Earth, the comedian admitted he just “didn’t get” all the chatter about the space mission.
“At a time where there’s a lot of tension going on here on Earth, this is kind of the feel good story that has everybody excited,” Maher said. “Wherever I go, ‘Bill, did you see the photos?’ Yeah, I saw them. Earth as I’ve always seen it.”
As Maher went on, he joked that he didn’t mean to be “the wet blanket on the moon,” but shared he just couldn’t match everyone else’s excitement.
“Everybody’s like, ‘If we’re on the moon, we can get to Mars.’ I don’t want to go there either,” he quipped. “There’s nothing out there, except other rocks. Let’s fix the s–tshow here on Earth.”
Maher didn’t just voice his stance in his monologue, as he took another dig at the Artemis II mission while speaking with his guest panelists, Douglas Murray and Paul Rieckhoff.
Earlier this week, Trump threatened to wipe out Iran’s “whole civilization.” He said: I’m not bluffing. Did you see what I did to Atlantic City? pic.twitter.com/4eGoM1JhQx
— Bill Maher (@billmaher) April 11, 2026
“I’m not a fan of going to the moon,” Maher said. “Same question I’ve been asking since I was a kid. Why? Is it worth the money? What are we doing there? It’s just another big f–king rock.”
Per Maher, the money spent on the recent space mission could’ve been spent “more wisely,” especially since, as he put it, there wasn’t really a goal for the operation.
“By the way, it’s not outer space, it’s right next door. It’s nothing,” Maher noted. “Here’s the universe, and we’re on the moon, 250 miles away. I have more miles on Delta.”
Maher blasted space travel as something for “rich people to do that’s fun,” defending “we’re not really getting anything from it.”
After Rieckhoff said he vehemently disagreed with Maher, sharing the Artemis II inspired hope as the astronauts have “gone further than any people have gone,” the late night personality retorted: “By 10 more miles. We’ve been to the moon before. We know [what it is].”
New episodes of “Real Time With Bill Maher” air Fridays at 10 p.m. ET on HBO.
