Wanda Sykes isn’t the type of comedian to pull her punches — and that’s exactly what audiences saw earlier this year when she presented at the 83rd Golden Globes and sniped Bill Maher.
And apparently, Maher didn’t take the punch sitting down.
“He stopped me out in the parking lot — not the parking lot, we were waiting for our cars, and he was like, ‘What was that about?’” Sykes recalled on Thursday’s episode of Vulture’s “Good One” podcast.
The moment in question came at the Jan. 11 ceremony while Sykes presented the award for Best Performance in Stand-Up Comedy on Television — a win that ultimately went to an absent Ricky Gervais. Locking in on Maher while at the podium, she joked, “Bill Maher, you give us so much. But I would love a little less. Just, try less.”
To hear Sykes tell it, confronting her at the car valet is the exact kind of “extra” behavior that she was poking fun about.
“I was like, ‘It’s a joke, Bill,’” Sykes recalled responding. “And he’s like, ‘Well, I mean, it wasn’t even a joke.’ ‘No, I heard laughter. It was clearly a joke.’”
Maher supposedly continued pushing back that the jab was “not even a joke it was just, like — I said, ‘See? You’re doing exactly what we said in the joke. We need less of this. Do this less. This is exactly, you’re epitomizing the joke — less of this!’ He didn’t care for it.”
Sykes continued the story, saying that Maher argued that he’d heard from many friends and colleagues that “it was a stupid joke.”
“And when he said ‘stupid,’ I was like, ‘OK, now you’re gonna get it.’ I was like, ‘Well, I’ve got a lot of texts telling me how great it was and how they don’t like you and it was really funny. I guess, you know, that’s the problem. You’re watching Fox News, and I’m over here on MSNBC, see?’ And then he asked me to be on his podcast. I said, ‘Absolutely not!’”
Representatives for Maher did not respond to TheWrap’s request for comment.
Watch Sykes’ full “Good One” interview below:
