Bill Maher used a portion of his Friday night episode of “Real Time” to speak out against his alma mater Cornell — and college fraternities in general — amid the school’s high-profile Jane Doe gang rape allegations.
“Now that everyone is talking about Cornell, stop asking me about it just because I went there,” he began his segment. “What I do know is this alleged gang rape at the Cornell frat house is deeply disturbing. But since it’s my alma mater, where I walked those hallowed halls for four years with so many memories, I don’t want to let my personal feelings get in the way… because they’re all bad.”
“Cornell sucks and I f–king hated it, and I’m glad to see them eating a s–t sandwich. In fairness, Cornell did give me a very good education — the kind they don’t do anymore,” Maher continued. “Also, this s–t could have happened anywhere there are fraternities, because it happens everywhere there are fraternities. Any place that’s all male, no girls allowed, just doesn’t function without depravity. Ask the Catholic Church, ask the Taliban. Human nature is bad, and the best we can do is create institutions that don’t make it so easy to be worse.”
The HBO host went on to explain that Greek Life has only existed since 1825, meaning that keeping the tradition alive should not be put ahead of keeping students alive.
“Everything that’s inherently bad about men gets worse if you put them in a fraternity. The drinking gets worse, the cruelty, the treatment of women, the tribalism, the peer pressure, one-upmanship, conformity, segregation, nepotism, bullying, elitism and just general assholery. Boat shoes, for example, and hypocrisy,” Maher shared. “Fraternity mission statements love to use the word ‘Gentlemen.’ Well, in this current Jane Doe case, a young woman made a bad decision, as 20-year-olds do, when she went to a frat house drunk and did ketamine — and for that, she claims to have paid a price no woman should have to pay.”
“Now, no one was there, knows what happened, but I do know what a gentleman is. A gentleman, gentlemen, is someone who, in that situation, doesn’t exploit the woman; he saves her. That’s a gentleman,” he further noted. “Chi Phi says our mission is to build better men. And you think we do that by hazing? Why are we still allowing that in 2026? In this century so far, there have been 128 college hazing deaths. Kids have died from being repeatedly punched in the chest, from hypothermia, alcohol poisoning, traumatic brain injury, dehydration, drowning, inhaling nitrous oxide, asphyxia.”
Cornell University’s Chi Phi chapter closed in 2024 due to breaking Title IX laws. The Jane Doe at the center of this investigation has accused seven men of gang raping her, with New York Attorney General Letitia James now assigned to the re-opened case.
