Bill Maher defended having embattled comedian Louis C.K. speak onstage at his Mark Twain Prize for American Humor honors last month, telling NPR’s “Newsmakers” Wednesday, “Anyone who’s still mad at that has no concept of appropriate punishment.”
Maher explained that he personally asked C.K., who’s in the midst of a mainstream comeback with a new Netflix standup special (“Ridiculous”) and a headlining Netflix Is a Joke show at the Hollywood Bowl, to join Jay Leno, Whitney Cummings and others at the June 28 Kennedy Center ceremony because “not everything is a hanging offense. If you’re in show business jail for 10 years, maybe that’s enough.”
And C.K., who admitted to masturbating in front of female comics after multiple women accused him of sexual misconduct at the height of the #MeToo movement, wasn’t the only “canceled” entertainer Maher defended platforming and maintaining relationships with during the interview.
Nodding to the June 29 episode of his “Club Random” podcast with Kevin Spacey and Woody Allen’s sit-down last year, Maher argued that at a time when the punishment reflecting the crime seemingly “doesn’t matter” to the court of public opinion, more people should “have some grace.”
“People just want to believe what they want to believe. So when the jury comes in on the side you like, ‘Oh, perfect, the jury’s spoke.’ But when they don’t, it’s like, ‘Oh, no, screw that, forget it. I don’t care about the police investigations, I don’t care about the exonerations,’” Maher said. “Either the law means something or it doesn’t. And not every punishment should be forever.”
Pressed on whether Maher asking C.K. to speak at the Kennedy Center last month was “you just inviting a friend or telling the world something,” the comic became exasperated.
“It’s already been told to the world. Really, do we have to just dwell on this forever?” he said, later adding: “People get, like, two years for rape. The weird sort of no rules for how we meet our punishment in this country for offenders is pretty weird.”
Watch the “Real Time” host’s full interview with NPR’s Steve Inskeep on “Newsmakers” below.
