Bill Maher lauded Texas Rep. Dan Crenshaw for how he handled the Saturday Night Live joke about losing his eye while serving in Afghanistan.
The HBO host had the GOP lawmaker on his Friday night show and opened the interview by acknowledging that the joke and subsequent controversy was the first time he had heard of Crenshaw, a first-term congressman.
“I must tell you, I first became aware of you, as I think many Americans did, when Pete Davidson of Saturday Night Live made that joke about you. And I have to tell you, I’m such a fan of what you said, because you never hear that in American life. You said, look, it was wrong, but let’s just forgive each other,” Maher began. “Thank you for your service for calling out victim culture.”
Crenshaw responded by reciting a phrase he said at the time of the controversy: “Try hard not to offend, try even harder not to be offended” and said he thought Maher would “love this phrase.” He also said that it should be “a way to live for all of us.”
“We both share this disdain for victim culture,” Maher responded. “I was on to this shit a long time, and it hasn’t gotten any better.”
Davidson originally made fun of Crenshaw’s eye in November 2018 when he said, “You may be surprised to hear he’s a congressional candidate for Texas and not a hit man in a porno movie,” before adding, “I’m sorry. I know he lost his eye in war — or whatever.”
The lawmaker brushed off the joke and accepted Davidson’s apology a week later during a surprise appearance on SNL.
