Bill Maher, a noted Democratic donor and high priest of the Church of Anti-Theists, drew the ire of Twitter users Thursday evening after he compared the Islamic terrorist group Hamas to a “crazy woman.”
“Dealing [with] Hamas is like dealing [with] a crazy woman who’s trying to kill [you] – [you] can only hold her wrists so long before you have to slap her,” the host of HBO’s “Real Time” said in the offending tweet.
The comparison obviously didn’t go over well as the Twitter outrage machine came to life and dozens of users moved to condemn the ill-conceived joke, proudly announcing that — unlike Maher — they don’t believe Hamas is like a “crazy woman.”
Here’s a small sample:
Longtime racist @billmaher manages to support domestic violence & the Gaza slaughter in the same tweet pic.twitter.com/Ffv2M2BULo
— Max Blumenthal (@MaxBlumenthal) July 18, 2014
When an attempt to apply dark humor to stark reality puts you in hot water: @billmaher
— Oren Dorell (@OrenDorell) July 18, 2014
Have much experience beating women, @billmaher?
— Kurt Gessler (@kurtgessler) July 18, 2014
I never could say that Bill Maher is an idiot when I was at HuffPost so, man, is Bill Maher an idiot or what?
— Ross Luippold (@rossluippold) July 18, 2014
@billmaher Have you considered restricting your jokes, analogies & commentary to issues you actually understand?
— Omar Baddar (@OmarBaddar) July 18, 2014
Bill Maher reminds the world he’s a sexist pig and has terrible politics on the Middle East https://t.co/1yWbzlPucH
— Derrick O’Keefe (@derrickokeefe) July 18, 2014
Fancy that @BillMaher is fundamentally, laughably, & offensively wrong again. #NoOneCouldHavePredicted
— Emily L. Hauser (@emilylhauser) July 17, 2014
Of course, it would be interesting to find out if these same people are at all familiar with Maher’s particular brand of comedy. I mean, the above joke really shouldn’t come as a surprise to, well, anybody.
This is what Maher does!
He’s a smug crank who makes stupid and inflammatory remarks, his HBO audience claps like trained seals and he goes home with a handsome paycheck.
Did Twitter outrage just discover Thursday night that Maher says nasty things? Or are there arbitrary rules regarding which nasty jokes are permissible and which are worthy of outrage?
