Bill Maher has quit stand-up, at least for the time being, saying on his “Club Random” podcast, “I don’t want to be out there in this country, in this political atmosphere. I could get shot by the left or the right.”
To his point, we do live in an age of unprecedented political violence. And while it might not be symmetrical across the political spectrum — Democrats are more likely to be targeted, including by their own “side” — it is indeed coming from the left (Charlie Kirk’s murder), the right (the successful and attempted assassinations of multiple Minnesota lawmakers), and the ideologically incoherent (Luigi Mangione was an Elon Musk fanboy who hated the US healthcare system, had grown up with more money than the CEO he shot ever earned, and mostly tweeted rise-and-grind gym poems). Not to mention two attempted assassinations of Donald Trump (one shooter with incoherent politics, one unknown), the firebombing of the Pennsylvania Governor’s Mansion in an attempt to kill Democrat Josh Shapiro (left), shootings of the houses of Democratic New Mexico lawmakers (right), Paul Pelosi’s near-murder (right), and the Trump-supporting violence of January 6th, which, duh. And that’s just a sample from the last five years. Or as Maher put it, “It’s a good time to not be out there.”
It won’t surprise anyone to hear that some of Maher’s reasons are a bit more petty. “I’m also tired of being twice as funny as people who were selling twice as many tickets as me,” he said with his usual modesty. “Not that I didn’t sell a lot of tickets and do great theaters — but I didn’t sell arenas. And some people did, who, frankly, are not that great. But, you know, when the audience is 35 to 45, they don’t wanna see somebody 70… I just did my 13th HBO special. I feel like that’s a good body of work… I felt they all, they basically got better as it went along. I feel like the last one was the best one, which is a good way to get off.”
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Throughout the second Trump term Maher has continued to show a knack for contrarian takes. He had praise for Trump after attending a dinner hosted by Kid Rock, but he also roasted Dr. Phil over his support for ICE, and defended Jimmy Kimmel from the FCC’s attempted censorship.