“three reflections on Bill Maher”
- #wikipedia
- #quote
- #trusted-source
- #www.theguardian.com
Figure timeline
Bill Maher
William Maher is an American television host, comedian, actor and political commentator. Known for his political satire, he is the host of the HBO political talk show Real Time with Bill Maher (2003–present) and podcast Club Random (2022–present). He previously hosted a late-night show called Politically Incorrect (1993–2002) on ABC and Comedy Central.
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
culture · American comedian and television host (born 1956) · comedian · television presenter · screenwriter · actor · journalist · film producer · television producer · also Bill Maher, William Maher, Maher
Born 20 January 1956 · Q489
75 published statements · 0 followers
See & hear
Photos & media
7 photos
Media from Wikimedia Commons, hotlinked at the source under its own licence — see each file for author and terms.
Live now
In the news
Pulling headlines from trusted outlets — this usually takes a few seconds
Checking the wires…
Feed scan
These are live links, not archived citations — they only join the timeline once a collect run verifies and archives them.
Live pulse
Recent highlights
Most recent outstanding titles, awards, and quotes
- Quote
- Quote
2026· 17 entries
“There are no explanations that make this acceptable.”
- #wikipedia
- #quote
- #trusted-source
- #www.theguardian.com
- #corroborated
“Bill Maher on very scary child predators”
- #wikiquote
- #quote
“Today, I was holding George Washington”
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #quote
“launched a campaign to embarrass, humiliate, and extort ridiculous sums of money from Bill Maher.”
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #quote
“believes in the values that Western people believe in which a lot of the Muslim world does not. Like separation of church and state. Like equality of the sexes. Like respect for minorities, free elections, free speech, freedom to gather. These things are not just different from cultures that don”
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #quote
“By any standard, Mormonism is more ridiculous than any other religion.”
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #quote
“if Jesus was in charge of the country we”
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #quote
“absolutely certain there is no god”
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #quote
“never-ending woke competition”
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #quote
“more on the side of the Israelis”
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #quote
“We have been the cowards. Lobbing cruise missiles from 2,000 miles away. That”
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #quote
Fox Business: Bill Maher warns immigrants must adapt to American culture
- #news
- #headline
RealClearPolitics: Bill Maher: "Do You Like Western Civilization? Because That's What We Are, And That's Not Negotiable"
- #news
- #headline
Public attention spiked: 7,633 Wikipedia readers in one day, 3.1× the usual 2,483, with 0 article edits.
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #attention
- #spike
- #pageviews
Awarded Mark Twain Prize for American Humor (2026).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #award
- #achievement
Maher became the 27th recipient of the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, awarded by the Kennedy Center
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
2025· 1 entry
Snopes rated the claim “Stand-up comedian Bill Maher experienced a "tense exchange" during an interview with U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, on HBO's "Real Time With Bill Maher," during or prior to early May 2025.” False.
Shown as reported and rated by a fact checker, not as an established fact.
- #fact-check
- #rated
- #claim-about-figure
2024· 1 entry
Released album “What This Comedian Said Will Shock You”.
- #musicbrainz
- #release
- #work
2023· 3 entries
Snopes.com rated the claim “Bill Maher told Whoopi Goldberg to leave his show after she "broke out into an anti-Israel rant."” Labeled Satire.
Shown as reported and rated by a fact checker, not as an established fact.
- #fact-check
- #rated
- #claim-about-figure
Maher released a statement on Twitter announcing his plans to restart a version of his HBO show
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
While still being critical of religion, Maher discussed some of his spiritual queries and interests with long-time friend and new age guru, Deepak Chopra
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
2022· 5 entries
Maher launched a podcast titled Club Random, a series hosting one-on-one interviews with guests, recorded in his bar at home, where he discusses everything except politics
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
Maher blamed mass shooting in part due to Hollywood romanticization of gun violence in movies
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
“Yes, part of the rise in LGBT numbers is from people feeling free enough to tell it to a pollster, and that”
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #quote
Maher criticized the Democratic Party for "checking boxes" in regard to candidates of different identity groups, including race
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
Maher criticized the Biden administration's Disinformation Governance Board and agreed with the comparison that the board was similar to the Ministry of Truth from George Orwell's dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
2021· 4 entries
Maher called media coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic "panic porn" and added that "When all of our sources for medical information have an agenda to spin us, yeah, you wind up with a badly misinformed population, includin
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
Snopes rated the claim “Bill Maher and Megyn Kelly argued that 8- and 9-year-olds shouldn't be burdened with race issues.” Mixture.
Shown as reported and rated by a fact checker, not as an established fact.
- #fact-check
- #rated
- #claim-about-figure
“Bill Maher: Trump is winning. I’m stick of winning”
- #wikiquote
- #quote
Maher opposed the NFL's decision to play the "Black national anthem" before games, considering it a form of segregation
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
2019· 2 entries
“We have survived many recessions. We can”
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #quote
Gorski again criticized Maher for his HBO interview with the doctor Jay Gordon and Maher's claims about vaccines (in particular, the influenza vaccine), including the speculation about a link between vaccines and autism,
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
2018· 1 entry
Snopes rated the claim “Comedian and talk show host Bill Maher said he hopes an economic recession will occur because it's a way to get rid of President Trump."” True.
Shown as reported and rated by a fact checker, not as an established fact.
- #fact-check
- #rated
- #claim-about-figure
2017· 3 entries
Snopes rated the claim “CNN posted and then deleted an article which defended Bill Maher's use of the n-word.” False.
Shown as reported and rated by a fact checker, not as an established fact.
- #fact-check
- #rated
- #claim-about-figure
Following her defeat, Maher responded on air to suggestions Clinton was ready to end her low profile and speak out: "Hillary, stay in the woods
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
Maher agreed with the author Sam Harris that "the left has allied itself with Islamists", and that the liberals had failed to stand up to Islamic extremism
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
2016· 5 entries
Snopes rated the claim “Bill Maher and Michael Moore sneaked onto Donald Trump's plane and stole his tax returns.” False.
Shown as reported and rated by a fact checker, not as an established fact.
- #fact-check
- #rated
- #claim-about-figure
Claimed: “"More astronauts have been to the moon than farmers who paid the inheritance tax in 2013."” — rated Mostly True by PolitiFact.
Shown as reported and rated by a fact checker, not as an established fact.
- #fact-check
- #rated
- #claim-by-figure
Snopes rated the claim “Bill Maher smoked a joint during a live broadcast of 'Real Time with Bill Maher,' and the FCC imposed a hefty fine.” Mixture.
Shown as reported and rated by a fact checker, not as an established fact.
- #fact-check
- #rated
- #claim-about-figure
Vice was nominated for the Peabody Award for their segment on Student debt
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
HBO renewed Real Time through 2018, for its 15th and 16th seasons
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
2015· 2 entries
Maher criticized Barack Obama's visit to Saudi Arabia, a close U
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
Maher called on then President Barack Obama to pardon people incarcerated for marijuana offenses and later praised President Joe Biden for pardoning citizens convicted of marijuana offenses
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
2013· 3 entries
Maher expressed on his show limited support for the NSA's PRISM intelligence data collection from private phone calls and the Internet, saying that the threat of terrorists obtaining and using nuclear weapons was the tip
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
Maher became one of the executive producers for the HBO newsmagazine series Vice
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
Maher appeared on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and offered to pay $5 million to a charity if Donald Trump would produce his birth certificate, a challenge meant to disprove a joke that Trump was the son of an orangutan
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
2012· 4 entries
After his "Crazy Stupid Politics" special streamed on Yahoo
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
“s electoral victory, he soon became critical of the new president for not acting more boldly on health care reform and other liberal issues. On February 23, 2012, after his”
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #quote
Maher purchased a minority ownership interest in the New York Mets, which he sold in 2020
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
“idiots must stop claiming that atheism is a religion ... believe it or not, I don”
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #quote
2011· 1 entry
"I don't know what happens when you die, and I don't care
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
2010· 1 entry
“You give us so much. But I would love a little less. Just try less.”
- #wikiquote
- #quote
2009· 2 entries
Awarded Richard Dawkins Award (2009).
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #award
- #achievement
Maher stated that Obama should forget about trying to get 60 votes for it because "he only needs 51": "Forget getting the sixty votes or sixty percent—sixty percent of people don't believe in evolution in this country—he
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
2007· 3 entries
Maher confronted several 9/11 truthers and had them ejected from his show audience after they interrupted the live show numerous times by calling out from the audience
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
“The human body is pretty amazing; it doesn”
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #quote
Maher and his co-producers were awarded the Television Producer of the Year Award in Variety Television by the Producers Guild of America
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
2005· 2 entries
Released album “New Rules: Polite Musings of a Timid Observer”.
- #musicbrainz
- #release
- #work
Maher began dating Karrine Steffans, author and former hip hop model
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
2004· 2 entries
In Los Angeles County Superior Court said Maher is a "confirmed bachelor, and a very public one at that" who "never promised to marry [Johnsen] or to have children with her
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
Maher appeared on stage as Satan in The Steve Allen Theater production of "Hollywood Hell House", a spoof of Christian-run hell houses
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
2003· 3 entries
Was nominated at the 57th Tony Awards for the Tony Award for Best Special Theatrical Event for Bill Maher: Victory Begins at Home
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
Maher became the host, co-producer, and co-writer of Real Time with Bill Maher, a weekly hour-long political comedy talk show on the cable television network HBO
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
Began dating flight attendant Coco Johnsen
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
2002· 2 entries
Six days after the cancellation of Politically Incorrect, Maher received the Los Angeles Press Club president's award (for "championing free speech")
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
After he made a controversial on-air remark six days after the September 11 attacks
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1996· 4 entries
“Government — they used to teach it in college. It's actually something you should study and learn and know how to do. The Republicans always run on the idea that government isn't very effective. Well, not the way you do it. But it can be effective.”
- #wikiquote
- #saying
- #undated
- #lang:en
“America really has no Left party. We have a center-right party -- which I would call what the Democrats are now -- and then we have the Republicans, a party that drove the Crazy Bus straight into Nut Town.”
- #wikiquote
- #saying
- #undated
- #lang:en
“The events of January 6th were a faith-based initiative, and Trumpism is a Christian nationalist movement. Magical religious thinking is a virus, and QAnon is just its current mutation.”
- #wikiquote
- #saying
- #undated
- #lang:en
- #lang:it
- #multi-edition
“It's very sad how in the information age you cannot get information into people's heads. As long as you write something on the internet and do not add LOL — it is true. "I'm not sure he's a Christian" — I'm not sure he's a mammal, Jay. He could be a werewolf.”
- #wikiquote
- #saying
- #undated
- #lang:en
1984· 1 entry
Served as "announcer and sidekick" in all six episodes of the Disney Channel's Steve Allen's Music Room
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #event
1978· 1 entry
“Selling pot allowed me to get through college and make enough money to start off in comedy.”
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #quote
1956· 2 entries
Born 1956-01-20.
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikidata
- #birth
“ve said too much. I have a theory that the Internet makes people stupider — and also FOX News makes people stupider. You know the Pew group did a study recently and they found out that 10 years ago, Democrats, Republicans and independents basically got their news from the same sources, probably more from CNN, for example. Then we had this polarity. ... We do have two Americas. We have the America that”
Text from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- #wikipedia
- #quote