Bill Maher Doesn’t Understand Why People Are Mourning Stan Lee

Stan Lee died at 95 this week, and millions are mourning his loss. Bill Maher isn’t one of them, as the ever-controversial “Real Time” host has published a blog entry in which he downplays the Marvel Comics creator’s legacy and even links him to Donald Trump.

“The guy who created Spider-Man and the Hulk has died, and America is in mourning. Deep, deep mourning for a man who inspired millions to, I don’t know, watch a movie, I guess,” Maher writes. “Someone on Reddit posted, ‘I’m so incredibly grateful I lived in a world that included Stan Lee.’ Personally, I’m grateful I lived in a world that included oxygen and trees, but to each his own.”

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He suggests that, though he read comic books as a kid, the assumption used to be that you’d grow out of them and move on to “big-boy books without the pictures” upon reaching a certain age. Then something happened: “Adults decided they didn’t have to give up kid stuff. And so they pretended comic books were actually sophisticated literature.” Now comic books are studied on college campuses, and “when adults are forced to do grown-up things like buy auto insurance, they call it ‘adulting,’ and act like it’s some giant struggle.

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Maher adds that, though he doesn’t think people have gotten stupider, “we’re using our smarts on stupid stuff.” Then there’s his closing sentence, which is especially pointed: “I don’t think it’s a huge stretch to suggest that Donald Trump could only get elected in a country that thinks comic books are important.” Read his full thoughts here, and feel free to note the irony that Maher made a cameo in “Iron Man 3”:

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