Comedian Bill Maher and his love-hate relationship with the political left

Over the last few years, comedian Bill Maher has become more palatable for Republicans. What changed?

It certainly isn’t his political leanings. Just a few weeks ago, Maher said he’d rather vote for President Joe Biden’s “head in a jar of blue liquid” rather than support Donald Trump in the upcoming presidential election, as he told Newsweek in an interview. But he refers to himself as an “old-school liberal,” as Maher says his party has evolved for the worse.

“It’s not me who’s changed, it’s the left, who is now made up of a small contingent who’ve gone mental. And a large contingent who refuse to call them out for it,” he said in a January monologue titled “How the Left was Lost” on HBO’s “Real Time with Bill Maher.”

“People sometimes say to me, ‘You know, you didn’t used to make fun of the left as much.’ Yeah, because they didn’t give me so much to work with,” he said. Now he goes after the left for “woke” ideology and “cancel culture.”

During the pandemic, he often sided with conservatives, criticizing the media for misleading the public by reporting higher hospitalization numbers and positioning himself against the mask mandates. After a bout of COVID-19, he appeared on his show and said, “I never was sick. I felt nothing,” Maher added, the vaccine “probably” helped him avoid the severe symptoms.

Don’t be fooled; He is quick to criticize the political right too, including over claims they deny climate change and racism, and no one would accuse him of being socially conservative.

When is Bill Maher performing in SLC?

During this election year, Maher will be on tour from January through November 2024, and one of his stops is Salt Lake City. Maher will perform at the Eccles Theater at 7:30 p.m. on April 21. The show is reportedly 1 hour and 15 minutes long, giving him a chance to comment on current political events.

The comedian previously admitted to the Alabama outlet AL.com that he enjoyed performing in red states.

“I attract mostly a liberal crowd, but liberal is different than woke,” the “Real Time with Bill Maher” host said. “To me, woke, if we want to use that broad term, is something that is not an extension of liberalism.”

Prior to his show in El Paso, Texas, he said in an interview his political beliefs are still the same as they have always been.

“If I notice that there is a ridiculous amount of cancel culture on the left now, and hostility to free speech, and identity politics and over-sensitivity, and victim culture and pointless white self-loathing — that doesn’t make me a Republican,” he said. “It just makes me an honest broker who is noticing the change.”

Bill Maher’s rise to fame

Maher began his career in comedy hosting at a New York City comedy club in the early ’80s. Around this time, he appeared on Johnny Carson and David Letterman’s shows, while scoring parts on television and in films. This paved the way for his own show, “Politically Incorrect,” a talk show that ran on Comedy Central and ABC from 1993 until 2002. His show was canceled after he made controversial comments — one related to 9/11 and another about mentally disabled children.

In 2003, he started hosting a show on HBO, still on air.

Besides his show, Maher continues to perform stand up routines and is set to release his fourth book, “What This Comedian Said Will Shock You, in May.” Maher also keeps up with his “Club Random” podcast, launched two years ago. The format is much different than his HBO show and serves more as a news catchup for the week. It inspired him to start Club Random Studios, a podcast network created to host other unfiltered voices, including former ESPN host Sage Steele.

“Dance like no one’s watching? We talk like no one can cancel us,” Maher said in his announcement last month.