By Molly Claire Goddard
10:06am PDT, May 27, 2025
_
Bill Maher is calling out
Saturday Night Live for their depiction of
Donald Trump supporters.
During an episode of the comedian's "
Club Random" podcast with guest
Jillian Michaels, the two expressed their frustration with the way the NBC show portrayed MAGA loyalists in a
Black Jeopardy! sketch that showed
Tom Hanks being afraid to shake another person's hand who was a different race.
Keep reading to learn why Maher and the fitness guru were offended by the late-night show…MORE:
Follow Wonderwall on MSN for more top news
_
During the chat between Bill Maher and Jillian Michaels,
The Biggest Loser alum lamented how frustrated she was over the
Saturday Night Live sketch aired during the show's 50th anniversary special that depicted
Tom Hanks as a MAGA supporter wearing a "Make America Great Again" hat.
"I've met
Tom Hanks a couple of times and he was very kind and very lovely and his wife was exceptionally lovely. But when he was on
Saturday Night Live," Michaels began.
"I hated it too and I said it on my show. I know. I hated it," the funny man added. "Wearing the MAGA hat, not shaking hands with a Black person. That's when I thought, 'You people don't know MAGA people. Nope!' I mean, they have their issues and I certainly have my issues with them. But they're generally, I mean of course there's some racists everywhere who are that bad, but generally all the MAGA people I know have no problem shaking hands with a Black person. You're just hysterical and you're not helping. I agree. That was not helping."
"I don't get it. This is the part where I'm like, is this Titanic?" the workout guru questioned.
_
Even though the scene was satirical, Bill Maher emphasized how he felt the depiction will do more harm than good.
"Mostly what I hate is it's what I call a zombie lie. Don't lie to me! It's a lie," the late-night host said in defense of
republicans. "It is part of a skit and it's an exaggeration and that's comedy. It's a little too delicate a subject to just go there for that one."
"Look we all in comedy step over the line sometimes or do one that they want to take back. I doubt if they want to take that one back. I think they probably think it's great," Maher continued. "But I'm telling you, as a liberal, I don't like it. Again, because lying offends me. I'm a comedian. When the premise isn't real, the joke is not going to work. The premise has to ring true. That premise doesn't ring true. It might have rang true, I don't know, X years ago, it doesn't now."
_
The defense of right-wingers comes after Bill Maher visited the White House to meet with Donald Trump — for which he received intense backlash from the left.
"I had the opportunity to go to the White House and talk to the president and not give up my principles. It seems like nobody noticed that," the A-lister explained during an appearance on the
"2 Angry Men" podcast. "I didn't go
MAGA. I had the opportunity to talk to Donald Trump and say things to him that maybe he never hears, literally to speak truth to power. I shouldn't take that opportunity?"
