Did Bill Maher Steal Jokes From Jay Leno and Jon Stewart?

February 2nd, 2013 9:52 AM

Bill Maher made a couple of jokes on HBO's Real Time Friday that sounded eerily similar to things NBC Tonight Show host Jay Leno and Comedy Central's Jon Stewart said earlier in the week.

Here are the relevant clips (video follows with transcript and commentary):

BILL MAHER: The Daily Caller website found two women in Puerto Rico who claim that he [Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.)] promised them $500 for their services and only paid them 100, which is my kind of Senator I must say: socially liberal and fiscally conservative. That's the combination I'm always looking for.

As NewsBusters reported, Leno joked Tuesday:

JAY LENO: The FBI says Menendez agreed to pay the prostitutes $500 but then only gave them $100. So, he had sex like a Democrat but is a fiscal conservative like Republicans. That's what we need in Washington! We need more men like that!

Seconds later, Maher said:

MAHER: But hey, the Republicans, they have a new scandal of their own. Have you heard about this SkeetGate? Yeah, SkeetGate, because Obama gave an interview last week, and he said that he likes to shoot skeet - you know, because Democrats love guns, too. Loves to shoot skeet up at Camp David, and Tennessee Representative Republican Marsha Blackburn said, “Huh, if he is a skeet shooter, how come we never heard of this? Why have we not seen photos of it?” Yes, because nothing would ease the Republican mind more than a photo of the black president with a gun.


On Comedy Central’s Daily Show Wednesday, Stewart joked:

JON STEWART: Why won’t the black man half the country lives in fear of release a picture of himself holding a gun? I don’t understand. It would put everyone at ease. Why won’t he do it?

Coincidence?