It was not a joke.
It was an insult.
How someone like Maher is given the means to spew this filth on a major channel is beyond my ability to comprehend. HBO is not cutting edge - they are every bit as bigotted and anti-Catholic as the klan was early last century. Incredible.

 Thanks for the update as I could never, ever watch his show.
I don't know which is funnier, that he truly has manure for brains, or that
he believes he has intelligent insights.   I mean no offense to manure.

The sure signs of fake intellect:
One starts tossing the Nazi insults or comparisons....
The Pope in jail thing, Hey Bill:  this abuse
scandal didn't happen on his watch.   

In the end, this scandal was largely driven by gay priests
targeting adolescents (not pedophelia), and while an outrage,
 Benedict edicts seem to correct the errors that lead to this American
tragedy.   
The Boy Scouts learned well from this mess, no doubt!

I didn't see the Catholic Church rush to apologize for destroying the innocence of thousands of young people. I don't know if the Pope should go to jail, but he should never be allowed off the hook for trying to hide pedophiles. And those who got their hands dirty in this like Cardinal Mahoney should resign and spend the rest of their days in prison. There are far worse things one could call the pope than "Nazi" and they would be far more accurate. Stop with the Jokes, Maher, go for the throat. Never forget.

are baby killing, tax hiking, religion hating, terrorist loving, dope smoking P'sOS.... oh,,, nooooo... I'm so not serious... it was a joke..

When, once upon a time, was Bill Maher funny? He was never anything but a second string comic and actor. Look at his list of credits a imdb.com. He has simply managed to become the King of Snark for liberals on HBO. He's not that funny. He's not that incisive. His style of humor is a verbal form of drive-by shooting, nothing you have to think about, nothing that really grabs you with its originality. He's second rate, at best.

As before, when people became outraged with Maher's comments about the terrorist hi-jackers being the couragous and not our soldiers, resulted in him being driven from the air waves, you would have thought he learned his lesson.  But, obviously he's not too bright in that department.  It is now time to drive this ugly, unfunny, snarky fool with his inner Napolianic complex, to the outermost reaches of the entertainment business.

It's obvious that his only audience consists of like minded mal-contents that clap and cheer to every reference of far left liberalism thoughts or actions, as well as approval for any and all conversation relating to breaking of moral relevance, including sexual deviance and drug usage.

HBO needs to get it's act together and figure out just who pays their bills.

Don't ya' just love critters that so-call apologize, with a non-apology.

Says it all about that critter. 

"Never murder your opponent when he is committing suicide." ~ W. Churchill

According to some post only certain people should be held to a higher standard. Though I agree that probably more priest should of been held accountable, that does not in anyway suggest I agree with punishing the Pope. If your the CEO of a large (or any) corporation, you help define the standards and its up to the first and second line managers to enforce it. If a problem exist, they would be the first to correct and report it. They CEO might get an e-mail on said offense so he is not blindsided by the news. If management finds the problem more widespread, then upper management would get involved to isolate where the problems were and to fix them. The late Pope John Paul did that. Pope Benedict XVI didn't become involved until later, and by then it already became a household issue.

I am not Catholic, but I believe the church tried to solve the problem. From providing not only financial support but counsellings for the family. Many priest were tried and the church basically retired the "managers" who failed to take immediate action. In addition, new standards were provided and will be upheld. The church apologized at every turn.

Put that in the same light as some of our so called media outlets, or better yet, our elected government officials.

1. Good old Nancy and her visit to Syria.

2. Good old Jimmy and his visit to Hammas, you remember them. They're the terrorist group that likes to kill people because they can't get their own way.

3. Bill Maher and his deplorable attempt to apologize by making it a joke.

4. Obie and his rants about the POUS.

5. Chrissy I want to be Obama's personal mouthpiece.

Until you can say everyone should be held accountable to his/her own actions, you can not say the Pope should be held accountable for something that did not happen on his watch.

Tis Tis, I know what you'll say next, but they weren't involved in child molestation. No, but we have thousands of them in prison and living in family neighborhoods near you. I find that most people will say "oh, thats horrorable, but thats it. You will only hear a public outcry when they try to move one in beside you. You and your liberal friends help rewrite the laws (ACLU) that allow these people to continue to live in our society. Now you want to make fun of a religion that teaches love and peace just because of a few. Shame is on you not the church.

Sorry about the long rant folks, I'll try to be shorter next time.

During this time with political correctness at its zenith, I reserve the right to let you know you're an idiot.

Maher's show is one of the least watched regular programs on HBO. He is desperate for attention because...no one does pay him any attention.

Bill "Queen of the Bathhouse" Maher never left Junior High either mentally or emotionally. His judgments and and ideas are just impulsive taunts of an adolescent without real argument.

Next Please! If you claim to be a conservative, please don't disgrace yourself and conservatism by thinking and arguing like a liberal.

He's just saying that the Catholic Church is an evil organization that is bent on wiping out the Jews and imposing their "moral" authority over all of us. That's not some hateful bigoted statement. That's what history has taught us, what with the centuries of persecution of the Jews by the Catholics, culminating in Pope Pius XII's aid in helping Hitler murder six million Jews in the Holocaust. Plus, the Church really deplores secular Jews because they allegedly control Hollywood. That's kind of funny because everyone knows that the Catholic-run Legion of Decency was the group that controlled the way films were made in Hollywood for a whole generation during the forties and fifties. So, no, I don't see how it's offensive for Bill Maher to say some false salacious things about the Church. After all, the Church had a history about lying to us about the Jews, birth control, and anything else they claimed was offensive to them.