Bill Maher Wishes Glenn Beck Had Been Killed at Pentagon Thursday

"When we see crazy, senseless deaths like this, we can only ask why, why, why couldn't it have been Glenn Beck?"

So joked Bill Maher Friday evening on HBO's "Real Time."

During his opening monologue, Maher addressed John Bedell, the man that was shot and killed Thursday when he attacked the Pentagon.

For some reason, the comedian used the incident as a vehicle to go after the Fox News host (video embedded below the fold with transcript, h/t Ed Morrissey, file photo):  

BILL MAHER: Now, speaking of crazy white people, you know about the Truthers? You know who these people are? I had to throw them out of the studio one night. These people who think 9/11 was an inside job, that the Pentagon was hit by a cruise missile. Well, yesterday one of them tried to shoot his way into the Pentagon. Or did he? This sad, he left a, they got him, but you know, he left a rambling, paranoid manifesto on the Internet about how the government was going after his freedom. You know, it's sad. When we see crazy, senseless deaths like this, we can only ask why, why, why couldn't it have been Glenn Beck?

Unlike when Maher wished the assassination attempt on then Vice President Dick Cheney had been successful, this was clearly a joke in an opening monologue.

But is wishing someone dead funny? 

And what does it say about the folks that attend the filming of "Real Time" that they laughed and applauded rather than hissed and booed?

Sickening. Truly sickening.

That said, Maher really did throw a Truther off his set a few years ago.

Now THAT was FUNNY!