Comedian Bill Maher had a tough evening on the "Tonight Show" Tuesday.
As he spewed his typical vitriol at conservatives and Republicans, he continued to get negative feedback from the audience (video follows with transcript and commentary):
JAY LENO, HOST: Your take on this tragedy in Arizona, this gunman shooting. I mean, you always have an interesting perspective on these things.
BILL MAHER: Well, I mean, first of all, you know, we're going to have to hear from the NRA a lot about how this shouldn't stop anything that they want to do. First of all, the NRA should just change their name to the Assassins Lobby, because that's what they are. Yeah, you can applaud that.
Assassins Lobby? As you can see, the audience wasn't thrilled by that. In fact, Maher actually had to encourage a positive response:
MAHER: Somebody should applaud that. I'm -- I'm so tired of hearing about the second amendment and the Constitution. If you love guns just admit it like it's a vice. It's like alcohol or drugs or sex addiction [Scattered applause] or gambling. It's just a vice. It's something you like. It's not good for you or anybody else. You just like it. But stop the bulls--t about the second amendment in the Constitution, because nobody needs --[Scattered applause] -- nobody needs a gun that fires 31 rounds.
LENO: Yeah.
MAHER: That's what this guy had. Although…
LENO: Interesting thing…
MAHER: …Sarah Palin needed five to shoot that moose that was basically on the end of the couch.
[Light laughter]
Actually, it was a caribou, but why would we expect the know-it-all Maher to discern the difference:
LENO: I mean, that was illegal. That big magazine was illegal. Then, it became legal again. I don't know why it became legal again because had this guy -- this guy had a -- you know, the magazine, it fits into the bottom of the gun. But normally it's no bigger than the butt of the gun. And this one makes it extra-long so you get a number he would not have been able to kill if the original law had been in place, he wouldn't have been able to fire that many shots.
MAHER: Well, you know -- okay. But -- but there's a much bigger issue…
LENO: Of course.
MAHER: …which is the psychology of this country which loves guns. It's just a very armed country with a lot of crazy people, which is not a great combination. And somebody also should tell all these people -- these NRA types who think it's great to be armed everywhere. Arizona has one of the loosest gun rules in the country. You can, I think, carry any weapon concealed without a a permit. They want every drunk in a bar to be armed in case a fight breaks out. And these guys always think that, you know, it's great to have a gun because if some bad stuff goes down, I'll be able to stop the bad guy. This is your fantasy, a—hole. You would never be able to do that. People have to be trained for months and months at a time. They have to really know what's going on to be able to stop something like that. If that really happened, they would probably freeze up and shoot the wrong person. So -- so, let's stop that fantasy also.
And also, I think how about the Democrats reclaiming this issue? This is the problem. I understand that the gun lobby owns the Supreme Court, and they own the Republican Party. What's disappointing is that they have cowed the Democratic Party into silence. There should be one party that sticks up for this issue. I’m not expecting it from this crowd, but some audience somewhere should stick up for this issue.
LENO: Now, Roger Ailes said to Fox, they're gonna scale back the rhetoric. You think this will last for any longer than a week or two?
AUDIENCE: NO!
MAHER: Really? Then, do you read?
AUDIENCE: Yes.
MAHER: Have you -- have you seen what people have said? Have you seen what Sarah Palin says? You know, she talks about "Don’t retreat, reload.” She says it like a pull toy that's broken, every five minutes she says this. Michele Bachmann said she wants Minnesotans armed and dangerous. Alan West, a new congressman, said he wants his opponent to be afraid to leave the house.
Isn't it amazing how all these liberal media members have exactly the same talking points about Palin, Bachmann, and West?
MAHER: Left-wingers don't talk that way. And also, left-wingers -- even if they do sometimes make a gun analogy or something - their audience isn't hysterical. They're already talking the right-wingers to people who are hysterical and are irrational are highly armed to begin with.
Newt Gingrich, and by the way, among the right-wing douchebags I hate, I hate him the mostest [ Light applause ] because he -- and he says things -- he said the Obama administration is as much a threat to us as were the Nazis and the Soviet Union.
LENO: Yeah, that’s ridiculous.
MAHER: Now, it's not just ridiculous, but when you, when you characterize the opposition, the political opposition, ass not just the opposition, but the enemy. The Soviet Union and the Nazis were our enemies. Of course, you're going to have borderline people who go and take this over the line. So, so stop telling me that the left and the right are both crazy. Yes, there are crazies on the left, but they're not the same -- they're not gun crazy. They're not violent crazy.
They're not violent crazy?
Well, let's look at some of the things liberals - including Maher! - have said on air in his presence over the years:
- On Maher, Rob Reiner Equates Tea Party to Hitler: ‘All They're Selling is Fear and Anger and That's All Hitler Sold’
- George Clooney Exposes Bill Maher’s Ignorant Hatred For Conservatives
- Bill Maher: Anti-Obama Voters Like Battered Women Going Back To Abusive Lovers
- Bill Maher Calls Republicans 'A Deadly Enemy'
- Breitbart Disputes Maher Tying Obama Hitler Images to Right Wing, Recounts Liberal Protester Rowdiness
- Crude Maher Urges Democrats to Treat Republicans as Tiger Woods Did His Conquests
- Maher: Obama Should Have Used Anger, Fear to Promote Health Care Agenda
- Bill Maher Wishes Glenn Beck Had Been Killed at Pentagon Thursday
- Joy Behar and Bill Maher Laugh About Dick Cheney's Heart Attack
- Bill Maher Stirs Crowd With Plea for Obama to Make Limbaugh 'Explode Like a Bag of Meat'
- Bill Maher's Recovery Plan: Legalize Pot and Execute 'Two Random Rich, Greedy Pigs' at the Super Bowl
- Maher 'Jokes' About Palin Being Shot As Reincarnated Wolf
- Maher: Why Didn’t Rush Die from Drugs Instead of Heath Ledger?
- Huffington Horror: Maher Writer Mocks Death of Ann Coulter's Dad
- Maher Panelist Denies Bin Laden Behind 9/11, Calls U.S. 'Murderously Meddlesome'
- Bill Maher Says Alec Baldwin is 'Going to be a Hero' for Abusive Voicemail to His Daughter
- Bill Maher Sorry the Assassination Attempt on Dick Cheney Failed
So, Bill - the Left aren't violent crazy? Care to rethink that?
(H/T The Blaze)
