William "Bill" Maher, Jr. is an American comedian, writer, producer, political commentator, actor, media critic, and television host. As a television host, he is well known for the HBO political talk show Real Time with Bill Maher (2003–present). Maher previously hosted a similar late-night show called Politically Incorrect, originally on Comedy Central and later on ABC. Maher is known for his sarcastic attitude, political satire and sociopolitical commentary. He targets many topics including religion, politics, bureaucracies, political correctness, and the mass media.
William Maher (/ˈmɑːr/; born January 20, 1956) is an American comedian, political commentator, and television host. He is well known for the HBO political talk show Real Time with Bill Maher (2003–present) and the similar late-night show called Politically Incorrect, originally on Comedy Central and later on ABC.
Maher is known for his sarcastic attitude, political satire, and sociopolitical commentary. He targets many topics including religion, politics, bureaucracy, political correctness, and the mass media.
Maher supports the legalization of cannabis and same-sex marriage. His critical views of religion were the basis for the 2008 documentary film Religulous. He is a supporter of animal rights, having served on the board of PETAsince 1997, and is an advisory board member of Project Reason. In 2005, Maher ranked at number 38 on Comedy Central's 100 greatest stand-up comedians of all time. He received a Hollywood Walk of Fame star on September 14, 2010.
The comedian has noted the paradox of people claiming they distrusted "elite" politicians while at the same time wanting elite doctors to treat them and elite lawyers to represent them in court. Maher supports the death penalty. Since the 9/11 attacks, he has endorsed certain uses of profiling at airports, saying that "Places like Israel, where they have faced terrorism for a long time, of course, understand that profiling is part of all detective work. It's part of all police work. If they stop calling it profiling and start calling it high-intelligence screening or something, people would go, it's about time."
By MSinjari (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
He was against the Iraq War from the beginning and has summarized his opinion by saying that the United States and the world have had to pay too high a price for the war. He is skeptical of Iraq surviving without civil war.
In the 2008 U.S. presidential election, Maher announced his support for Senator Barack Obama. Although Maher welcomed Obama's electoral victory, he has subjected him to criticism since taking office for not acting boldly on health care reform and other progressive issues.
Curiosity is the single most important attribute with which humans are born. More than a simple desire to discover or know things, curiosity is a powerful tool, like a scalpel or a searchlight. Curiosity changes us. It is also a way to effect change, perhaps even on a global level.