Bill Maher called on stand-up comic Louis C.K. to be allowed to return to mainstream entertainment after his sexual misconduct scandal during the height of the #MeToo movement.
"Isn’t it time everyone just went: ‘OK, It wasn’t a cool thing to do, but it’s been long enough and welcome back.’ Enough!" Maher said on a new episode of his podcast, "Club Random."
"I mean for Christ’s sake, it’s not the end of the world," Maher told comedian Bill Burr in a conversation on cancel culture.
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Comedian Bill Maher said stand-up comic Louis C.K. should be allowed to return to mainstream entertainment. (Getty Images)
"People have done so much worse things and gotten less," Maher told Burr. "There’s no rhyme or reason to the #MeToo-type punishments."
Louis C.K. admitted to sexual misconduct allegations in 2017 after five women claimed that he masturbated in front of them without their consent.
Despite his fall from grace at the time and Maher's complaints, C.K. returned to the spotlight to win a Grammy award in 2022 for his "Sincerely Louis C.K." album, and has since returned to the stand-up circuit.
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"They took $50 million, I think they punished him," Burr said of C.K.
Burr also argued that cancel culture was no longer a relevant cultural force.
"It started off with something everyone could agree on, and then quickly it just spun out of [control]," Burr said of the beginnings of cancel culture.
"I remember whenever cancel culture got to the point of where it was, ‘I don’t like some of the topics in your stand-up act,’ right? That’s when it got weird," he said.
But Burr declared that cancel culture was "over" and that "no one cares anymore."
Comedian Louis C.K. (Laura Cavanaugh)
"That's so not true," Maher said. "Either one of us could get canceled in the next two minutes."
Maher has spoken out against cancel culture multiple times in his career.
In 2023, Maher said he has lost many "super woke" fans who disagree with his political views. While a progressive, Maher often mocks what he views as the excesses of the left.
"Don't let the door hit you in the a--," the comedian said. "You were no fun to begin with. You have a terrible sense of humor."
Fox News' Tracy Wright and Larry Fink contributed to this report.
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