TV

Bill Maher offers defense of Green Book director for pulling 'his weenie out' in wild Oscars rant

By

Published on February 16, 2019 01:20PM EST

Here are Bill Maher’s super duper, really important thoughts on this year’s Oscars. (That’s sarcasm, by the way.)

In a rant on Friday night’s Real Time that compares criticism of the Best Picture nominees to comments on the 2020 Democratic presidential candidates, the HBO show host covered a lot of ground in claiming people are mad about Bohemian Rhapsody because “it’s insensitive to the extremely gay,” seemingly defending Kevin Hart with a quick quip, and, more notably, defending Green Book director Peter Farrelly for flashing Cameron Diaz his penis years prior.

All this after recent controversial remarks in which he used Stan Lee’s death to launch a tirade against comic book readers (then tripled down on them) and made a seemingly racist “Popeyes Chicken” remark to a black Congressman on his show.

The segment was a reiteration of his “New Rule” “you can’t always get what you want.” After launching zingers at everyone coming out to criticize the recent emergence of Democratic Oval Office candidates, Maher compared the situation to Temptation Island and everything going on with the Oscars.

“This is a real problem in our society, looking for an excuse to dump someone, someone good because there must be one more perfect” he said. “And sometimes what you wind up with is no one to host the Oscars at all.”

To recap, Hart was initially announced to host the 2019 Academy Awards, but then his past homophobic jokes and remarks resurfaced. Hart claimed to have already apologized for those comments, but no one — including CNN and New York Magazine — could find any evidence to support that. Instead, Hart came across as combative in his newly released apologies and he eventually decided to bow out.

For Maher, the Oscars “are being ruined by these same kind of ridiculous purity tests.”

Bohemian Rhapsody, he says, is being dragged through the mud because “it’s gay but not gay enough.” He added, “Really! That’s what they’re saying: It’s insensitive to the extremely gay. What?! For years the beef about gay characters in movies was they were reduced to their sexuality. Now the sexuality is placed in the background and it’s, ‘Where’s the dick sucking?'”

Fact check: peoples’ problems with the film go much deeper. There’s the fact that what was pegged as a biopic about Freddie Mercury glazed over his personal life and instead became a film geared more towards the surviving members of Queen. Then there’s, you know, the accusations against its credited director, Bryan Singer, for allegedly having sex with underage boys.

Maher then turned to Green Book, which many critics pointed out is a film that tells an inherently black story through the lens of a white protagonist, white director, and white screenwriter. (A.k.a. a white savior film.) On top of that, stories resurfaced of director Peter Farrelly flashing his penis as a joke to members of his crew on previous films — including Cameron Diaz. Farrelly apologized for those instances, saying, “I was an idiot.” Then there’s writer Nick Vallelonga’s past anti-Muslim tweet (which he too apologized for) and criticism of the film from the family of Don Shirley (played in Green Book by Mahershala Ali).

“Green Book,” Maher said, “is a movie made by liberals, for liberals, bursting at the seams with liberal values. Not good enough! Because the director is one of the Farrelly Brothers and as an inside joke for his crew he used to pull his weenie out on movies like Dumb and Dumber. F–, the poster for Something About Mary showed Cameron Diaz’s hair styled with Ben Stiller’s cum. I say he should get an award just for growing up.”

Maher also has thoughts on Roma and A Star Is Born, which, if you care to watch, are available in the video above.

Related content: