Bill Maher Blasts Hollywood Pedophiles Despite Previously Defending Pedophiles

After last week’s ill-informed rant about the evils of Canadian wokeness, Bill Maher spent the final moments of the most recent episode of Real Time tackling the subject of pedophiles in Hollywood. Specifically, Maher used the disturbing Nickelodeon documentary series Quiet on the Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV as a springboard to discuss why Florida Governor Ron DeSantis was right to imply that Disney was full of pedophiles. 

Wait, what?

“Why am I always having to defend them?” Maher asked of the children he also called “morons.” After a brief discussion of the Nickelodeon awfulness, Maher moved on to Disney, referencing the time that DeSantis accused Disney of promoting “sexualization of children.” “DeSantis wasn’t wrong,” Maher argued. “The left will overlook child-fucking if the guy from the wrong party calls it out.”

Of course, DeSantis wasn’t actually talking about any behind-the-scenes abuse of child actors, he was lashing out at the Mouse House for belatedly opposing the so-called “Don’t Say Gay” bill, the state’s conspicuous attempt “to muzzle discussion of gay and civil rights in school.” 

Maher did make a good point in calling out Disney for hiring convicted sex offender Brian Peck, but then he ended his argument by conflating these issues with drag show library readings and Disney’s secret “gay agenda” — you know, that nefarious scheme that led to two minor female Star Wars characters smooching in the background of one shot for approximately half a second. 

We’re not here to defend Disney, the company that gave us the movie Snow Buddies at the expense of five dead Snow Buddies. Maher’s basic premise that adults abusing children is a bad thing is obviously correct, but the internet was quick to point out that he’s clearly one of the least qualified people to comment on this issue, as evidenced by an old clip from Politically Incorrect in which he defended an infamous pedophile. 

In a 1998 episode of his old late-night show, Maher tried to argue that Mary Kay Letourneau, the teacher who was convicted of raping her 12-year-old student the previous year, was simply put “in jail because she is in love.” He conceded that the situation was “unorthodox,” but from his perspective, the couple was merely “having a family, and they’re keeping the mother in jail.”

When the other panelists, including activist Celeste Greig and Black Flag frontman Henry Rollins, pushed back, Maher questioned, “How can a woman rape a man?” Rollins tried to explain, “An older woman can manipulate a young kid … and I think that kid’s going to grow up fairly damaged.” 

Maher responded by firing back: “So you’re on her side?!” 

Sure, this episode aired over a quarter of a century ago, but literally just days before Maher appointed himself as the new crusader against Hollywood pedophiles, he vehemently  defended Woody Allen on his increasingly depressing YouTube show.

Even if Maher doesn’t believe Dylan Farrow’s allegations against Allen, wasn’t his whole point on Real Time that film and TV creatives shouldn’t be sexualizing minors? Allen literally made a movie about how cool it would be if he could date a 17-year-old girl, then he tried to take the actress, Mariel Hemingway, to Paris on his private jet once filming ended. Her first kiss ever was with Woody Allen while they were making the movie. “He attacked me like I was a linebacker,” Hemingway later recalled. 

Maher airing this piece the same week he went to bat for Allen is a little like issuing a sternly worded editorial opposing cats eating lasagna mere days after avowing your unwavering support for Garfield. 

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