New Rule: The Year of Sanity | Real Time with Bill Maher (HBO)

(AUDIENCE APPLAUSES) And finally, new

rule

for 2024, the United States has to take its medications again. (AUDIENCE LAUGHING) You know, during the holidays, I saw a lot of people and I asked them all the same two questions. One, "Have you seen Woody Harrelson? -He's my vehicle." -(AUDIENCE LAUGHING) And... (LAUGHTER) ...two, "If I said: 'Let's make 2024 the blank

year

,' what would you say?" I was surprised. They all said the same thing. Sanity. Let's make this the

year

of

sanity

. -(AUDIENCE APPLAUSES) -Everyone thinks we have gone crazy. And in large part it's because the extremes of both the left and the right have received too much attention.

Which begs the question: "How do you suck all the oxygen out of the room and still not get any of it to the brain?" -(AUDIENCE LAUGHING, APPLAUDING) -BILL MAHER: I... (LAUGHING) I feel like it wasn't that long ago when you could watch cable news for a day and not get the impression that this whole place was complete nonsense. . That just wasn't America. -Florida, yes, but not the United States. -(AUDIENCE LAUGHING, APPLAUDING) So, let's examine what makes sane people feel this way. Sane people who, after all, are still the vast majority, and who are the ones who, I suppose, just voted me the most trusted man in America. -(AUDIENCE CLAIMING, APPLAUDING) -That's a

real

headline.

Thank you. Just call me Billy Cronkite. What does a sane person think is crazy, anyway? I don't know. If you ask me, I'd start with the fact that from

time

to

time

I still see someone driving alone with a mask on. -(AUDIENCE LAUGHING, APPLAUDING) -(LAUGHTER) Who...? Who do you think they're going to get it from, the lady in the car next door doing her makeup? -(AUDIENCE LAUGHING, APPLAUDING) -(LAUGHTER) Or perhaps I would say it is the continuing debate over the debt ceiling. Every time a Democrat is president, Republicans threaten to tank the global economy by forcing us to vote on whether to pay back the money we already spent.

No other country does this. It's like eating at a restaurant and then voting whether to dine in or run. -(AUDIENCE LAUGHING, APPLAUDING) -And...and whoever the Republicans appoint as Speaker of the House, if he doesn't vote for Dash, which he

real

ly can't do in the position they just gave him, they try to get him. Get rid of him. Congress is no longer a deliberative body. It's a permitless party in a burning paint warehouse. -(AUDIENCE LAUGHING, APPLAUDING) -Crazy. But... probably the first thing on my, and most people's, crazy list is that this guy is going to be president again. -(AUDIENCE GROANING) -It feels surreal that we're in court every day trying to prove that Trump wanted to overturn the election, while he's on the campaign trail every day telling everyone they should have overturned the election. -(AUDIENCE LAUGHING) Normal people also think it's crazy that Trump fans are perfectly fine with the fact that they recently asked him if he wanted to be a dictator, and he didn't say no. (AUDIENCE LAUGHING) His lawyer also said no when a judge asked her: "Could an unindicted president order SEAL Team Six to assassinate a political rival?" The lawyer's response was: "A yes with reservations." Well, these are not riddles. (AUDIENCE LAUGHING) It also shouldn't have been difficult when presidents of elite universities were asked if it was okay to call for the genocide of the Jews, and they couldn't just say, "Fuck, no." Can't anyone say "fuck no" anymore? (AUDIENCE APPLAUSES) Does anyone know who to support?

A Lululemon store manager tried to stop some shoplifters last year and was fired by the CEO. She fired the person who was trying to stop thieves from robbing her store. That's crazy. But this is also crazy. If you rob a store, you can expect to be shot when you leave that store. -(Crowd applauding) -(ANDREW SULLIVAN LAUGHING) -Shot! (ALL LAUGH) Really? Can't we come to some kind of middle ground on this? -(LAUGHTER) -(AUDIENCE APPLAUSES, APPLAUSES) About some topic? Woke socially liberal, but not stupid. Fiscally healthy, but not cruel. Is this really so difficult?

Trans people should be respected and protected, but maybe there will be no penises in women's prisons? (AUDIENCE LAUGHING) Legalize marijuana, but maybe stop giving drugs to hard drug addicts? Nikki Haley says, "America has never been racist," and social justice advocates say there's been no progress - since Amos 'n' Andy? -(AUDIENCE LAUGHING, APPLAUDING) A terrorist organization in the Middle East that treats women as slaves invaded Israel last October and shot hundreds of young people at a music festival in the desert. And now, the streets of America are filled with parades in support of the shooters, led by the same kind of people who would be at a music festival in the desert.

That's the literal standard for involuntary commitment, when you're a danger to yourself. -(AUDIENCE CHEERING, APPLAUDING) -I mean... The NRA is bad, but after a school shooting, they don't march against schools. (AUDIENCE MEMBER LAUGHING) -Thanks, boy. -(AUDIENCE LAUGHING, APPLAUDING) The... (LAUGHTER) ...the new love of the extreme left are the Houthis. Until a week ago, everyone on TikTok thought a Houthi was what you get when someone pokes your elbow. -Oh! -(AUDIENCE LAUGHING, APPLAUDING) BILL: You just gave me a Houthi! Curse. And the Houthi motto is: "God is great, death for America, death for Israel, curse for the Jews and victory for Islam." -"Like, comment and subscribe." -(AUDIENCE LAUGHING, APPLAUDING) So naturally, when the college students heard that slogan, they said, "Please stop, they took me to the United States to die." -(AUDIENCE LAUGHING, APPLAUDING) -Crazy.

It's crazy that we're rooting for terrorists now. It's also crazy to think this would ever work out. -(AUDIENCE LAUGHING, APPLAUDING) -Right? -(AUDIENCE CHEERING) And it's also crazy to feel like it's important to try to prove that Taylor Swift is gay. (AUDIENCE LAUGHING) Which is apparently what America's supposedly most esteemed newspaper thinks is very important to do. That... That... That's so crazy I don't even understand it. If Taylor Swift is gay, is this somehow a better country? -(AUDIENCE CHEERING, APPLAUDING) -The-- (growls) I-- The far left now insists that men can have babies if they concentrate hard and don't listen to their haters. (AUDIENCE LAUGHING) Does that make us a better country?

No, and neither is persecuting a pregnant woman who wants an abortion for a fetus that doctors say she will not survive. Could everyone stop being nuts, completely nuts, for five fucking minutes? (AUDIENCE CHEERING, APPLAUDING) The battle for the soul of this country is not right or left, it is normal versus crazy.