'I Play an Atheist,' Bill Maher Says in New Satire Video; Calls Atheists 'Stupid'
HBO's "Real Time" host Bill Maher has come out with a new video, for the Funny or Die website, in which he poses as a Catholic and says "everybody in the business knows I play an atheist," and that he produced the documentary "Religulous" for money.
The satire video, "Bill Maher's Dirty Secret," shows the comedian carrying a rosary and kneeling before a picture, which looks like that of Virgin Mary. That's when a woman enters into the room and asks, "What are you doing?"
"Praying," Maher responds. "Bill, you're an atheist. Everybody knows you're an atheist," says the woman.
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"Well, everybody in the business knows I play an atheist," Maher goes on to say, and adds Stephen Colbert isn't really a conservative. "This is an act. This is what we do. This is Hollywood, sweetheart."
When the woman refers to his documentary, "Religulous," he says, "I made a movie because that's where the money is. If stupid atheists want to give me their money, go around all the country, see me play — every place I play, I take that money, I give it to local churches. This is strictly for enforcing religious dogma because that's what it's all about."
"Religulous" mocks religion and religious belief.
In the video, Maher also mentions a "vision" he had when he was 14. He says he saw Jesus sitting on his bed. "This was real. There was a white light that came into the room, floated down, just the way you pictured him, the beard, the hair, the robe, and he sat at the edge of the bed, and we had a conversation. And he just told me — have fun with it. That's what he said. Just have fun with it. Because [He] said if you do the right thing, you're gong to get to Heaven, but Heaven … doesn't even pay to explain it to you because you have to experience it to know."
Maher also says he is a friend of Ann Coulter, a conservative social and political commentator, and that he prays with her.
The woman then asks if his obsession with smoking weed is also an act. "No, I'm crazy. Not stupid," Maher answers.
Appearing on Charlie Rose's PBS show earlier this month, Maher rebuked him for linking Islam to Christianity, defending Christians by saying a vast numbers of them do not believe in violence or treat women as second class citizens.
"Vast numbers of Christians do not believe that if you leave the Christian religion you should be killed for it," Maher said. "Vast numbers of Christians do not treat women as second class citizens … Vast numbers of Christians do not believe if you draw a picture of Jesus Christ you should get killed for it. So yes, does ISIS do Khmer Rouge-like activities where they just kill people indiscriminately who aren't just like them? Yes. And would most Muslim people in the world do that or condone that? No."
However, in March, Maher cursed God, the Bible, the story of Noah and the "stupid" Americans who take Scripture literally. "No one can blame me when I say this is a stupid country. When 60 percent of the adults in it think the Noah's Ark story is literally true," said Maher on the "New Rules" segment of his show.
In January, Maher said in an interview with The Atlantic's Scott Stossel that he thinks people who believe in God are "insane," noting that the God portrayed in the Bible's Old Testament is a "mass murderer."
