The New Pope ‘Gets Me,’ Bill Maher Announces
It should surprise absolutely no one that Bill Maher kicked off this week’s episode of Real Time by joking about the new Pope. And it should come as even less of a shock that said jokes were about as funny as a Catholic mass.
Dunking on organized religion is obviously a key area of interest for Maher, as evidenced by his 2008 movie Religulous. The documentary follows Maher as he debunks religious teachings using equally dubious sources, and it ultimately wraps up with Maher decrying the “arrogant certitude” of religion while delivering his own irony-free proclamation that the world was about to end.
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And Real Time has certainly had its fair share of Pope jokes over the years:
So obviously, the recent papal developments have been of particular interest to Maher, who was raised Catholic. Following the death of Pope Francis in April, Maher made headlines for a “cringe” monologue on the subject, in which he made lighthearted jokes about the Church’s history of child sex abuse, then somehow worked in references to ICE deportations and Tracy Morgan’s food poisoning incident.
So did Maher fare this time?
Well, he began by proclaiming that “the other countries in the world can suck it because the Pope’s American.” This then led to a hacky joke about how the Pope was born with the name Robert Prevost but is “transitioning to Leo XIV.” Impressively, Maher resisted the urge to give himself a high five for finding a way to combine poking fun at the Church with random transphobia.
Maher went on to explain that the new Chicago Pope recently held his first mass. “He said some very interesting things,” Maher stated. “He said, ‘Many people perceive Christianity as absurd, and meant for the weak and intelligent.’ Finally, a Pope who gets me!”
Of course, during the speech, the Pope followed up that statement by saying that places where “believers are mocked, opposed, despised or at best tolerated and pitied” are places “missionary outreach is desperately needed.”
So there’s a non-zero chance that Bible-toting missionaries will soon knock at the door of Club Random.
