Bill Maher wasn’t happy with a joke Wanda Sykes made about him at the 2026 Golden Globes.
According to The Upshaws star, Bill approached her later to tell her that he thought the joke was “stupid.”
The jest in question occurred while Wanda was presenting the award for Best Performance in Stand-Up Comedy, which included nominees like Sarah Silverman, Kevin Hart, Ricky Gervais, Brett Goldstein, and Bill Maher.
“There’s some people pissed off that a queer Black woman is up here doing the job of two mediocre white guys … but first I want to give them some love,” Wanda joked, before roasting the nominees. When she got to Bill, she said, “Bill Maher, you give us so much but I would love a little less. Just try less.”
While visiting Vulture’s Good Ones podcast recently, Wanda said Bill approached her at the end of the night and said, “What was that about?” to which Wanda replied, “It’s a joke, Bill.”
“He’s like, ‘Well, I mean, it wasn’t even a joke.’ I said, ‘Oh, no, I heard laughing. It was clearly a joke,’” she recalled.
Bill continued arguing with her about it, but she said, “See? You’re doing exactly what we said in the joke. We need less of this. You’re epitomizing the joke. Less of this.”
“He didn’t care for it,” she added, before going on about how he’d received many texts from people who thought “it was a stupid joke.”
“When he said ‘stupid,’ I was like, ‘OK, now you’re gonna get it,’” Wanda said. “I was like, ‘Well, I got a lot of texts telling me how great it was, and how they don’t like you, and it was really funny. I guess that’s the problem. You’re watching Fox News, and I’m over here on MSNBC. See?’ Then he asked me to be on his podcast. I was like, ‘Absolutely not.’”
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