Bill Maher Defends Elisabeth Hasselbeck-to-Egypt Joke (VIDEO)
On 'Real Time With Bill Maher' last week, Maher had a line about swapping attractive blond CBS foreign correspondent Lara Logan, who had been detained (and released) by Egyptian authorities, for Elisabeth Hasselbeck. Hasselbeck took great offense to this, using the first segment of 'The View' on Monday to attack Maher as a "chauvinistic bigot."Maher got his chance to respond to her response on 'The Last Word With Lawrence O'Donnell' (weekdays, 8PM ET on MSNBC.)
"It was a joke," Maher told O'Donnell. "And not even that bad of one."
"There is a line that can be crossed, where you get into mean, bitter, chauvinistic. I didn't even approach it," he continued.
If fact, Maher argued, Hasselbeck should have been flattered by his joke: "Actually, she should be complimented. Because I was kind of putting her on par with Lara Logan, who we all think is a very attractive woman."
We're going to agree with Bill that this was a pretty harmless joke. However, when you gleefully break down how your humor reduces two accomplished women to pretty faces, it does invite the chauvinistic charge.
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