Bill Maher has not had the easiest year so far, as recent controversies like his booking of right-wing troll Milo Yiannopoulos and his casual dropping of the N-word have threatened to overshadow his long, venerable history of Islamophobia. With all the attention surrounding that latest transgression—which led people like DeRay Mckesson and Chance The Rapper to call for HBO to fire him from Real Time, Ice Cube to give him a stern talking-to, and Maher himself to issue a rare apology—it’s safe to assume that Maher is being extra mindful about saying anything else that could be construed as bigoted, especially when every remark of his is being so closely scrutinized by a public eager for him to slip up again.
It’s a good time, in other words, for Maher to take a much-needed vacation and not, say, dabble in cheap racial stereotypes for a joke!