Bill Maher Slams WGA Strike For “Kooky” Demands, Believes That The Writers “Have No Leverage”

Bill Maher has shared his (unsurprisingly) controversial opinions regarding the ongoing Writers Guild of America (WGA) strike. The Real Time host, whose late-night show wrapped up tapings for its most recent season just before the strike began in early May, slammed the union for its “kooky” demands.

While Maher said he “feels for” and “loves” his writers, he pointed out that there is a “big other side” to the strike during a recent episode of Jim Gaffigan‘s Club Random podcast.

“A lot of people are being hurt besides them — a lot of people who don’t make as much money as them in this bipartisan world we have where you’re just in one camp or the other, there’s no in-between,” he said. “You’re either for the strike like they’re fucking Che Guevara out there, you know, like, this is Cesar Chavez’s lettuce picking strike — or you’re with Trump.”

He continued, “There’s no difference — there’s only two camps. And it’s much more complicated than that.”

Maher agreed that the writers — who are fighting for residuals from streaming platforms, among other things — are getting “screwed a bit by the streamers.” At the same time, he also believes they are asking for a bit too much.

“They’re asking for a lot of things that are, like, kooky,” he told Gaffigan. “What I find objectionable about the philosophy of the strike [is] it seems to be, they have really morphed a long way from 2007’s strike, where they kind of believe that you’re owed a living as a writer, and you’re not. This is show business. This is the make-or-miss league.”

According to Maher, the WGA is striking at the “wrong time” as streamers were already “looking for a get-out-of-jail-card for how much they overspend.”

“[Streamers] have tons of stuff in stock, so they have no reason to wanna settle this strike,” he said. “They struck at just the wrong time; they have no leverage. Has anyone who is watching TV recently noticed a difference? Has it affected the person down the pipeline? I don’t think so. I haven’t noticed a difference. At some point, I guess that will happen. What day is that when Netflix runs out of what they have in the warehouse?”

Still, he noted that they are “going to settle at one point.”

Watch Gaffigan’s full interview with Maher above.