You know you’re in for an interesting Real Time With Bill Maher episode when Bill Maher isn’t even the one doing the brunt of the shouting. Friday’s episode turned into an expletive-laden (but for the grace of HBO) blood match, as comedian Jim Jefferies reamed out professional outrage-mongerer Piers Morgan for dismissing people’s fears about Donald Trump. The ruckus erupted when Morgan said of Trump’s travel ban targeting seven majority-Muslim countries, “There is no Muslim ban.” Jefferies promptly told Morgan to “fuck off,” doubling down when Morgan called his response “exactly the kind of hysteria I’m talking about.” “This is what you do, Piers. You say, ‘He hasn’t done this. He hasn’t done that. He’s not going to do all of these things.’ Give him a fucking chance, mate … Hitler didn’t kill the Jews on the first day. He worked up to it,” Jefferies said.
And while Morgan warned Jefferies of “losing your audience because you’re sounding unpleasant,” plenty of viewers were more than happy to see Morgan get taken to task. J.K. Rowling, for one, tweeted that “watching Piers Morgan being told to fuck off on live TV is *exactly* as satisfying as I’d always imagined,” a sentiment which promptly launched its own can of worms.
Careful, Piers. Wouldn’t want to start “sounding unpleasant.”
