30 most controversial Bill Maher moments

15. Maher compares Jay Leno to Israel during Hall of Fame induction

Bill Maher’s former TV rival Jay Leno is another person who’s endured a lot of controversy. We won’t even get into the whole fiasco with NBC and Conan O’Brien here, because that’s a whole other can of worms. But although Leno was partially the source of the controversy in that situation, sometimes controversial things would head his way.

One such instance happened in 2014, when Jay Leno was being inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame. None other than Bill Maher was serving as his inductor, delivering a humorous speech to bring him in. But Maher delivers one particular quip about Leno, inserting some political humor to inspire more than one headline about the event.

Of Leno, Maher says that he’s like Israel. By that, he means that Jay is “not perfect, but he’s held to a standard that no one else in the world is expected to live up to other than him.” It’s demonstrating how Jay might not be the world’s most perfect comedian, but it doesn’t matter anyway, because he could never reach the expectations that everyone expects him to. When Leno himself took the stage, he suggests he left the show at the right time.