30 most controversial Bill Maher moments

7. Lawmaker accuses Bill Maher of committing treason

Sure, Bill Maher says a lot of things on his show which get a lot of people angry. But despite how piercing some of his comments may be, Maher isn’t committing any crimes, right? Well, according to Alabama Rep. Spencer Bachus, Maher wasn’t just committing a crime, he was committing treason, because of a joke Maher had made on his TV show.

Let me try to explain that one. Maher made a joke that that US military had already recruited all the “low-lying fruit”, saying that they were failing in their recruitment efforts. He suggested that more people were joining the Michael Jackson fan club. This infuriated Bachus, who caught a rerun of the show after apparently recently visiting a veteran. Bachus publicly decried Maher and the show, and said that this was bordering on treasonous and grounds to cancel the entire program.

Nothing really came of this as far as some kind of punishment for Maher. However, he did release a statement, clarifying that he had the highest respect for the armed forces. It seemed like nothing more than a throwaway joke at the time, but if someone with enough political power gets mad about it, then it still becomes a thing.