Bill Maher’s latest celebrity gag didn’t get the reaction from his studio crowd that he expected. Bill Maher used Ariana Grande to crack a UFO joke during Friday night’s episode of HBO’s Real Time With Bill Maher, first scoring laughs with a quip about the singer’s appearance, then pushing the envelope by making a joke about the singer’s weight. An unmistakable awkwardness filled the room, and the audience groaned loudly at the second line.
During his opening monologue, Maher cracked the joke, starting with his thoughts on the possibility of extraterrestrial life. “I hope the aliens are here, I do,” Maher told the audience. “I hope they’re here watching us and they’re going to save us.” He then ran through a number of descriptions of alleged UFO encounters, including triangular craft, strange lights seen over an army base, and a “stick-like figure with big eyes.” Then Maher dropped the first punchline: “Oh, that was just an Ariana Grande video.” The comparison seemed to do the trick—the audience was laughing and clapping.
Maher didn’t leave the joke hanging, though. He immediately followed it up with another comment. “Please, we jest. We joke,” he said. “Perhaps that joke will make her eat something.” The line changed the atmosphere in the studio. Instead of more laughter, Maher was greeted by a collective groan from the audience. Realizing the response wasn’t what he had expected, he tried to defend the joke, saying, “I’m saying, maybe it will help,” before continuing with the rest of his monologue. The exchange was later referenced by both TV Insider and Deadline as one of the more memorable moments from the episode.
Maher’s comments are especially notable because Grande’s weight and appearance have been a topic of public discussion for some time. Time and time again, the singer has spoken about the pressure of being under the spotlight, explaining that people looking at her from the outside do not know what she is going through privately. She’s asked fans and the general public to be more careful about commenting on other people’s bodies, even when those comments are compliments or expressions of concern.
The joke also comes shortly after Grande announced that she would be taking a step back from some of the constant visibility that comes with being a major pop star. After her Eternal Sunshine tour, she hinted she wanted to get out of the never-ending public spotlight that was surrounding her. That makes Maher’s specific mention of her eating habits more pointed than a generic celebrity joke, particularly given how often Grande has been the subject of commentary about her body.
There’s also a clear contrast between the two jokes Maher makes. Grande was part of a visual comparison in his first line that made her the punchline of the UFO story. The audience laughed. Maher appeared to enjoy the reaction. However, when he progressed from making jokes about her appearance to telling her she should “eat something,” the subject turned more specifically to her weight. The immediate groan shows that many of the people in the room were willing to laugh at the first joke, but not to go along with the second one.
That’s especially interesting coming from a comedian like Maher, whose whole shtick is saying things other hosts might shy away from. Real Time is often filled with jokes and political commentary designed to make you squirm, and Maher has made a career out of pushing those boundaries. But the reaction of the audience here was unusually clear. The follow-up line hit a wall—there was no question about that—and the room pretty much told him he’d gone too far.
Maher did try to ease the moment with a “we kid” disclaimer, but that did little to erase the awkwardness that followed. When he told the joke that could “help” Grande, he stayed on that same subject rather than deflecting away from it. At last, he abandoned the bit and continued the monologue.
The moment also reveals how celebrity bodies are being talked about in entertainment. Weight jokes have been around in comedy for a long time, but there’s more and more pushback against the idea that it’s okay to make fun of someone’s body just because they’re famous. Grande has been particularly vocal about that issue, so Maher’s decision to single out her eating habits for ridicule is more likely to draw attention.
In the end, the joke was only a small part of Maher’s Real Time monologue, but the audience reaction gave it prominence. The first Ariana Grande joke drew the laugh Maher wanted; the second produced a groan that he couldn’t quite talk his way out of. For a comedian who has spent decades testing the boundaries of what audiences will accept, it was a pretty basic lesson that even his own audience has a limit, and on Friday night, they made it clear where it was.