Bill Maher Reveals He Helped Woody Harrelson Write Controversial SNL Monologue Tackling Vaccines and Covid Lockdown

Comedian Bill Maher revealed that he helped actor Woody Harrelson with his viral Saturday Night Live monologue that took down covid vaccines.

Back in February, Harrelson gave the opening monologue that quickly caught fire online. The joke centered on him reading a script for an upcoming project.

“The biggest drug cartels in the world get together and buy up all the media and all the politicians and force all the people in the world to stay locked in their homes, and people can only come out if they take the cartel’s drugs and keep taking them over and over,” Harrelson said. “I threw the script away. I mean, who is going to believe that crazy idea? Being forced to do drugs? I do that voluntarily all day long.”

Many assumed Harrelson, who had been outspoken about companies profiting from the Covid pandemic, aimed the “cartel” joke at pharmaceutical companies. Harrelson eventually spoke out about the controversy.

On the May 14th edition of his podcast Club Random with Bill Maher, Maher spoke with SNL alum David Spade about the episode.

“When your boy Woody did SNL, I think he tweaked up his monologue. I thought that was interesting. I’ve never seen that happen,” Spade said. “Like he changed it.”

“I worked on that with him a little bit,” Maher said.

“I don’t know if he changed it. I just know that that’s not really the — you know what they do there,” Spade replied. “I thought Woody was just cool because for a comedy, do both sides. Let the host say whatever he wants. That’s interesting.”

Maher explained his close friendship with Woody and praised the move as “ballsy.”

“I mean that’s the plot of certain movies, shows — it’s live. They can’t stop me, I’m gonna do this. And this guy did it in real life. It was like, no, they can’t because it is live. And I’m gonna tell this story now, I don’t know how much they knew about what the ending of that story was, but it was also a brilliant way to make that point,” Maher said.

Maher said that he agrees with Harrelson 90% when it comes to vaccines but says he doesn’t go as far as the actor does in voicing it.

“The fact that he was able to, or willing to put his considerable popularity, cause you know, he’s a beloved figure. And say, ‘I’m gonna take the hit of some political capital by making this statement in this very high-profile arena.’ I mean, you gotta give the guy props for that even if you don’t agree with it,” Maher said.

Watch above via Club Random with Bill Maher.

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