Bill Maher Officially Has the Worst Take On Why Trump Won: It’s Because of Comic Book Movies!

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Ever since Trump almost won the popular vote back in November, there’s been a flood of think pieces and hot takes fighting to be the decisive word on how exactly that happened. Was it sexism? (Yes.) Racism? (Yes.) Hillary’s campaign strategy? (Sure.) Russian influence? (Probably.) Comey’s interference? (Definitely.) There are innumerable elements that played into how everything ended up, but everyone seems to have their take on what one single thing handed Trump the White House.

But I don’t know if I’ve heard a stranger theory than the one Bill Maher gave on his show this week. According to him, the real reason Trump is now in office is because Hollywood won’t stop making superhero movies and TV shows.

After listing off every superhero show and movie out or coming out soon (which, to be fair, is a lot) and making a bunch of really terrible puns and other jokes, he dives into the theory with a sincerity that makes it hard to think he doesn’t actually believe it.

“Superhero movies imprint the mindset that we are not masters of our own destiny, and the best we can do is sit around and wait for Star-Lord and F*cking Raccoon to sweep in and save our sorry asses.” He continues on, “Forget hard work, government institutions, diplomacy, investment, we just need a hero to rise. And so, we put out the bat signal, for one man who could solve all of our problems, very quickly. And that’s how we got our latest superhero, Orange Sphincter.”

Cut to Neil DeGrasse Tyson’s weary reaction:

To buy into Maher’s theory, you have to disregard a lot. For starters, you can ignore, I suppose, the fact that comic books and super heroes have been part of the American ethos for about three-quarters of a century. Sure, they’ve entered the very center of mainstream entertainment in a new way over the last decade or two, but the impact of super ideals wasn’t exactly negligible before last year.

The more blatant issue, though, is that to anyone paying attention it seems clear that Trump, from his megalomania to his inability to care about humanity on any basic level, Trump isn’t a superhero. In this storyline happening now, he’s the super villain. Isn’t that obvious?

(via Uproxx, image: YouTube)

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Vivian Kane
Vivian Kane (she/her) is the Senior News Editor at The Mary Sue, where she's been writing about politics and entertainment (and all the ways in which the two overlap) since the dark days of late 2016. Born in San Francisco and radicalized in Los Angeles, she now lives in Kansas City, Missouri, where she gets to put her MFA to use covering the local theatre scene. She is the co-owner of The Pitch, Kansas City’s alt news and culture magazine, alongside her husband, Brock Wilbur, with whom she also shares many cats.