It appears Wayne Brady’s Bill Maher threat brings to fruition a long-repeated Chappelle’s Show meme. Wayne Brady, we now know, does indeed have to choke a bitch .
Wayne Brady challenged Bill Maher after the comic used him as a punchline to a joke about how President Obama “isn’t black enough.”
But Wayne Brady’s Bill Maher beef went deeper. If you are a frequent viewer of Maher’s show, you know a recurring gag is one about the President’s level of blackness being disappointing. Bill will often call out Obama, who he’s joked is the “invader from Blackmanistan” to whiter Republicans, for not thugging it up in the White House.
Maher is also a vocal Obama supporter, having given his “imaginary child’s college fund” to the President’s re-election coffers, a sizable million dollar donation, last year. But Maher has also joked prior:
“Isn’t Obama’s big problem is that he does everything half-assed? Maybe it’s because he’s only half black … If he was fully black, I’m telling you, he would be a better president.”
In another bit a few years back before the Wayne Brady Bill Maher issue, the comic joked that he wanted Obama to meet with BP execs with a gun in his pants and shoot someone in the foot.
Monday, Brady spoke on HuffPost Live about Bill Maher’s comparison of President Obama to the actor, saying that the “black dude in [Maher’s] mind” is stereotypically violent and thug-like.
Brady elaborated, explaining that while Maher’s characterization may read initially positive, it really serves to reinforce negative black stereotypes and normalize damaging race-based judgments:
“What I care about is when Bill Maher says something like that, he has a segment of America’s ear, so when he says that, it is OK for somebody at home to go, ‘That’s right, guys that actually talk well and are black — that’s not black. I like my blacks misunderstandables.’”
Brady also said:
“I’ve respected him as a comedian, and what he does on HBO is great. But when he starts to drag me in, to use me as the cultural linchpin of his not-black-enough argument, that’s bulls***.”
Wayne Brady said of Bill Maher:
“I will beat your ass in public.”
You can watch the clip, below.