On Sunday night, Wanda Sykes took the stage at the Golden Globes to present the award for Best Performance in Stand-Up Comedy on Television. Bill Maher was among the nominees.
Sykes opened by thanking the Golden Globes “for having me, because you know there’s some people pissed off that a queer Black woman is up here doing the job of two mediocre white guys.”
She roasted all the nominees. Kevin Hart “is the richest guy in this category, and yet I know he wants it the most.” Brett Goldstein has “that great supervillain voice” and “would’ve made a great Menendez brother.”
Then she turned to Maher.
“Bill Maher — you give us so much,” she said. “But I would love a little less. Just try less.”
The camera panned to Maher. He was not laughing.
A clip of the moment has been viewed over 3 million times on X. “LOL at Wanda Sykes calling out Bill Maher to his face,” wrote Buzzfeed’s Spencer Althouse. One user called it “underdog contender for moment of the night.”
LOL at Wanda Sykes calling out Bill Mahr to his face while presenting at the Golden Globes
“Bill Mahr, you give us so much…but I would love a little less. Just try less.” pic.twitter.com/qPyaXH0U5W
— Spencer Althouse (@SpencerAlthouse) January 12, 2026
It wasn’t the first time Maher struggled to take his own advice.
In 2022, after Will Smith slapped Chris Rock at the Oscars, Maher declared that “this war on jokes must end.” Celebrities, he argued, should accept being roasted. “Let the common people take the piss out of you for one minute,” he said. “It’s called being a good sport.”
He has also spent years telling people not to be swayed by Trump’s private charm.
In 2018, Geraldo Rivera appeared on Real Time and told Maher that Trump is “warm and friendly” in private. Maher’s response: “Who gives a shit. He’s running the world now. What does that matter that he was nice to you at Thanksgiving?”
In March 2025, Maher had dinner with Trump at the White House. He returned to his show with a different take. “Trump was gracious and measured,” Maher said. “Everything I’ve ever not liked about him was — I swear to God — absent, at least on this night.”
Rivera noticed. “He told me very specifically that the reason I like Trump is because he’s nice to me,” Rivera said on NewsNation. “He really was very insulting. He challenged my judgment. He mocked my feelings for the president.”
Maher did not win the Golden Globe on Sunday. It went to Ricky Gervais for Mortality. Gervais, known for jokes about transgender people, was not in attendance. Sykes accepted on his behalf.
“Ricky Gervais,” she announced. “He would like to thank God and the trans community.”
Gervais, a well-known atheist, reposted announcements about his win on X. He did not acknowledge Sykes’s remarks.
Maher has not publicly commented on the moment — or on Sykes’s suggestion that he try less.