HBO’s Bill Maher can seem like the most reasonable of the bunch of the liberal late night comedians because he is willing to ridicule the excesses of the left, but in mocking DOGE staffer Edward “Big Balls” Coristine on Friday’s Real Time for being assaulted, he crossed a line that even the others have dared not cross.
Maher began, “Trump could not have been happier to get out of Washington, D.C., which he has discovered is crime-ridden. No, he did. He discovered that this week, because—well, you know, I would say this about him, like many Republicans—let's just say they are anecdotal in their thinking, you know. When anecdotally things happen. So, somebody in the administration got mugged, Big Balls. Remember Big Balls? He was part of DOGE, he's a teenager and he was mugged, carjacked, I think, by two other teenagers.”
What Maher omitted was that Coristine was with his girlfriend and protected her from the mob, which numbered ten, not two. The word “hero” tends to get trivialized, but that is truly heroic. The two figure comes from those who have been arrested thus far.
Nevertheless, Maher continued, “Ironically, when they were kicking the shit out of him, he was curled up in a big ball. Not funny—it’s not funny that—well, you know, it's a little embarrassing to the bro squad out there who think of themselves as such tough guys because he got beat up by two 15-year-olds and one was a girl. They were brutal, they hijacked his car, and then they made fun of his playlist. Really terrible stuff.”
Despite claiming it wasn't funny, Maher and the audience clearly thought it was. The line between politically incorrect humor and being offensive is not always clear, but here it is. Maher isn’t mocking any particular ideology’s sacred cow. He’s just flipping the moral order on its head by making the victim of a violent crime the butt of the joke instead of the assailants.
Here is a transcript for the August 15 show:
HBO Real Time with Bill Maher
8/15/2025
10:04 PM ET
BILL MAHER: Trump could not have been happier to get out of Washington, D.C., which he has discovered is crime—ridden. No, he did. He discovered that this week, because – well, you know, I would say this about him, like many Republicans — let's just say they are anecdotal in their thinking, you know. When anecdotally things happen. So, somebody in the administration got mugged, Big Balls. Remember Big Balls? He was part of DOGE, he's a teenager and he was mugged, carjacked, I think, by two other teenagers. Ironically, when they were kicking the shit out of him, he was curled up in a big ball. Not funny – it’s not funny that—well, you know, it's a little embarrassing to the bro squad out there who think of themselves as such tough guys because he got beat up by two 15—year—olds and one was a girl. They were brutal, they hijacked his car, and then they made fun of his playlist. Really terrible stuff.