Bill Maher sparks backlash with Dolly Parton joke

Last week, Bill Maher dedicated his long-running HBO show “Real Time” to defending Trump “human printer” Natalie Harp — after admitting he was too afraid to mock her oddly close relationship with President Trump because Laura Loomer sued him for ridiculing theirs (the lawsuit was tossed) — and getting chummy with Hunter Biden during his curious media blitz.

At the top of his show Friday night, the 70-year-old comedian lightly mocked Trump’s latest culture war offensive against Canada before offering one of the worst tributes to the late, great Dolly Parton that you’ll ever hear.

“All this is going on and all America could really talk about this week was how sad it is that we lost Dolly Parton,” declared Maher. “Everybody around the country, even around the world — [in] London they’re doing things. The Santa Monica Ferris wheel is lit up with hearts. The Empire State Building was put up in pink. The Sphere in Las Vegas added a nipple.” Get it?

Parton died this week at the age of 80 after what her team called a “brief battle with cancer.” She was not only a country music legend and cultural icon but an extraordinary philanthropist whose Imagination Library has inspired millions of kids around the world to read. She was also, perhaps, our last universally beloved celebrity.

-Variety