Earlier this week, after HBO confirmed that Bill Maher would still be hosting a new episode of his Real Time show on Friday, Al Franken announced that he was backing out of a scheduled guest appearance over Maher’s use of a racial slur on last week’s show. At the time, we noted that Ice Cube was still scheduled to appear on Friday’s Real Time episode, and now he has told Rolling Stone that he intends to show up as planned.
That’s not to say that Cube is okay with what Maher said, though. “You’re supposed to be a champion, or you’re supposed to be a liberal,” Cube said to Rolling Stone, “but racism lives in both parties.” He thinks we all need to “throw away the facade and the bullshit” and get serious about why certain things are offensive. He refers to Maher’s use of the n-word as part of a “bully mentality,” which he says is “just not funny.”
“Everybody feels like they can make a joke and cross that line,” Cube explains, noting that he sees “cartoons that are way more offensive” than they should be on Adult Swim as well. He sums up his point succinctly, adding, “sometimes, you gotta know when to shut up. Check yourself before you wreck yourself.”
We’ll presumably be hearing more from Ice Cube on tomorrow’s episode of Real Time.