Last week, Bill Maher did a very bad thing. During an exchange with Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Nebraska) on his show Real Time, the political satirist casually dropped the n-word. 
 
 Responding to a silly dig by Sasse (“We’d love to have you work in the fields with us,” he joked), Maher quipped, “Work in the fields? Senator, I’m a house nigger.” 
 
 The backlash was appropriately swift, with Black Lives Matter activist DeRay Mckesson and MC/activist Chance the Rapper calling for Maher to be kicked off the air, and the Rev. Al Sharpton digging up a vintage clip of Maher cavalierly tossing around the n-word and defending his use of it by citing the way African-American rappers regularly use it in their songs. The comic, for his part, issued a rare apology: “Friday nights are always my worst nights of sleep because I’m up reflecting on the things I should or shouldn't have said on my live show,” he wrote. “Last night was a particularly long night as I regret the word I used in the banter of a live moment. The word was offensive and I regret saying it and I'm very sorry.” 
 
 Well, on Friday night’s edition of his HBO program Real Time, the host first welcomed close pal Michael Eric Dyson on the show for his mea culpa. But that exchange, a black friend of Maher’s serving as his character witness and shield of sorts, was transparently disingenuous. 
 
 The real exchange occurred later in the program when the iconic rapper turned actor Ice Cube joined the program. Cube, who served as frontman for the hip-hop group N.W.A. (which stood for “Niggas with Attitude”), gave Maher a piece of his mind. 
 
 “I knew you was gonna fuck up sooner or later,” Cube told Maher. “I did. I did. I love your show, you’ve got a great show, but you’ve been buckin’ up against that line a little bit. You know, you’ve got a lot of black jokes. You know what I’m sayin’, you do.” 
 
 “Well, against racists. Yes,” Maher responded, stunned by Cube’s criticism. 
 
 “Eh. Sometimes you sound like a redneck trucker,” added Cube. 
 
 “No, I don’t. That I gotta push back on,” replied Maher, clearly on the defensive. 
 
 “It’s my opinion,” offered Cube. “My thing is this, and you know, I’m cool with you. I like your show, to be honest. I just wanna know two questions. What made you think it was cool to say that? That’s one question.” 
 
 An annoyed Maher interrupted Cube—which he did repeatedly throughout the exchange: “You know, I just explained there was no thought put into it. Obviously I was telling Dr. Dyson, comedians, they react. And it was wrong. And I apologize. And you know, more than that I can’t do.” 
 
 Then Ice Cube enlightened Maher on why his use of the n-word was so damn problematic—in far more nuanced and poignant fashion than the host’s friend Dyson. 
 
 “I accept your apology. But I still think we need to get to the root of the psyche,” Cube explained. “Because I think there’s a lot of guys out there who cross the line because they a little too familiar—or they think they too familiar—or its guys that, you know, might have a black girlfriend or two who made them some Kool-Aid every now and then, and they think they can cross the line. And they can’t. It’s a word that has been used against us; it’s like a knife, man. And you can use it as a weapon, or you can use it as a tool. It’s been used as a weapon against us by white people, and we’re not gonna let that happen again by nobody, because it’s not cool. Now, I know you heard [it], it’s in the lexicon and everybody’s talkin’, but that’s our word now. That’s our word now. And you can’t have it back. I know they’re tryin’ to get it back.” 
 
 The hip-hop maestro was referencing Maher’s history of dating black women, and how he may have gotten “too familiar” and felt that it entitled him to cross certain lines of propriety. One of Maher’s exes Karine Steffans, who is black, once said of him, “Bill wants someone he can put down in an argument, tell you how ghetto you are, how big your butt is and that you’re an idiot. That’s why you never see him with a white girl or an intellectual.” 
 
 With that being said, Cube wasn’t done. “And I’m not talkin’ about you, Bill. But I’m talkin’ about guys who cross the line every day because they got some black homies, they got some friends, they think it’s cool. And it’s not cool because when I hear my homies say it, it don’t feel like venom. When I hear a white person say it, it feels like that knife stabbin’ me, even if they don’t mean it,” he said. 
 
 “So, I like your show—and it’s a great show—I just don’t know sometimes, is it a political show, or is it a show about jokes?” he continued. “This, to me, is a political show. And I think you just have to not step on some of the political messages that you sayin’ with a joke, because some things just ain’t funny, you know what I mean? This is real right here that we’re going through. And I’m not tryin’ to get on your case, Bill. I’m tellin’ you: I like your show and I like you. But I think this is a teachable moment, not just to you but to the people who are watching right now.” 
 
 Maher, visibly aggravated by Cube’s words, quipped, “I think the people who are watching right now are saying: that point has been made.” 
 
 “Not by me,” fired back Cube. 
 
 The outspoken funnyman was, for once, at a loss for words. ||||| Update, with videos “It’s like a knife, man,” actor-musician Ice Cube told Bill Maher about the host’s use last week of the N-word. “When I hear my homies say it, it don’t feel like venom. When I hear a white person say it, it’s like a knife.” 
 
 “That’s our word now,” he continued, “and you can’t have it back.” (See video above). 
 
 The first episode of HBO’s Real Time With Bill Maher since Maher ignited a firestorm last Friday by jokingly referring to himself as a “house N-word,” Maher took the stage tonight to a standing ovation and shouts of “We love you Bill” from his loyal audience. 
 
 “Thank you for letting a sinner in your midst,” Maher said. “Michael Eric Dyson will be out here shortly to take me to the woodshed.” 
 
 And so he did, as Maher and the author of Tears We Cannot Stop: A Sermon To White America launched into a discussion of race intended to clear the air after Maher crossed the line from politically incorrect to, as Dyson called it, the “unconscious reflex of white privilege.” 
 
 “I wanted you to come by here because I want you to school me,” Maher told Dyson. “I did a bad thing.” 
 
 “That’s a great place to begin, Bill,” Dyson said. “A very bad thing.” 
 
 Dyson told Maher that with today’s “resurgence” of racism — he referenced Steve Bannon and Jeff Sessions — it’s even more important for Maher to fight the “unconscious reflex.” 
 
 “My Bible tells me that to whom much is given,” Dyson said, “much is expected.” 
 
 Maher acknowledged “it doesn’t matter that it wasn’t said in malice” since the word “brought pain to people.” 
 
 “I’m not here to do that. I reiterate tonight, and that’s sincere. I’m not that big of an asshole.” 
 
 Maher also mentioned Kathy Griffin, “who by the way owes me a fruit basket for getting her off the front page.” Maher said “as much as I hate Trump,” Griffin was wrong to be photographed holding a fake, bloody decapitated head of the president. Still, he added, she “should not go away.” 
 
 “He broke me?” Maher said, quoting Griffin about Trump. “No, he didn’t.” 
 
 Later in the show, a very serious Ice Cube told Maher, “I knew you was going to f*ck up sooner or later. Sometimes you sound like a redneck trucker.” 
 
 The former N.W.A rapper also criticized Real Time for blurring the line between political discourse and jokes. Maher responded the show was meant to be both. 
 
 Activist Symone Sanders, the former national press secretary for Bernie Sanders and frequent CNN contributor, told Maher that his joke about being a “house N-word” was particularly offensive to black women, and accused Maher of “white-washing” the word. “It was mostly black women who were in the house,” she said, where they were often beaten and raped. 
 
 Another guest, Republican (and former congressman) David Jolly, applauded Maher for apologizing. “Let’s start focusing,” he said, “on the people who refuse to apologize.” 
 
 Although Maher was contrite throughout the episode, he repeatedly insisted that he meant no harm last week. “I don’t want to pretend this is more of a race thing than a comedian thing,” he told Dyson. “Comedians are a special kind of monkey.” 
 
 “So to speak,” Dyson responded as the audience laughed nervously. 
 
 “Don’t,” Maher said. “Don’t f*ck with me. We are a trained thing that tries to get a laugh. That’s all we are always thinking.” 
 
 No mention was made tonight of Sen. Al Franken, who canceled his planned appearance earlier this week.
– Bill Maher's first show in the wake of his n-word controversy will have an interesting guest: Ice Cube. Though Al Franken dropped out, Ice Cube says he'll be there for the June 9 episode, reports the Los Angeles Times. On his last show, Maher jokingly referred to himself as a "house n-----," and he and HBO apologized afterward amid a flurry of social media criticism. Another guest will be Georgetown prof Michael Eric Dyson, who tweeted that while he has long appreciated his friend Maher's advocacy for black causes, the "n-word should be reserved for black use. Period."