Bill Maher: The Left and the Right Need to 'Stop Making Each Other Apologize For Everything

Echoing his op-ed in the New York Times earlier this week, comedian Bill Maher called for the left and the right "to agree to stop making each other apologize for everything" during his HBO show Friday night.

Referencing actor Robert DeNiro's joke Monday night about whether "the country is ready for a white first lady" -- which both Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum took umbrage at -- Maher said he was "urging America to seriously consider a national day of no outrage."

"Just one day out of the year when Hank Williams Jr. can say some ignorant sh-t on Fox News without the 'good people' demanding he be thrown off of Monday Night Football," Maher said. "Yes, he compared Obama to Hitler. But he -- and this is the crucial part -- is Hank Williams Jr."

“In the last few years, we have been shocked and outraged by the unbelievable insensitivity by Nike shoes, the Fighting Sioux, the White House Christmas tree, the White House Christmas card, burning the Koran, apologizing for burning the Koran, Don Imus, Tracy Morgan, Gilbert Gottfried, Ashton Kutcher and the ESPN guy who used the wrong Chinese cliche for Jeremy Lin after everyone else used all the others," he said.

He continued,"If it weren't for throwing conniption fits, we wouldn't get any exercise at all. So here's a crazy idea: From now on, if you see or hear something you don't like in the media, just go on with your life."

In recent weeks, conservatives have held Maher's past sexist comments up as a kind of counter-example amid the controversy of Rush Limbaugh calling a Georgetown Law student a "slut."

Addressing Limbaugh, Maher said he finds him "obnoxious" but that he's been able to co-exist with him because "I don't listen to his program -- the only time I hear him is when I'm at a stoplight next to a pickup truck."

"I think we're like this because outside of the military, few of us really do anything for our country. So we need something to make us feel like we're making a contribution. And that that thing is, when given the chance, we help stop 'bad people' -- bad people like Hank Williams and Robert DeNiro and oh, occasionally Bill Maher," he said.