Bill Maher Reflected on Matthew Perry’s Death on This Week’s “Real Time”

A little less than two years ago, Matthew Perry joined Bill Maher on the set of Real Time for a candid conversation about Perry’s struggles with addiction and his memoir. It was a memorable interview, both for what Perry was saying and for Maher’s admiration for Perry’s onscreen work. Maher believed that the best parts of Perry’s career were still to come.

Sadly, that prediction would prove inaccurate. Eleven months after his Real Time appearance, Perry died. In the months since then, more details have emerged about how this happened. And on this week’s Real Time, Maher closed out the episode with a segment that channeled his anger at the death of his friend along with his frustrations with the medical establishment — something that’s a recurring theme for Maher.

“Doctors have killed more rock stars than twin-engine planes,” Maher said, pointing to the deaths of Prince, Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson, and Tom Petty. He went on to cite an even more alarming figure: the billions of pills prescribed that have led to overdoses.

Maher also pointed to pop culture depictions of doctors. “If doctors really were so infallible, why are there so many shows about an eccentric genius doctor constantly proving all the other doctors are idiots?” he asked. He then riffed on pharmaceutical ads on TV and the implications of the phrase “ask your doctor” in these ads.

Eventually, Maher returned to a more specific topic: the details that have emerged regarding Matthew Perry’s death. “Matthew and I weren’t super-close, but he was enough of a friend — and enough of a good guy — to make me very angry when I read about all his enablers,” Maher said. He went on to discuss Perry’s memoir and his position as an especially prominent celebrity who’d spoken about his addictions. “If that guy comes to you for help,” Maher said, “maybe don’t give him more drugs.”

He also reserved some of his ire for the growing phenomenon of ketamine prescribed online. He described this as “doctors prescribing dangerous substances to people they’ve never met over Zoom.” It was a more passionate turn than Maher usually takes in these segments, but under the circumstances, it felt entirely understandable.

Other notable moments from the episode included Bill Maher expressing his lack of enthusiasm for “What would you do on day one?” questions to presidential candidates. On the topic of former president Donald Trump, Maher quipped, “Have you ever wondered what Donald Trump is like in real life? Tony Soprano without the introspection.”

House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi discussed her new book, The Art of Power, stating, “It’s a report on some things. I’ll do a memoir later.” Pelosi struck a few bipartisan chords in her interview, saying, “I think that it’s necessary for our country for us to move in a unified direction — to take us back to a place where we disagreed, but we were patriotic and loved our country.” She went on to praise Reagan’s farewell address on immigration and Theodore Roosevelt’s allusions to “the arena.”

The New York Times’ John McWhorter and Puck’s Peter Hamby joined Maher for the panel discussion. McWhorter’s expertise in language led to a few insightful takes on how candidates speak on the trail: “It’s a kind of music, and you have to listen to it in that way.”

The trio also discussed the arrest of Telegram’s founder, Pavel Durov. Maher commented on Musk’s Twitter, saying, “This is a bathroom wall, and it’s not my job to clean it.” Hamby pointed out that the Durov arrest went beyond a simple free speech issue, explaining, “There’s a grey area.”

For the record, both Hamby and Maher believe that Pete Rose should be in the Baseball Hall of Fame. Maher also commented on a child who accidentally broke an ancient pot in a museum, stating, “Don’t drag a four-year-old to a museum and make him look at decorative pots. Let him break decorative pots where all the other kids do it — at Marshall’s.”

Lastly, Bill Maher expressed bafflement at the existence of mayonnaise-themed perfume, a sentiment shared by many.