Gaming community blasts comedian Bill Maher for calling Twitch a “waste of time”

American comedian and television host Bill Maher decided to take a shot at Twitch viewers during his “Real Time with Bill Maher” show, leading the gaming community and industry to tear him a new one across social media.

Although Twitch and gaming continue to grow at a wild pace, the industry can’t please everyone — and, apparently, can’t please Bill Maher (or his show’s writers). During a recent segment of his talk show, the host took the opportunity to aim his sights at the Twitch streaming world.

While discussing technological literacy, comparing 80-year-olds who can’t use phones to younger people who can’t get off of theirs, Maher turned his attention to Twitch. Unsurprisingly, a clip of him bashing the streaming platform’s viewers then got massive traction on social media, with gamers unhappily responding.

Posted by accounts like DefNoodles and Jake Lucky, the Maher video quickly became overwhelmed with backlash from random fans alongside popular figures like Alanah Pearce, Team Liquid’s Juan ‘hungrybox’ Debiedma, Gladd, and even The Needle Drop’s Anthony Fantano.

After complaining about people being on their phone too much, Maher moves to those who watch streamers: “Maybe I get Twitch, but I just think people watching other people playing video games is a waste of f**king time.”

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Pearce, a game writer and developer, responds to the video similarly to the majority of fans: “Watching Bill Maher is a waste of f**king time.” While known better for his music critiques than his gaming, Fantano chimed in with the exact same response.

As for people on the streaming side of things, Liquid’s Hbox decided to gauge his community’s sentiments. The Super Smash Bros. Melee champion and streamer opted to quote-tweet with a colorfully worded request.

Based on thousands of retweets, it’s obvious that a number of people agree with Hbox and, in their experience, have “been more entertained by a Twitch streamer than s**tty late night talk show hosts.”

Conversely, another streamer, Gladd, took things in a different direction.

While one has to imagine that Gladd is being sarcastic and making a point about how little Maher’s opinion impacts him, it’s clear that the community is not pleased with the host’s comments.

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One also can’t help but be reminded of a popular saying, that goes for both fans of Maher and fans of Twitch: “The time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time.”