Posted in: Movies | Tagged: al franken, Bill Maher, Bob Saget, Fuller House

Fuller House Star Bob Saget, Bill Maher in Hot Water for Mocking Al Franken Grope Photo

Published Fri, 05 Jan 2018 09:23:00 -0600

Comedian Bill Maher has gotten himself in trouble again, and this time, he's dragging Fuller House star Bob Saget down with him. The HBO host was on a plane with the TV dad when the pair apparently decided to reenact disgraced Senator Al Franken's infamous groping photo, in which Franken groped the breasts of entertainer Leeann Tweeden while she was asleep on a plane during a USO tour. Tweeden also accused Franken of forcing a kiss on her during a rehearsal, along with other derogatory behavior and harassment. Though Franken disputed some of the details of the events, he ultimately resigned from the Senate.

That's the context in which Maher and Saget decided to pose for the following photo, with Saget sleeping, or pretending to be asleep, as Maher pretends to grope his ample man-breasts. Maher posted the photo to social media, and Saget retweeted it.

These New Years Hawaii trips are getting weird – Saget, forgive me! pic.twitter.com/UgehBTmIUv

— Bill Maher (@billmaher) January 4, 2018

The photo sparked a number of offended responses, accusing the photo of mocking the victim of sexual assault, including a now-deleted tweet from Tamara Holder which read, "Dear @billmaher & @bobsaget: I have been a big fan of yours my entire life. This post is tone deaf, clueless, and insulting to women who don't find this kind of behavior funny. I'm happy you found two women on the plane to laugh at you because they're the only ones." Some responses defended the joke, or simply laughed at it.

#metoo #timesup

— Tamara Holder (@tamaraholder) January 4, 2018

Neither Maher nor Saget have addressed the controversy as of press time. This isn't the first time Maher has found himself in hot water, coming under fire in 2017 both for inviting alt-right troll Milo Yiannopoulos on his show for an on-screen love-fest and for dropping the n-word during a comedy routine on his HBO show. Saget, whose comedy has always skewed raunchy, subverting his wholesome sitcom image, said in November, following the explosion of the #MeToo movement, that he would take back some of his past "bawdy" jokes given current developments.

Comedian Dave Chapelle also recently came under fire for mocking sexual assault victims, calling the victims of Louis C.K. "brittle" during his latest Netflix special.

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