{"id":33400,"date":"2026-08-08T23:05:43","date_gmt":"2026-08-08T18:05:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=33400"},"modified":"2026-08-08T23:05:43","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T18:05:43","slug":"bill-mahers-joke-about-ariana-grandes-weight-draws-groans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=33400","title":{"rendered":"Bill Maher&#8217;s Joke About Ariana Grande&#8217;s Weight Draws Groans"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\t<a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/t\/bill-maher\/\" id=\"auto-tag_bill-maher\" data-tag=\"bill-maher\">Bill Maher<\/a> made a joke about <a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/t\/ariana-grande\/\" id=\"auto-tag_ariana-grande\" data-tag=\"ariana-grande\">Ariana Grande<\/a>\u2019s weight during Friday\u2019s episode of \u201cReal Time,\u201d and drew mixed reactions from his live audience.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\t\u201cI hope the aliens are here, I do. I hope they\u2019re here and watching us and they\u2019re going to save us,\u201d Maher said during his opening monologue. \u201cAnd, by the way, the administration this week, just a few days ago, maybe yesterday, unleashed a new trove of UFO files. Interesting things in there. Triangular craft, weird lights over an army base, a stick-like figure with large eyes. Oh, that was just an Ariana Grande video.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tThat joke landed, receiving laughs and applause from the crowd. However, the follow-up was met with gone-too-far groans: \u201cPlease, we kid. We kid. Maybe that joke will make her eat something.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-x wp-block-embed-x\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">The White House released a new wave of UFO files. Sightings include a triangular craft in the sky, high-speed orbs near an army base, and a stick-like figure with large eyes, but that was just Ariana Grande. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/buBBGk2Ze4\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">pic.twitter.com\/buBBGk2Ze4<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Bill Maher (@billmaher) <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/billmaher\/status\/2085926015193477317?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">August 8, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tOn Aug. 2, a rep for Grande announced that the multihyphenate is taking a <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/2026\/music\/news\/ariana-grande-step-back-public-scrutiny-sunday-in-the-park-1236826037\/\">\u201cstep back from visibility\u201d <\/a>after her Eternal Sunshine tour. The rep cited \u201congoing public scrutiny as one of the reasons for the break.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\t\u201cAriana will be taking a step back from visibility after she completes the Eternal Sunshine Tour,\u201d Grande\u2019s rep said. \u201cShe looks forward to finishing the tour and ending it on a high note, both healthily and happily, and then taking a much-deserved break from public-facing work and appearances, which has led to endless, ongoing public scrutiny. This tour has been a beautiful experience for her. She loves her fans and has loved every minute of this tour so much.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tDuring a performance at Chicago\u2019s United Center on Monday night, the \u201cWicked\u201d star further explained her motivations for stepping out of the spotlight.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\t\u201cSometimes when a story comes out that\u2019s not directly from me, things can get a little blown out of proportion. So I just wanted to speak to my fans directly tonight because I love you so much. The announcement that was made yesterday was not a reactive or impulsive thing,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/2026\/music\/news\/ariana-grande-clarifies-upcoming-break-planned-in-advance-1236827152\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Grande told the crowd<\/a>. \u201cIt is something that I had decided to plan that I had quietly made a long time ago and it\u2019s a decision that was made from a thoughtful and empowered place.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bill Maher made a joke about Ariana Grande\u2019s weight during Friday\u2019s episode of \u201cReal Time,\u201d and drew mixed reactions from his live audience. \u201cI hope the aliens are here, I do. I hope they\u2019re here and watching us and they\u2019re going to save us,\u201d Maher said during his opening monologue. \u201cAnd, by the way, the&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":33401,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/variety.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/MixCollage-08-Aug-2026-10-29-AM-2919.jpg?crop=26px%2C19px%2C1149px%2C645px&resize=1000%2C563","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33400","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pics-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33400","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=33400"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33400\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/33401"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=33400"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=33400"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=33400"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}