During Monday’s episode of Maher’s “Club Random” podcast, the two entertainers framed diversity, equity and inclusion practices as obstacles to the creative process in Hollywood.
Allen kicked off the conversation by recounting how his long sitcom career collided with modern casting expectations after producers floated the idea of another show.
“My wife says, ‘Why do you keep saying that?’ And I said, ‘Somebody told me I was like the Tom Brady of sitcoms.’ When they asked me to do a third one, I said, ‘I thought they were kidding,’” Allen recalled.
He described an industry culture that now treats casting like a checklist rather than a comedy lab.
"Not everything in America has to look like Angelina Jolie's Christmas card!" Tim Allen and Bill Maher aren't holding back in a new interview, calling out DEI practices in Hollywood. Link below for details. (🎥: YOUTUBE)https://t.co/e37VKESDrk pic.twitter.com/FnAQRKivx9
— Radar Online (@radar_online) January 7, 2026
“I don’t know whether my generation — because all the people that I know that I would make it with are either dead or not the right gender, you know, they’re all light-skinned European older men — and that doesn’t fit the DEI thing that everybody wanted. They wanted, you know, a potpourri of —” Allen said before trailing off.
Maher jumped in to clarify that diversity could exist without dictating every creative decision, tossing out the idea that producers could simply have “DEI in the cast.”
Allen made clear that his frustration was not aimed at inclusion itself, but at what he viewed as forced choices that feel artificial on screen.
“I didn’t want to get into that. I didn’t want to patronize people. If you’re going to do a sitcom, it’s just got to be funny. You got to have some drama,” Allen added.
Maher nodded along, calling diversity “a great virtue” while insisting it cannot be the only standard driving entertainment.
“Not everything in America has to look like Angelina Jolie’s Christmas card, you know, sometimes, and it’s always OK in reverse,” Maher remarked, adding that no one blinks when a show features “an all-Black cast — and good, I’m all for it. I’m not complaining about it.”
The exchange fit squarely into Maher’s long-running critique of DEI as hollow symbolism that looks good on paper while doing little to heal real divisions.
He pointed to a corporate push inside television writers’ rooms, recalling a network initiative that set numerical diversity targets regardless of subject matter.
“I thought, what if the show they’re writing is about a polka band in a ski town?” Maher joked, framing the policy as disconnected from reality.
From there, Maher argued that creativity suffers when ideology barges into the writers’ room uninvited.
“I love people of color, and I’m so glad that things are better than they used to be for people of color, but you know, it shouldn’t intrude on the creative process to the degree it has in this town,” Maher said.
“It has intruded on the creative process. And by the way, lots of people of color agree with that because they want the creative process to be pure, too.”
As the podcast rolled on, the duo turned their attention to climate activism and what they portrayed as performative environmentalism.
Maher referenced a previous “Real Time with Bill Maher” segment where he blasted celebrities and politicians who preach carbon reduction while flying on private jets.
Allen questioned the effectiveness of modern climate messaging, arguing that even the phrase itself discourages action.
“Climate change” is such a “broad” term that it leaves people frozen rather than motivated, Allen argued.
Maher framed himself as an environmentalist who has grown skeptical of symbolic gestures.
“I would like to think I’m still an environmentalist. I certainly think there is an environmental crisis, but I was saying we have tried for 50 years to try the method of shaming people into doing what’s right,” Maher commented. “Plainly, that doesn’t work on Americans.”
Tim Allen: "Climate change is real… What can I do about it? Use less plastic. I put solar on my house…"
Bill Maher: "Well, all that bullshit that you did, Tim, didn’t add up to one millionth of the trips you’ve taken on that [private plane]."pic.twitter.com/aaCIYzXIog
— Joe Rogan Podcast News (@joeroganhq) January 5, 2026
Allen brought Arnold Schwarzenegger into the debate, crediting the actor for cutting through what he sees as fuzzy language.
“You know who said it best was the Terminator, [Arnold] Schwarzenegger … ‘Nobody gives a shit about climate change …’ Pause. ‘Pollution, we understand,’” Allen noted. “The word climate change is so broad … You can handle pollution.”
Allen listed his own attempts to reduce his footprint, from installing solar panels to cutting plastic use, while acknowledging the limits.
“Well, all that bullshit that you did, Tim, didn’t add up to one millionth of the trips you’ve taken,” Maher snapped.
When Allen pushed back against what he called “private plane shaming,” Maher explained that hypocrisy was exactly his point.
“I was saying, like, we have tried this. I’m an environmentalist. I believe it’s a problem, but using a cloth bag is not going to fix it,” Maher stated.
“And the plastic, by the way, that everyone separates, like 95% of it winds up where it was going to anyway, which is the ocean. So, just don’t f–k with me.”
Maher described flashing images of celebrity environmental advocates boarding private jets, dismissing the idea that individual guilt trips change anything.
“So, like, as long as there’s 6,000 flights a day, me doing one more, I’m sorry,” Maher continued. “I’m not going to be on [Greta Thunberg’s] sailboat, okay?”
Allen circled back to Schwarzenegger’s framing, arguing that people shut down when problems feel too abstract.
“Give me a problem I can deal with. With the wording ‘climate change,’ it makes everybody feel helpless,” Allen pointed out. “And it’s nothing like feeling helpless to get people to do nothing.”
“[I]f you’re not going to do something that practically works, then we’re just fucking jerking each other off, putting the plastic in a separate bag,” Maher said.
LOVE THIS! Tim Allen tells Bill Maher he had a private dinner with Donald Trump years ago and found him to be a very good listener, and very funny.
“I met the dude at a dinner with his wife, who was genuinely a wonderful person… He’s a genuine one of the guys. He’s a good… pic.twitter.com/k0AEWqaCkm
— David J Harris Jr (@DavidJHarrisJr) January 5, 2026
The conversation eventually drifted toward business, with Allen recalling a past discussion with President Trump about movie financing.
Allen described explaining the brutal math of Hollywood to Trump, from production budgets to marketing costs.
“He says, ‘If we got a studio together, let’s say the movie costs a million six or a million twenty,’” Allen recalled, before walking Trump through the risks.
When Trump realized a bad movie leaves nothing tangible behind, Allen remembered the moment clearly.
“He says, ‘If I buy a bad building and it won’t sell, I still have the f—ing building. If you have a sh—y movie…’” Allen said, explaining why Trump quickly lost interest.
Watch the full episode of “Club Random” here: