Bill Maher praised podcaster Joe Rogan as the Larry King of his generation.

Maher made the comment on the Sunday edition of his podcast Club Random with Bill Maher where he sat down with fellow comedian Kathy Griffin. At one point during their conversation the topic of Larry King arose.

“There isn’t a show anything like Larry King anymore. I’m actually surprised. I thought they should have given that hour to Anderson Cooper. I thought he could have carried on that legacy beautifully if you wanted that six o’clock hour,” Griffin said.

“I would argue that Joe Rogan is not like Larry King, but it’s — every generation has its own iteration of that. And certainly there are differences, but huge audience. Bigger than Larry King ever was,” Maher said.

Griffin noted that King would sometimes give softball interviews.

“I feel like Joe Rogan does that. Not softball necessarily, but he’s not looking for a fight and he is willing to open the mic to people,” Maher said. “Even the ones that the establishment of some kind or another says, ‘How dare you let that person speak.'”

Griffin asked why Rogan wouldn’t be considered “establishment,” while Maher noted that Rogan has credentials and an open mind for having guests on.

“I would say he is our generation’s Larry King in the same way that there was (Johnny) Carson and then (David) Letterman, (Jay) Leno, and then it moved to (Jimmy) Fallon. I mean, it was the… that show has evolved quite a bit,” Maher said.

As the conversation continued, Maher said Rogan has earned it.

“…What Joe does, he kind of opens that mic like Larry did. Elon Musk will do that show and like the biggest people in the world because they know of the reach. And I just think also Joe earned that. It’s like this is just a regular guy smarter than the average bear, but is not gonna be intimidated first of all by you saying, don’t platform this guy or don’t listen to this and will let anybody speak and usually has a common sense view of it, of his own. You know, he’s a little to the right of where I am on things,” Maher said.

Watch above via Club Random with Bill Maher.

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