Bill Maher dismisses speculation of quitting HBO show: 'Have to drag me off'

Maher told CNN anchor Jake Tapper on Friday that although he's probably going to retire from doing stand-up tours, he's not stepping down from his popular Friday night show. If anything, he'll have to be forced out.

"I don't know where this started about I'm getting rid of 'Real Time.' I - they're going to have to drag me off of that show," he said.

"I may quit because I don't want to do another. I did Trump. I did all the Trump stuff before anybody. I called him a con man before anybody. I did. He's a mafia boss. I was the one who said he wasn't going to concede the election. I've done it."

During Friday night's episode of CNN's "The Lead," Tapper asked Maher about the quote, assuming he meant quitting his show. The anchor said, "But there's talk promulgated by you about maybe you quitting the HBO show-"

"No," the HBO host interjected.  Tapper followed-up, adding, "Well, you said something to Jane Fonda about - about thinking about that. Where are you in your career? You still got a lot of good stand-up, a lot of good jokes in you, right? Like what - tell us what - what's next?"

Maher admitted that he's planning on quitting stand-up because he's tired of touring and has too many other things going on. 

"OK. I am stopping doing stand-up, just because I'm tired of touring, just because I've been doing it for 40 years. I love it," he said. 

He then clarified what he said to Fonda during his show - that he simply doesn't want to cover Trump again.

"What I was saying was that I didn't want to do another Trump term. Not just because I don't think it's going to be possibly a great time for America. Maybe again, not going to pre-hate anything, but because I've already done all the jokes about Donald Trump."

Maher added, "I don't know what else to say about the guy. But of course, he will provide us with a lot of new material. And I'll get into it, but I was hoping that in the episodic television show that is America, I was hoping for some new characters."