Guess What Mayor Menino Had to Say About Bill Maher’s Marathon Comments

HBO

Well, it’s exactly one day after Boston noticed that seven days ago, Severus Snape impersonator Bill Maher said something insensitive and flippant about the Boston Marathon attacks. Things are playing out pretty much right on schedule.

On the HBO show he hosts, Maher brought up the moment during the parade when the Red Sox World Series trophy was placed on the Boston Marathon finish line. “It was again, a bad day, three people died, that’s terrible,” Maher said. “More were maimed, that’s horrible, but unfortunately that happens every day, in car accidents and everything else. I mean, you city was not leveled by Godzilla.”

There’s a few things you can depend on whenever someone invokes public outrage in our fair city, and one of those things is a rebuke from City Hall. (See: Rolling Stone-gate, or Hamilton Nolan rebuttals.) Thus did Mayor Menino step up to the plate this morning to hit the softball Maher pitched him right out of the park:

“It’s very irresponsible,” Menino said. “It’s an irresponsible statement and I think he should be taken to task for that.”

Step two, usually, is to invite the enemy to Boston where they can experience our [tourism Bureau talking points and/or strength of character.] There, too, things played out according to plan.

“He doesn’t know what he’s talking about, come to Boston, visit Boston and see what a strong city we are.”

Menino’s invitation aside, we imagine there’s no chance Maher is going to take a walk down Boylston Street in the next month or so, much less apologize. But that’s why there’s Step 3: as in all instances of offense, Boston will resume not thinking about Bill Maher soon enough.