Kevin Smith addressed Bill Maher's negative comments on Stan Lee this week. Maher came under fire last week for trashing Lee's legacy and accusing comic book fans of dumbing down our society. He stated that Lee influenced people to watch movies and declared that comic book readers were the reason Donald Trump got elected. Instead of apologizing, Maher doubled down on his comments, noting that all of the controversy was proving his point. Obviously, Maher's words have not sat well with comic book fans.

When discussing Bill Maher and his divisive comments, Kevin Smith took the high road and focused on Stan Lee and all of the good that he did for the world. Smith talked about Stan Lee's passing on his Hollywood Babble-On podcast. Obviously, Smith used a lot of colorful language when talking about Maher's comments, but he didn't attack the comedian at all. He had this to say.

"Just taking a shot when no shots are f*ckin' necessary. And like, this guy, he did so f*ckin' much for this world. He put so many smiles on people's faces. He launched imaginations. He made kids feel part of something. He made adults feel part of something. He was a whole good. Everything about him was f*ckin' good. He was sweet, he was nice, anything you ever heard that was negative, honestly, was f*ckin' horsesh*t, made up. He was a great man, I'll miss him all of my days."

Stan Lee's POW! Entertainment released a statement in response to Bill Maher, which summed everything up perfectly, and they didn't attack Maher either. Kevin Smith's reaction was to take something negative and make something positive out of it, which is what Lee would have wanted in the first place. Smith and Lee had a long friendship, so it makes sense that the director/writer would take the high road and not feed into the negativity.

While Kevin Smith and Stan Lee were good friends, they hadn't seen each other in close to a year. Lee had a pretty tumultuous year, and Smith revealed that he was supposed to go see him the week that he passed away. Lee had a pretty amazing cameo in Smith's 1995 cult classic Mallrats, and according to the director, Lee was always asking when they were going to make another movie together. Smith said that Lee's people reached out and told him that Lee wanted to see him, but the meeting never took place.

Bill Maher's negative words about comic book fans has opened an interesting dialog, but mostly it has shown Maher get bashed on social media by passionate fans for attacking them and Stan Lee. Maher is allowed to have his own opinion, but to ignore all the good that Lee did for the world isn't fair. Looking at how many kids learned to read because of Lee and his creations is a big enough accomplishment on its own, never mind all of the other great things that Lee contributed to society. You can listen to Kevin Smith's comments over at the Hollywood Babble-On Podcast.