I ask this in particular after this particular cognitohazard dropped:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWuNv6cv27o
is the most condescendingly toxic kind of Reddit New Atheist and has made that part of his brand for decades, so that already rules out most religious people that don't just see religion as some sort of country club gathering.
He has the same creepy misanthropic view of children, where he holds them in contempt and clearly wants to violate them too, that a lot of kiddie-creeping boomers do, so that probably rules out most people significantly younger than him unless he's directly throwing money at them and they're accepting it.
He believes in (or at least professes belief for profit) a lot of Qanon shit, in particular against trans people, so that even rules out a lot of wine liberals that I assume would otherwise clink wine glasses to his smuglord quips.
He's just about definitive Blue MAGA, which red MAGA despises anyway, so he isn't likely to have much a fandom there outside of fickle "he is one of the good ones" gimmicks where he might show up on a chud podcast or something sometimes.
I truly don't know and I'm sincerely asking: what demographic is left with all of that (and more) carved out that might like that particular piece of shit? What's his revenue source besides being rich already?
jaded, nihilistic 35-55 white male fuckups who confuse being smug with being clever. they are responding to the foreclosure on the promise of the Obama campaign in '08 by literally wiping their ass on everything. but of course dutifully supporting Team Blue because "no alternative is possible."
too busy getting high and watching Rick and Morty to read anything, but watches cable news a lot "to be informed".
they are exhibit A in "what no theory and constant capitalist propaganda does to an em eff".
it breaks your brain.
In my experience, South Park's rise and persistence coincides with people around my age, old enough to have consumed it as their primary source of entertainment (and propaganda) in their impressionable teenage years and definitely became those jaded, nihilistic white male fuckups who confuse being smug with being clever that you mentioned.
And it shows. Some of my former coworkers quoted that shit nonstop as if college never ended.
In their own words, some of them "upgraded" to that, yeah.
They call themselves "nonpolitical" "centrist" or sometimes "as progressive as they come" (which to them means they like weed and talk about le sexy sex constantly, including to deeply uncomfortable audiences) which does sound like a bunch of
sporelings, now that I think about it.
i know a guy that is in the demo. we used to be closer and talk about all the things as newly minted young adults, but his life slowly, over the period of a decade, began to revolve exclusively around consuming cable TV. because it requires no effort, unlike using the internet or a streaming service. power on: channel flip until haha or booba.
eventually, talking to him became like interfacing with a random generator of CNN talking points and smug bill maher rejoinders.
i remember vividly once, we hadn't seen each other in a year and the topic veered into the realm of nostalgia as a consumer product (not just a marketing strategy) and i was asking if he had heard of Hauntology (the latter music application), but he cut that off to ask if i had seen some episode of South Park "about this" and i said i hadn't seen it and had not kept up with the show much at all. and he just said, "oh, it's really funny" but couldn't really explain why it was funny or what the connection was and seemed too upset by this revelation--that i don't watch south park--to talk about it anymore. i didn't even say it sucked (though it does). i just said i had been more focused on grad school studies and stuff going on in my community (we live several hundred miles away from each other now).
anyway, i think what bill maher does for these people is give them the satisfaction of feeling superior to people who are a.) republicans and b.) people who expend effort to make the world less shitty. it does this by loading them up with thought-terminating cliches to regurgitate smugly when their ignorant confidence is challenged by unfamiliar framing.
and, i could be wrong, because i actively avoid hearing bill maher's voice, but i seem to recall his shows are always recorded with an audience of clapping/laughing fools. that's how TV personalities cement themselves as having mass appeal. never under estimate the power of a scripted "... and then everyone laughed" on the viewers at home.