Tim Allen Hints He's Done With Sitcoms as He Criticizes DEI Practices: 'It's Just Got to Be Funny'

Tim Allen isn’t exactly loving the direction TV comedy is taking these days.

On Monday, January 5, the 72-year-old actor sat down with Bill Maher on the "Club Random" podcast, where the two spoke candidly about diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) practices in Hollywood. According to both comedians, those policies have made sitcoms feel overly cautious and harder to create naturally.

During the conversation, Allen looked back on his long history in situation comedy and explained why he’s hesitant to return to the genre.

"My wife says, 'Why do you keep saying that?' And I said, 'Somebody told me I was like the Tom Brady of sitcoms.' When they asked me to do a third one, I said, ‘I thought they were kidding,’" Allen told Maher. "I don’t know whether my generation — because all the people that I know that I would make it with are either dead or not the right gender, you know, they’re all light-skinned European older men — and that doesn’t fit the DEI thing that everybody wanted. They wanted, you know, a potpourri of —"

Maher quickly jumped in with a suggestion, "DEI in the cast."

Allen, however, made it clear he didn’t want comedy to feel forced or performative.

"I didn’t want to get into that. I didn’t want to patronize people. If you’re going to do a sitcom, it’s just got to be funny. You got to have some drama," Allen said.

Maher agreed, noting that while diversity is important, it shouldn’t outweigh everything else creatively.

"Not everything in America has to look like Angelina Jolie's Christmas card, you know, sometimes, and it's always OK in reverse. You know, it's like if there's something where it's just an all-Black cast — and good, I'm all for it. I'm not complaining about it," he said.

The outspoken host has criticized DEI efforts before, often calling them surface-level solutions that don’t address deeper problems. During the episode, Maher pointed to CBS’ 2020 initiative to ensure at least 40 percent Black, Indigenous and people of color representation in writers’ rooms, with plans to raise that number to 50 percent, according to Variety.

"I thought, what if the show they’re writing is about a polka band in a ski town?" Maher joked.

He went on to argue that DEI mandates shouldn’t interfere with art.

"I love people of color, and I’m so glad that things are better than they used to be for people of color, but you know, it shouldn’t intrude on the creative process to the degree it has in this town," Maher said. "It has intruded on the creative process. And by the way, lots of people of color agree with that because they want the creative process to be pure, too."

The conversation comes amid broader political shifts. After President Donald Trump took office on January 20, 2025, he signed an executive order titled “Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing,” calling for the removal of DEIA mandates across federal agencies.

Trump has argued that these programs disadvantage America’s white majority. Since then, his administration has encouraged white men to report workplace discrimination.

That message was echoed by the acting chair of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

"Are you a white male who's experienced discrimination at work based on your race or s--?" Andrea Lucas wrote on X on Thursday, January 1.

"You may have a claim to recover money under federal civil rights laws," she added. "The EEOC is committed to identifying, attacking, and eliminating ALL race and s-- discrimination -- including against white male employees and applicants."

Under Lucas’ leadership, the EEOC also said it is investigating employers accused of favoring migrant or guest workers over American citizens.

"Many employers have policies and practices preferring illegal aliens, migrant workers, or non-immigrant guest workers (guest worker visa holders) over American workers — in direct violation of federal employment law," she said in a statement last month.