Kathy Griffin has had a really bad week.

Bill Maher, apparently, can’t take the competition.

Actually, the early responses to Maher’s latest delve into the idiotic are the stuff of alternate realities.

Namely, he uttered a racial slur on his HBO program, “Real Time” on Friday night, and his guest, Nebraska Senator Ben Sasse (the coolest man in the Senate) gets to catch all the heat for it.

Sasse appeared with Maher to talk about his new book, “The Vanishing American Adult.”

At one point, he invited Maher to come to Nebraska to experience the life, work in the fields.

Maher, feeling this would be the edgiest comedic move since fake, bloody presidential heads, feigned outrage and referred to himself as a “house ni**a.”

I’m thinking the response caught Senator Sasse quite off guard, as he smiled, uncomfortably.

Of course, Maher’s audience laughed and applauded, perfectly fine with it. They’ve apparently come to expect the idiotic out of him.

https://twitter.com/TEN_GOP/status/870833397865869312

The left, of course, took aim at Sasse, pointing out that he smiled.

Truly, there was a more appropriate way to respond to the kind of crass language used by Maher, but when you’re on someone else’s turf, and you are faced with something you absolutely did not expect, the immediate reactions are not always what we would prefer.

To that point, Senator Sasse tweeted out this explanation this morning:

Am walking off a redeye from LAX.
3 reflections on @billmaher
1. I’m a 1st Amendment absolutist. Comedians get latitude to cross hard lines.

— Ben Sasse (@BenSasse) June 3, 2017

2. But free speech comes with a responsibility to speak up when folks use that word. Me just cringing last night wasn’t good enough.
(2of4?) https://t.co/e4Bw8s8tV2

— Ben Sasse (@BenSasse) June 3, 2017

3. Here’s what I wish I’d been quick enough to say in the moment: “Hold up, why would you think it’s OK to use that word?…
(3of4?) https://t.co/mQL6wMEd7W

— Ben Sasse (@BenSasse) June 3, 2017

(4of4)
"…The history of the n-word is an attack on universal human dignity. It’s therefore an attack on the American Creed. Don't use it.” https://t.co/kEZm5vPFHK

— Ben Sasse (@BenSasse) June 3, 2017

Sasse didn’t owe anyone an explanation for his reaction last night, and he can second guess himself endlessly, but this is not on him. The weight of this belongs with Bill Maher.