HBO comedian Bill Maher on Wednesday explained that Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum was gaining in popularity because GOP voters “hadn’t gotten the memo” that the country was moving past social issues.

“What do you make of Rick Santorum’s surge?” NBC host Jay Leno asked Maher.

“Oh, don’t even say that word around Rick Santorum,” Maher replied, referring to the popular redefinition of the candidate’s name. “It sounds dirty.”

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“He’s a little conservative for me,” Maher continued. “He thinks life begins at erection. … You know there are people like that? Life begins the second the sperm hits the hooha, before the man can even light a cigarette or can get up and get a towel, there is a third person in that room.”

“Or the woman goes, ‘That’s it?'” Leno agreed.

“I think it’s funny that this election, you know, up until recently, it was going to be an election all about money, deficits and jobs and the deficit and the spending,” Maher observed. “This is what the tea party was so upset about, right? Weren’t they mad at the bankers and the bailouts? And then, you know, somebody shoves a big gay penis in their face and they jump at it.”

“Somehow these social issues like Prop 8 here in California and birth control — and I mean, Rick Santorum is certainly perceived as as anti-gay. And I guess the Republicans haven’t gotten the memo that this country has changed since like 2004.”

Watch this video from NBC’s Tonight Show, broadcast Feb. 15, 2012.

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(H/T: Gawker)