Pundit of “edgy,” Bill Maher resumed hosting his HBO show Real Time last night. Bill was recently castigated by just about everyone and their nana for dropping the n-word.

Bill was hoping to show that he’s salvageable as a human being, so he had Ice Cube on as a guest last night. Ice declared that he was “cool” with Bill. So maybe Bill can get some sleep now. According to Pitchfork:

“I did a bad thing. For black folks, that word, I don’t care who you are, it’s caused pain. It doesn’t matter that it was not said in malice, it caused pain and that’s why I apologized.”

However, Ice still clued him on a few things. He noted that just because Bill dates women of color does not give him a pass to employ racial perjoratives for snark purposes. Take notes, Bill.

I accept your apology, but I think we need to get to the root of the psyche. Because I think it’s a lot of guys out there, who cross the line ‘cause they a little too familiar or they think they too familiar. Or its guys that y’know, might have a black girlfriend or two that made them some Kool-Aid every now and then. And they think they can cross the line. And they can’t. It’s a word that’s been used against us. It’s like a knife, man. You can use it as a weapon or you can use it as a tool. It’s been used as a weapon, against us. By white people. And we not gon’ let that happen again. By nobody. Because it’s not cool.

Bill wasn’t exactly punished by HBO, so he got off with an apology and Ice Cube making him feel guilty and awkward. Ice Cube is kind of a badass when he’s not doing crappy movies about taking cross-country trips with rambunctious children. So Bill was lucky that he had ID on him.

Here’s Ice Cube and his explanation, below.

Pic: YouTube