Al Franken Out, Michael Eric Dyson in for Bill Maher Show After N Word Incident

U.S. Sen. Al Franken has canceled his appearance on HBO's Real Time With Bill Maher, scheduled for this Friday, because of Maher's use of the n word on last week's program -- and he's being replaced by African-American author, academic, and activist Michael Eric Dyson, who has defended Maher.

And now Maher, no stranger to controversy, has said he'd be open to having gay alt-right troll Milo Yiannopoulos on the show again.

Regarding Franken's cancellation, "Senator Franken believes that what Bill Maher said was inappropriate and offensive, which is why he made the decision not to appear on the next episode of Real Time," a spokesman for Franken, a Minnesota Democrat, told Variety. "He was glad to see Bill, who the senator considers to be a good friend, apologize and express sincere regret for his comment."

On last Friday's show, when Republican U.S. Sen. Ben Sasse invited Maher to "work in the fields" in Sasse's home state of Nebraska, Maher replied "Work in the fields? Senator, I'm a house n---er." After gasps from the audience, he said, "No, it's a joke." He quickly apologized.

The remark has led gay Black Lives Matter activist DeRay Mckesson and others to call for the show's cancellation. But Dyson, while not endorsing Maher's use of the word, praised him as an antiracism activist in this tweet:

Maher has been involved in several other controversies. Earlier this year, he invited Yiannopoulos to be on Real Time and called him a "little impish British fag," adding that liberals shouldn't be so upset by Yiannopoulos's generally inflammatory rhetoric. Journalist Jeremy Scahill canceled an appearance on the show because of Yiannopoulos's presence. Last year Maher said the fight for transgender rights should wait until after the presidential election.

In an Esquire interview published online today and apparently done before the n word incident, Maher said he'd be open to having Yiannopoulos on Real Time again. Yiannopoulos has a history of racially offensive and anti-transgender comments, and he lost his job as Breitbart tech editor and a book deal after a video surfaced in which he appeared to endorse sexual relationships between adults and teens, and made light of sexual assault.

Maher told Esquire that having Yiannopoulos on Real Time in February "could not have played out any better, because within forty-eight hours he had lost all his jobs." He added, "I actually want to have him back. I don't think he would be that hard to bring around to a much more reasonable position."

Maher also defended having guests such as incendiary right-wing columnist Ann Coulter. She "is a Trump backer and a backer of everyone who is wrong," he told Esquire. "And she's wrong on every issue. And her books are horrible venom. But that's the system we live in. Should we stop people from talking who we don't agree with?"