Bella Thorne's fans are slamming comedian Bill Maher after he asked her to tell a joke about her dead father and made light of her anxiety.
During an appearance on Maher's podcast Club Random, the host lived up to his promise to talk about anything and everything by quizzing Thorne on a wide range of topics
Maher got the star talking about "distractions" in bed and her politically incorrect dog-naming process before opting for something a little more shocking and asking her to make a "dead dad joke".
Thorne's father was killed in a 2007 car crash when she was just nine years old. When she mentioned to Maher that she used laughter as a coping mechanism, the comedian asked her to prove it by drawing on her dad's death.
"Give me a dead dad joke, come on," he said.
Thorne - who was clearly taken aback - responded, saying: "No, no, no... It's not like I have a literal dead dad joke... It's more that there's conversations being had and there's an opportunity to you know... make a dead dad joke."
But Maher didn't stop there. Elsewhere in their one-to-one chat, the comedian shut Thorne down when she opened up about her "crippling anxiety" saying: "What is it with you kids and anxiety?"
"You don’t know what the f*** is going on in the world! What are you upset about? What is the world's problem?" the 66-year-old joked.
Thorne responded: "I think it’s definitely things that we know what’s going on. We don’t always necessarily always know the full story 100 percent, but yeah we’re seeing it, we’re hearing it, [and] we’re vocal about it."
Since the podcast episode was released, many have taken to Twitter to slam Maher for his insensitive interviewing.
"It's truly low to poke fun at someone's emotional and mental struggles," one person tweeted, while another wrote: "THIS is disgusting. Show some damn empathy."
Another expressed their sympathy to Thorne, writing: "How did you not punch @billmaher in the face in that interview?! He’s a pig. I can’t believe you didn’t walk out."
A fourth person expressed how "as someone who has struggled with depression and anxiety for most of my life, this makes me incredibly angry," adding: "How dare he."