Television host Bill Maher. (THE ASSOCIATED PRESS/Dan Steinberg)

TORONTO - If it seems like David Letterman's fellow comedians have let him off the hook in the wake of his recent sex-with-staffers confession, they have, agrees Bill Maher.

But no more than the rest of us, who have largely looked the other way, he adds. "People tend to like you if you make them laugh," says Maher, "and so the audience is very forgiving."

The comedian and political satirist was in Toronto this week helping to promote the first anniversary of HBO Canada, which airs his political roundtable series, "Real Time with Bill Maher."

It just concluded its seventh season, with an eighth beginning in February.

Save for a few next day remarks from Jay Leno and Jimmy Fallon, and one comically nervous opening monologue from Craig Ferguson - whose CBS "Late Late Show" is produced by Letterman's Worldwide Pants Inc. - the boys club of late night talk show hosts have been uncharacteristically silent on the celebrity scandal, which they would normally milk for every laugh.

Seth Myers, the Weekend Update anchor for "Saturday Night Live," did joke about the attempted extortion of Letterman, calling it a "stupid human trick," but there have been no jibes from take-no-prisoner peers like Jimmy Kimmel.

In fact, the ABC host had Letterman's "Late Show" band leader Paul Shaffer on his show this week, where he sat in with Kimmel's house band "Cleto and the Cletones" and promoted his just-released autobiography, "We'll Be Here for the Rest of Our Lives: A Swingin' Showbiz Saga."

Maher points out that Letterman has done a pretty good job of diffusing the story himself, joking shortly after the admission, for example, that it will now be impossible for him to poke fun at favourite bad boy targets like Bill Clinton and former New York governor Eliot Spitzer.

But Maher also suggested that the intimate nature of late night television has helped viewers quickly forgive Letterman for his faux pas.

"People think they know him," says Maher. "It's not like a movie star who's remote or a politician who's even more remote - that's like somebody you have to keep an eye on."

Letterman, says Maher, is "somebody who comes into your bedroom at 11:30 at night, and you're watching between your toes. He's like your friend. And Dave has just built up an inordinate amount of goodwill over the years."

Letterman's media absolution is reminiscent of other popular TV personalities who were allegedly caught with their pants down.

Civil charges of extra-marital affairs have dogged Bill Cosby for years, damaging his fatherly TV image but barely denting his legendary status as a comedian.

Regis Philbin, the frequent butt of Letterman jokes, had to live down reports of philandering over a decade ago. He went on to his highest levels of popularity ever as host of "Who Wants to be a Millionaire."

Maher, a lifelong bachelor who is a familiar face at the Playboy mansion, has been affectionately referred to as a "Bible-dissing, PETA-loving pot smoker" by Rolling Stone magazine. The 53-year-old comedian, who has weathered his own sexual harassment suit, expects he'll never face a Letterman-style image problem.

"That's one good thing about my image - I never had a good one to begin with," he says. "There's almost nothing I can't do."

His next HBO comedy special, "I'm Not Wrong," comes to HBO Canada in February.

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Bill Brioux is a freelance TV columnist based in Brampton, Ont.