Comedian Bill Maher took a swipe at Rick Santorum and said the GOP was out of touch on gay rights during a Wednesday appearance on NBC's Tonight Show with Jay Leno.

When host Jay Leno asked Maher, the host of HBO's Real Time, his opinion on current GOP frontrunner Rick Santorum, Maher said Santorum “thinks life begins at erection.”

“There are people like that, who think life begins the second the sperm hits the hoo-ha, that, you know, before the man can even light a cigarette or get up and get a towel, there is a third person in that room,” Maher said. “Before the woman can even say, 'What are you thinking?' there is a third person in that room.”

Maher added that the GOP was stuck in a 2004 mindset on gay rights.

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

“Things have changed. It's not 2004. Americans have gotten a lot more comfortable with gay because of TV. Because of Glee, and Will & Grace, and Frasier – all these gay shows.” (The video is embedded in the right panel of this page. Visit our video library for more videos.)

(Related: Bill Maher claims Rick Santorum is obsessed with gay sex.)