Adam Carolla Schools Bill Maher On Gavin Newsom’s ‘Deep Knee Cross’ — It's Peak Liberal Signaling

Look at the legs to determine how big of a LIB they're trying to be. 

That's the message from Adam Carolla to Bill Maher during the latest edition of the "Club Random" podcast where Carolla blew Maher's LIB-centrist mind with a lesson on how Bill's buddies are signaling to their voters. 

During a discussion on modern vehicles and Elon Musk's Tesla truck, which Bill calls an "asshole mobile," Carolla countered that modern culture requires people to signal their politics via what they drive and even how they cross their legs. 

(Adam Carolla says to watch how Presidential-hopeful Gavin Newsom crosses his legs to determine which voter he's trying to reach in that moment. (Getty Images))

"When you see a white guy and he has Oakley blade sunglasses on top of his trucker's hat upside down, you go, 'Okay, that guy's a Trump voter,'" Carolla explained. "And then when you see Gavin Newsom with his legs crossed further than his knees are overlapping each other by 12-inches in the wrong direction, then you go, 'Okay, he's signaling to his base with the deep knee cross.'"

Bill's LIB-centrist (on some topics) mind was blown over this one. "I did not get the memo on Newsom's legs. What is it," he asked Carolla, who was completely locked in on this topic. 

Carolla proceeded to walk Maher through how normal guys put one leg on top of the other. Propping a leg up. Normal stuff. 

Women, Carolla continues, do a soft leg cross like they're about to drink tea and talk to their girlfriends in a comfy setting.  

But, then there's the level where Newsom takes it. "The deeper the blue you get, the deeper, more compressive, the further it gets across. When you see pictures of Newsom with his legs crossed, it's insane. And the thing that's funny is Trump sits with his knees apart and then he makes a diamond with his thumb and forefinger and he puts it in front of his nut sack and he says, 'Focus on this,'" Carolla added, which got a chuckle out of Maher, who noted that Trump's "giant tie" then points to his nutsack. 

Is Carolla onto something here? Let's hear the man out. 

"If you see Justin Trudeau or Gavin Newsom or any of these people do panels, and if the guy is from the New York Times who's interviewing him, he's got the super deep leg cross, too. It's sort of a signal to the base," Adam continued.  

Recent examples of Gavin Newsom crossing his legs & LIB signaling

Gavin Newsom, governor of California, during the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, in January. (Krisztian Bocsi/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Andrew Ross Sorkin and Governor of California Gavin Newsom speak onstage during The New York Times DealBook Summit in December.  (Photo by David Dee Delgado/Getty Images for The New York Times)

We asked Google Gemini to pretend it's a body-language expert and to analyze Newsom crossing his leg in the above photo. Here's what Gemini had to say: 

Newsom is demonstrating the classic "Figure-Four" (ankle-on-knee) cross.

Dominance and Space: By placing his ankle on his knee, Newsom is creating a large, open triangle. In body language terms, he is "claiming territory." This takes up significantly more physical space than a standard cross, signaling high confidence and authority.

The "Action" Stance: Notice that despite the relaxed legs, his upper body is leaning forward, and he’s using a sharp pointing gesture. This combination—a relaxed, dominant lower body paired with an aggressive upper body—suggests a leader who is comfortable in the "hot seat" and feels in total control of the narrative.

The "American" Style: This is often seen as a quintessentially American masculine pose. It projects a "straight-talker" or "no-nonsense" vibe that appeals to a base looking for strength.

Let's not forget what Tim Walz was trying to project when he was selected to run as the vice presidential candidate. Carolla's no dummy. He's one of the best observationists of our time. 

Are there others who are LIB signaling to the base? Carolla says to look at Obama's aggressive leg crossing

I took Carolla's advice and went back into the Getty archives to see if there's something to this hypothesis. It turns out there's very aggressive leg crossing from Obama that mirrors the aggressive leg crossing we saw out of Newsom in 2025. 

Elitist LIB. Smarter than everyone else in the room. Authoritative. Deep-thinker. Brilliant mind. Knows what's best for you. Take your COVID shots and shut up.

It's all in the leg crossing. Keep an eye on it. 

Barack Obama with very aggressive leg crossing during an event in 2024. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)