He’s not joking — comedian and lifelong Mets fan Bill Maher now owns a piece of the team.
HBO’s “Real Time with Bill Maher” host made a surprise announcement that he’s a minority owner before last night’s game against the St. Louis Cardinals after a VIP tour with Mets Chief Operating Officer Jeff Wilpon.
“I think it’s a great investment,” said Maher, sporting a Mets cap for his inaugural trip to Citi Field.
“I had my money in Lehman Brothers in 2008, so this looked pretty good,” he quipped.
“I’m really happy that it turned out that this team is good this year. Because nobody picked them to be good.
“It’s a New York state of mind today.”
Maher, 56, who lives in LA, declined to say how much of the team he bought or what he paid for his minority stake.
“I can’t talk about that,” he said, but noted that the deal went through “months ago.”
Maher said he decided to invest in the team after reading last year that the Wilpons — in financial trouble because of their relationship with Ponzi schemer Bernie Madoff — were putting 12 minority ownership shares up for sale for $20 million apiece.
In March, Wilpon announced the family had raised $240 million through the sale of the shares, but — aside from four shares bought by cable companies — wouldn’t say who bought them.
Maher hinted at the news on Twitter just hours before game time.
“Heading out to Citi Field for the Mets game . . . this is one baseball game I’m going to remember,” he tweeted.
Maher, who was born in New York City and raised in River Vale, NJ, fondly recalled his first memories of the Amazin’s as he stood outside the clubhouse for his pre-game chat with reporters.
“My earliest memory is my father sitting at the kitchen table . . . reading the newspaper and telling my mother that New York was getting a National League team again.
“I must have been 5, and I remember that distinctly.”
Maher also recalled sitting in an LA bar with Jerry Seinfeld, watching the ball roll between Bill Buckner’s legs in the famous Game 6 of the 1986 World Series.
Asked if he’d try to get Seinfeld to buy in, Maher cracked, “Why he didn’t, I have no idea.
“He’s sure got more money than I do.”
Additional reporting by Jeane MacIntosh