Meghan Markle's dad is outraged he's the butt of a joke once again, but this time it hurts way more because the joke came from one of his heroes -- Bill Maher.
ICYMI -- Maher was mocking flyover states last Friday on his show, 'Real Time,' when he dropped a Thomas Markle reference. Bill said red state voters ... "wanna go to the party. It's like we're the British Royal Family and they're Meghan Markle's dad."
Sources close to Thomas tell TMZ ... he's pissed, not only because he was a big Maher fan, but because he hates being compared to red state voters. We're told Thomas is a Democrat and hates Trump just like the late-night host ... so he especially hated being lampooned that way.
Our Thomas sources say he vented to a friend about the Bill bashing, saying he "should keep his f***ing mouth shut!" ... because Bill doesn't know the complete story about his strained relationship with his daughter.
Not that we think Maher's concerned but, for what it's worth ... he's in good company. Thomas said pretty much the same thing about George Clooney.