I have written several times about why I stopped watching Bill Maher’s “Real Time” on HBO/Max a few years ago.
There’s his anger at the studio audience for not laughing at every joke he tells. Or their not reacting positively enough to some supposedly outrageous remark he makes. Or his shift from being able to learn from people he disagrees with to not booking them in the first place. Or if they do appear on the show, particularly subject experts rather than mere pundits, he dismisses their opinions when they don’t align with his.
That’s why I got such a kick out of a piece Rick Ellis just posted on his site, All Your Screens, in which he asks “Why Are We Still Listening To Anything Bill Maher Says?”
An excerpt:
Maher launched his HBO series in 2003 and while it continues to do okay in the ratings, over the past decade or so, the show’s format has devolved down to Maher spouting off about some political-loving Grandpa who somehow manages to consumer equal parts of Facebook and Politico. No matter the topic, the under-lying premise of any monologue or any conversation with a guest is essentially, “I, Bill Maher, see through the schemes of mere mortals. I can’t believe you are so foolish that you are intellectually incapable of seeing the truth.”
And while that ill-advised ranting has its own entertainment value, the problem is that the Real Time forum provides some marginal level of credibility to what Maher is saying. In recent years, it has become increasingly common to see conservative news outlets highlighting his comments, often framing it as “liberal Bill Maher has this criticism of <insert Dem politician or cause>.” And let’s be honest, Maher has never been a liberal. He often describes himself as a “libertarian,” and he means that in the same way most libertarians mean the description. He’s mostly just a cranky, self-absorbed ass, but he prefers to ascribe his attitude to some underlying political belief instead of the reality. Which is that he is primarily concerned with himself and the things he cares about. Everyone else is disposable and unimportant.
Rick closes with this:
According to Mediaite, in an upcoming episode of his podcast Club Random (because of course, he has a podcast), Maher reveals that he has an upcoming meeting scheduled with Donald Trump, which was arranged with the help of Kid Rock:
“There will be lots of people on the left who will be like, ‘How dare you talk to this man.’ It’s like, fuck you, I’m not playing this game that you mean girls play,’” the comedian said.
As always, Bill, you’ve got it wrong. You won’t be criticized because you’re meeting with Donald Trump. You’ll be criticized because meeting with Donald Trump is the predictable flight path for an elderly crank of a comic who used to be able to distinguish between critical thinking and making a living believing your own ill-informed bullshit.
You’re not being brave. You are being predictable. Which is the worst thing that can happen to a comedian.