Bill Maher - classic!

Wesley Morris:

Mr. Maher has views, but what he said on Friday night isn’t among them. For one thing, it’s not even a view, per se. It was an attempt to mock Mr. Sasse’s unfortunate choice of words. (I think I knew what he meant, too: Nebraska grows too much corn for grown people to fret over who to be for Halloween.) But intention is tricky in comedy. Mr. Sasse said something that was, on its face, unsavory. You don’t need much of an imagination to envision Chris Rock, Larry Wilmore or Wanda Sykes taking a whack at that line. ABC’s sitcom “black-ish” exists, partly, to satirize these sorts of conversational bloopers.

But Bill Maher isn’t Chris Rock. He’s not on “black-ish.” He’s a 61-year-old white man who would never get a pass for jesting about slavery or the N-word. (His track record inspires too much doubt to give any benefit.) That’s a license reserved, arguably, for Louis C.K., or Sarah Silverman in her performance-art prime — white comedians who have really grappled with what it means to flirt with racially inflammatory language and ideas, what it means for the flirtation to fail. Mr. Maher’s approach to television doesn’t necessitate that kind of rehearsed rumination. The appeal of “Real Time” is its on-the-spot discourse, its anti-rehearsal. That looseness can tip easily into blurting, flatulence and worse.

The insult to injury here involves the conflation of Mr. Maher’s transgression and the umbrage he feigned at being asked to work in the fields. As my sister might say: Oh, he fancy now. For a long time, black people have deployed slavery-derived hierarchies as a social and psycho-political sorting mechanism. A house assignment might have won a slave less arduous work but more suspicion and contempt from her counterparts in the fields. No one self-identifies as a house Negro — unless that person is making a joke. And even then that person probably shouldn’t be Bill Maher....

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/04/arts/television/what-was-bill-mahers-big-mistake.html

for better or worse, I don't think Louie would be able to get away with that n-word bit in 2017. iirc that was on Chewed Up, probably 7-8 years ago? there was a lot more nuance and self-awareness to it than what Maher did, a big part of it was Louie being pissed at newscasters for saying "the n-word" rather than the actual n-word because it put the latter into his head without the newscaster having to bear the weight of saying it. but still, if he did that bit for the first time today, there would be outrage and thinkpieces galore.

Mr. Sasse said something that was, on its face, unsavory.

I don't really get this. If Sasse had said this to a black host I could see it being tone deaf but he's talking to Bill fucking Maher.

Hadn't taken in that Sasse was literally advocating physically working in the fields as part of his program so thought it was an oddly worded metaphor which might lead to the response. Though that response was at best tactless.

yah he was saying "Ever think about working in the fields with us in Nebraska?" in reference to a real program he runs where people literally work in fields. Maher heard "work in the fields" and his mind went somewhere else.

Of all the things for Sasse to get blowback on in this situation, referencing his program is perplexing.

OTOH, the "I'll just go along with this and hope no one noticed" chuckle should get him primaried, even with his post-appearance apology

It won't because he's in Nebraska but it should

Ice Cube telling him "Sometimes you sound like a redneck trucker" otm. it's pretty clear he doesn't think he did anything wrong tho.

"Smug liberal who's casually racist" doesn't really ring as "redneck trucker" tbh, but I'll have to watch this. Or maybe I don't. Eh.

thanks for giving us your uninformed opinion at any rate

Responding to a quote you posted, so moderately informed. But no problem!

did you ever watch his show during the Obama years? he is very fond of making a racist joke with the frame of "this is what republicans say"

also the weekly stating that Islam is a danger to the world with dangerous ideas, pretty redneck trucker that stance

it was interesting to learn that when he grew up in the 50s/60s "racism wasn't really a thing"

he must have enough money to retire on, right?

He said Race wasn't a thing, as in we were all white and no one talked about race. He's a piece of shit but you dont have to make shit up to attack him with.

Maher isn't even a liberal, he's a libertarian who voted for Dole in '96.

Does Trump have to actually blow Putin? Is that what it wld take?Flagrant D, balls gargling the leader of the Russian Federation? Jus asking

— Bill Maher (@billmaher) July 19, 2017

comedy genius

ok he's definitely trying to get Trump to respond to him, good luck

This week, Bill called out Molly Ringwald's NYT piece and praised The Simpsons' "fuck you snowflakes" move.

Next week's guests include Jordan Peterson.

A bit of McLusky stage banter comes to mind there - "One grenade....all the miserable, useless atoms..."

i quit watching this show a while back, my weekends have been so much nicer ever since

I quit too but it's hard sometimes when I'm st a party or if ii drink to much the urge is strong

Cancelling HBO tomorrow.

Maher is typically insufferable but I saw that bit in response to the Ringwald/Hughes thing and it didn’t seem ridiculous. I also didn’t read the article so if he’s totally switching the argument around never mind.

Tonight saw hm and Jordan Peterson, two white heterosexual men, griping about “safe spaces” and Maher not once bothering to bring up Peterson’s controversial transphobia, never mind challenge him on it.

Fuck Maher

“stop being surprised every time you watch an old movie or TV show and find some of the ideas in it are old.”

In isolation, i don't find anything to disagree with there.

But to say people didn't find Long Duk Dong offensive in 1984 is ludicrous.

I generally like Maher's willingness to challenge leftist doxa on certain issues but I'm sadly not surprised by his coddling of Jordan Peterson aka Canada's worst cultural export at the moment.

But to say people didn't find Long Duk Dong offensive in 1984 is ludicrous.

I kinda meant that re Ringwald too... it didn't bother you at the time, Molly, cuz you were a 15-year-old white actress.

Just to clarify: it isn't the Ringwald thing that was the final nail for me (it was annoying but expected), but the convo with Jordan Peterson.

You suck. https://t.co/USK38fFe1N

— Doug Henwood (@DougHenwood) May 24, 2019

Not getting any classic-er: https://decider.com/2022/04/13/bill-maher-vs-bella-thorne/amp/

BTW: has anyone else noticed that Carlson has mellowed considerably now that he's not doing Crossfire? I still don't like a lot of his politics, but I'm finding myself thinking of him as an enormous prick less and less. If he loses the bowtie, I think he might have a future as a watchable talk show host.
― sunburned and snowblind (kenan), Thursday, March 10, 2005 10:44 AM (seventeen years ago) bookmarkflaglink

Bill Maher is Still A Prick

Whoops, that story was already posted.

Oughta post this here too, just to make sure!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Ha6D1LQGD4

yea not sure where we should talk about this but it's so funny and spot-on. iirc Tim's been doing a Bill Maher impression for a while

never fails to delight me that the first thing you see when you open this thread is my wife saying: i love bill maher! hahaha! different times.

geez because of this FB is showing me ACTUAL Bill Maher clips and Tim actually nails it better than I thought