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Real Time with Bill Maher in the Media


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I was listening to Dean Obeidallah on SiriusXM Progress today and he reminded me that Maher is threatened by John Oliver's Emmy win and the accolades he gets from other media outlets. Maher also tried to block Oliver from even having a show on HBO. This is a sign of a desperate, sad, irrelevant man with retrograde ideas about Islam, women, the LGBTQ community, rape and undocumented immigrants so he's basically a right-winger who believes in climate change, loves pot and the ability to go to sex clubs and watch porn.

I didn't watch the show this week but this article was just posted that backs up what I said above. http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2017/02/24/bill-maher-s-transphobia-problem.html

Edited by maraleia
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23 hours ago, maraleia said:

I was listening to Dean Obeidallah on SiriusXM Progress today and he reminded me that Maher is threatened by John Oliver's Emmy win and the accolades he gets from other media outlets. Maher also tried to block Oliver from even having a show on HBO. This is a sign of a desperate, sad, irrelevant man with retrograde ideas about Islam, women, the LGBTQ community, rape and undocumented immigrants so he's basically a right-winger who believes in climate change, loves pot and the ability to go to sex clubs and watch porn.

I didn't watch the show this week but this article was just posted that backs up what I said above. http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2017/02/24/bill-maher-s-transphobia-problem.html

Wow! John Oliver is Infinitely better - I had no idea Bill tried to stop him. I'm glad it didn't work.

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On 2/24/2017 at 2:19 PM, sistermagpie said:

Iirc, his positions on Woody Allen are that a) we don't know what really happened with the pedophilia incident and Allen's life has been "ruined" by the accusation even being made and b) he's still married to the much-younger daughter of his ex and therefore there couldn't be anything wrong with him sleeping with her behind her mother's back. As long as you're still willing to sleep with the underage person after they're 21, that's all that matters and society's just judging your love.

On Politically Incorrect Bill was angry at Woody Allen for the quasi-incest [adopted step-daughter] angle more than age of Soon-Yi.  Deepak Chopra was a guest and asked Bill why he was so outraged....Bill replied with something about society rules...Chopra said it was Bill angry with his own perception of what Woody Allen should be doing. Bill was so unsettled by this...he went to an early commercial break. Seems like he had an epiphany courtesy of Chopra.

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1 hour ago, paigow said:

On Politically Incorrect Bill was angry at Woody Allen for the quasi-incest [adopted step-daughter] angle more than age of Soon-Yi.  Deepak Chopra was a guest and asked Bill why he was so outraged....Bill replied with something about society rules...Chopra said it was Bill angry with his own perception of what Woody Allen should be doing. Bill was so unsettled by this...he went to an early commercial break. Seems like he had an epiphany courtesy of Chopra.

Thanks! I'm glad Bill at least twigged that secretly screwing your partner's daughter the way he did is crappy beyond the age of the daughter involved!

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On 02/24/2017 at 7:42 PM, maraleia said:

I was listening to Dean Obeidallah on SiriusXM Progress today and he reminded me that Maher is threatened by John Oliver's Emmy win and the accolades he gets from other media outlets. Maher also tried to block Oliver from even having a show on HBO. This is a sign of a desperate, sad, irrelevant man with retrograde ideas about Islam, women, the LGBTQ community, rape and undocumented immigrants so he's basically a right-winger who believes in climate change, loves pot and the ability to go to sex clubs and watch porn.

I didn't watch the show this week but this article was just posted that backs up what I said above. http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2017/02/24/bill-maher-s-transphobia-problem.html

 

On 02/25/2017 at 7:11 PM, Eliza422 said:

Wow! John Oliver is Infinitely better - I had no idea Bill tried to stop him. I'm glad it didn't work.

I prefer John Oliver too, but does anyone have a better source for this? Not the Emmy stuff (anyone who has watched Bill for any length of time knows that he hates not winning the Emmy himself even when he should count himself lucky to be nominated.) I wouldn't be surprised as it's pretty standard for late night hosts to resent their network bringing in anyone else to the network in late night that they don't control and complain about it/push back against it. There are fears about competing for guests, losing promotional support, etc. And history has proven that the network will almost certainly  use the new guy as leverage in contract negotiations and try to push you out and replace you at some point when your numbers dip as inevitably happens. If I was Bill and had brought HBO success in late night with topical humor and heard that my network was looking to bring in someone younger to do a topical late night show I would be talking to HBO too. And inevitably rumors get out. And will be brought up against you by people who have issues with you for whatever reason. So I'm totally willing to believe it, but I'd be a bit skeptical about the details and characterization of Bill's actions until I see something more definitive.

Edited by wknt3
fix typos and clean up phrasing
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Well, ya know?  I am really and truly wrong about the direction of RTwBM based on this article.  Seriously wrong.

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Bill Maher’s HBO flock has grown nearly 50 percent since last year’s presidential primaries

Published just yesterday (yes, I needed to check to see that I wasn't pulling up an antique article):

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/12/business/trump-television-ratings-liberals.html?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter_axiosam&_r=1

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I am with him on the Woody Allen situation.  That was a murky situation and your life can be ruined by a false accusation.   I think women can molest but it is hard to picture rape other than statutory, depending on age.

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(edited)

James Morrison, aka Bill Buchanan from 24: Original Recipe, put Bill Maher and Rick Santorum on blast on Twitter for their condescending response to the racist/sexist treatment of journalist April Ryan & Congresswoman Maxine Waters and it was awesome: 

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New Rule: Privileged White guys don't get to tell women of color to "Take a joke" that's not a joke & it's told by privileged White guys.

Edited by DollEyes
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(edited)
2 hours ago, DollEyes said:

James Morrison, aka Bill Buchanan from 24: Original Recipe, put Bill Maher and Rick Santorum on blast on Twitter for their condescending response to the racist/sexist treatment of journalist April Ryan & Congresswoman Maxine Waters and it was awesome: 

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New Rule: Privileged White guys don't get to tell women of color to "Take a joke" that's not a joke & it's told by privileged White guys.

 

2aez9xu.jpg

Edited by Victor the Crab
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A long'ish read...

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It was at this point that I realized Maher's Doubting Thomas ideology is, in its way, as rigid as any dogma, a reflexive contrarianism that works spectacularly well for him right up until it convinces him that it's okay for a white person to call himself a "house nigger." He can be just as dependent on slogans and talking points as the politicians he skewers on his show.

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I saw that Tweet and didn't even get it. Despite the fact that every nail salon I've ever been to around where I live (don't get my nails done very much) is almost entirely staffed by Koreans. I guess because even with that experience I don't get the joke--why would only Korean people be talking about this? Is it just supposed to be funny because Korean=nail salon? Because...no?

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1 hour ago, sistermagpie said:

I saw that Tweet and didn't even get it. Despite the fact that every nail salon I've ever been to around where I live (don't get my nails done very much) is almost entirely staffed by Koreans. I guess because even with that experience I don't get the joke--why would only Korean people be talking about this? Is it just supposed to be funny because Korean=nail salon? Because...no?

Ditto. And I do get my nails done and over the years, they've always been mostly Vietnamese.  Maybe it's the area of the country? I don't know.

And I was going to post an interview he did with Jake Tapper which I thought was after the most recent show, but it turned out to be the one where Warren was the top of the show guest. But it did explain why Maher wants Hillary gone-he's a Bernie Bro.?

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(edited)
8 hours ago, sistermagpie said:

I guess because even with that experience I don't get the joke--why would only Korean people be talking about this? Is it just supposed to be funny because Korean=nail salon?

Isn't there also a whiff of -- I dunno, let's call it "ha-ha-being-unmanly!" -- in the joke overall, with Bill having his nails done while gossiping with the Korean ladies at the salon? Even if younger men are getting manicures, Bill's generation doesn't routinely have them, so wtf is that? And using "vaca" and breathless exclamation points! -- just a failed metrosexual joke alongside the offensive racial content or something more?

Edited by film noire
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I saw this posted in this week's thread:

 Journalist Bari Weiss is the mid-show interview.

UGH. WHY is she back again, when she was just on this show? She was the replacement guest for Rose McGowan. Bill couldn't find anyone else? So not looking forward to her inappropriate giggling.

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From this week's line up:

Eliot Spitzer, Louie Anderson, Geraldo Rivera, Heather McGhee, and Max Boot

Oh pleasepleasepleaseplease let that delusional self-absorbed fucktoid, Geraldo be the top of the show guest. He will be insufferable if he's on the panel; plus, he's got a book to schill sell. I'm hoping that Spitzer, McGhee and Boot are the panel, with Anderson as the mid-show guest.

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On 5/17/2018 at 8:09 AM, GHScorpiosRule said:

UGH. Barrie Weiss again? And this time she's on the panel? Bill can't get anyone other than this twit?

I WARNED YOU! (I'm not gloating, BTW. I hate it, too.)

On 5/17/2018 at 9:28 AM, sistermagpie said:

I actually wondered if she'd be on again because she just wrote another terrible article that Twitter pointed out was terrible. Now she gets to talk about being silenced on TV again.

I posted about that article here last week, but it was removed because I guess it steered off-topic a bit too much (and I do apologize to the mods about that; that wasn't my intention).

Yep, I knew he was going to have her on again. He just can't help himself. Blech. 

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A couple of articles about Bill and Real Time's Emmy "snub".

https://www.thedailybeast.com/inside-bill-mahers-big-late-night-emmys-snub

https://deadline.com/2018/07/trevor-noah-daily-show-first-emmy-nom-bill-maher-jimmy-fallon-snub-academy-supports-sam-bee-1202425055/

 

Lots of speculation as to the reasons he and Fallon didn't get nominated regarding politics, etc. but nothing about one key factor - the show simply isn't as good as the shows that were nominated and it's annual nominations were largely a matter of inertia and it's being on HBO. IMO both Seth Meyers and Jim Jefferies have a better case for replacing James Corden for the final slot. It's just good that Bill's on hiatus so we won't have to hear him whining about how he isn't getting the recognition he deserves. 

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5 hours ago, wknt3 said:

Lots of speculation as to the reasons he and Fallon didn't get nominated regarding politics, etc. but nothing about one key factor - the show simply isn't as good as the shows that were nominated and it's annual nominations were largely a matter of inertia and it's being on HBO. IMO both Seth Meyers and Jim Jefferies have a better case for replacing James Corden for the final slot.

Agree! Except for one little bit. Meyers DEFINITELY should have replaced Corden. But the obnoxious Jefferies? No fucking way!

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It's just good that Bill's on hiatus so we won't have to hear him whining about how he isn't getting the recognition he deserves.

Oh I'm sure we'll find out soon enough. I imagine him going full out diva over his snub and blame it all on the PC culture for denying him an Emmy he thinks he's fully entitled to have.

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IMO both Seth Meyers and Jim Jefferies have a better case for replacing James Corden for the final slot.

Of these two, I'd give the nod to Seth Meyers, because the category is for "variety show" and Seth's show has more variety .  But I'm glad to see I'm not the only Jim Jeffries fan out there.  I definitely don't consider him to be of the same caliber  as JO, SC or SB, and yeah, his schtick is basically him ranting for his allotted 20 minutes but I enjoy him as a sort of Lewis Black on Ambien.   Still ranting, but toned down enough that I don't worry that he's about to have a stroke.   I teach a couple classes with about 75 students enrolled.  The last time handed back exams I commented that "I think we can all do better."  I detected one knowing smirk among a total of 150 faces so I worry that Jim Jeffries show won't last long and we'll be back to South Park reruns (or GAG, Tosh reruns).

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I watched it the next day. If you watch Real Time regularly, most of it was basically an overview of his recent monologues. The back end was broader and included some sexual content mainly in the form of kink shaming. Wow is Bill a huge prude. 

I'd recommend putting it on in the background while you're folding clothes or something. His live special (when he did Real Time and then went to the venue right after) was better. 

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On 7/18/2018 at 5:00 PM, ganesh said:

I watched it the next day. If you watch Real Time regularly, most of it was basically an overview of his recent monologues. The back end was broader and included some sexual content mainly in the form of kink shaming. Wow is Bill a huge prude. 

I'd recommend putting it on in the background while you're folding clothes or something. His live special (when he did Real Time and then went to the venue right after) was better. 

The kink shaming was odd. I agree with his assertion that there's a lot of violent porn out there and that it's creepy, but rather than relate it to an underlying societal issue in a funny way, he basically said anyone who likes it rough is dumb and gross. Kink is politically incorrect so you'd think he'd be all over it or at least not shame people for how they like sex. 

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http://www.real-time-with-bill-maher-blog.com/index/2018/11/16/adulting

If this isn't supposed to be here then my apologies. I don't know where it would go. 

But then twenty years or so ago, something happened – adults decided they didn’t have to give up kid stuff. And so they pretended comic books were actually sophisticated literature. And because America has over 4,500 colleges – which means we need more professors than we have smart people – some dumb people got to be professors by writing theses with titles like Otherness and Heterodoxy in the Silver Surfer. And now when adults are forced to do grown-up things like buy auto insurance, they call it “adulting,” and act like it’s some giant struggle. 

In-between sneers, Bill Maher is showing yet again how out of touch he is. The days of comics being seen as sophisticated literature began in the '60s (with lots of focus on things like a heavy drug addiction story in Green Arrow, the complexity and heart of Spiderman, Captain America, Green Arrow, Green Lantern becoming sick of the hypocrisy and corruption of American society, etc,) not twenty years ago. Twenty years ago, Marvel had just filed for bankruptcy, and DC had just had to kill and revive Superman in a huge stunt to boost sales. 

Comic book films are popular, but comic books themselves have seen much better days in terms of sales and in terms of media attention. 

I have a feeling Maher had this saved up for a long time, and decided to put it out because it made him smirk appreciatively back in 1993 or so. 

Not to mention how important comic strips and political cartoons have been to a number of countries that are often lauded as being far superior to the US.

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Eh I think "using our smarts on stupid stuff" is kind of accurate. I loathe the term "adulting" too, so I can see where he's coming from. I do read some comics from time to time, so I don't think it's a big deal, but it's a fair question to ask as to why comic book movies are so dominant. 

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I stopped reading comics when Rob Leifeld started making serious money even though he can't draw to save his life, and everything was about "Issue 0" and "holographic covers".

I still have my original run of Ben Edlund's The Tick, though.

That being said, he took a shot with a wide brush and missed.

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On 11/18/2018 at 11:15 AM, opus said:

Bill's being slammed by the comic book community

https://ew.com/tv/2018/11/17/bill-maher-stan-lee-controversy/

 

On 11/18/2018 at 11:35 AM, ganesh said:

Eh I think "using our smarts on stupid stuff" is kind of accurate. I loathe the term "adulting" too, so I can see where he's coming from. I do read some comics from time to time, so I don't think it's a big deal, but it's a fair question to ask as to why comic book movies are so dominant. 

I read comics as a kid, mostly going to mall book stores and reading them without buying because I didn't have the money.

So I didn't follow all the series that closely and I stopped looking at them long before the graphics novels, though I did check out Dark Knight.

I kind of agree that comics dominate movies too much.  I will watch those movies but it's like the problem 20 years ago when action movies commanded $200 million budgets and movies for adults struggled to get financing.  So the biggest box office stars were Arnold and action stars like him.

OTOH, all that money has attracted some talented writers and directors and even working with the source material, they've imbued it with more substance and wit than the comics probably had originally.

It isn't that different from Kubrick making 2001 and probably giving the movie more depth than the book probably had.

Of course these movies are heavy on CGI and most people who watch them are going for the depictions of superhero feats, not the scenes which show their human side.

I'm not sure if these big Marvel, Star Wars or Star Trek movies crowd out production of more thoughtful films for adults.  The studios used to argue that one big blockbuster lets them fund a dozen small films geared towards adult audiences.

Now with so many distribution channels, content is being scarfed up as soon as it's produced, so maybe the studios are producing movies or all kinds of audiences.  But if these blockbuster movies underperform, then there seems to be a lot of handwringing.

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I just think Bill coming out with a blog post like this mere days after Stan Lee's passing is part of why I can't take him seriously. Of course he could have waited a few month and then posted to get a dialogue going, maybe even raise a couple of good points - but oh no, couldn't do that and lose the opportunity to shit on people mourning the death of an artist by insinuating their love of that artist meant they were overgrown children who enabled Trump to screw over the United States. Because ultimately the clicks and attention from controversy will always, always, always be more important to him than anything he has to say.

I can't listen to anything Maher has to say because his asshole gets in the way.

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On 11/18/2018 at 2:35 PM, ganesh said:

Eh I think "using our smarts on stupid stuff" is kind of accurate. I loathe the term "adulting" too, so I can see where he's coming from. I do read some comics from time to time, so I don't think it's a big deal, but it's a fair question to ask as to why comic book movies are so dominant. 

Popcorn movies have dominated cinema since Jaws, if not even earlier. Critics like Pauline Kael used to complain about the popularity of these films and spoke about how they ruined the film industry - the main difference is she blamed the industry itself (as she felt they made a lot of alienating, anti-American films in the late '60s and early '70s that killed off potential for new and different products), whereas Maher seems to just be saying people are stupid. 

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No, I think this era of the 'megafranchise' is quite different from when Jaws or Star Wars first came out. It is being currently dominated by comic book movies, so I think Bill has something of a point. He just said it in kind of a stupid way. 

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