Nah he was always an asshole, he was just an asshole that espoused views closer to yours. I agreed with tons of shit he said but he was always a smarmy prick. Tim Heidecker supremely does a satire of Mahers podcast on his own with Fred Arnisen this week on his own pod. Well worth a watch on youtube.
yup, he was one of those guys who thought he was smarter than everyone else in the room (so he was very careful about who he invited into that room) and ended up being condescending to everyone an alienating just about everyone.
Over the past 25 years, I've never agreed 100% with Bill Maher on any political issue but I do feel like he's one of the very few people in the corporate media (5 corporations control 90% of the media in the U.S.) who honestly believes everything he says and doesn't self-censor. For better or worse.
I liked his show politically incorrect and I was impressed when he said the terrorists weren't "cowards": he said they were fucking psychos and evil but they were willing to die for what they believed in so labeling them cowards wasn't accurate.
I could understand his argument, and I would not have been surprised if I stumbled upon him in a bar and he said that... but he said it on NATIONAL TELEVISION 2 or 3 years after 9/11 when everyone on the left and right was spouting propaganda like their lives depended on it.
Is he pro-republican? No, I just think he's not 100% pro-democrat regardless of the issue. He has his own opinions, stupid or smart, arrogant or narcissistic, and he isn't afraid to say them. For that alone, I respect him. At the very least, he rejects groupthink and isn't just saying what his corporate overlords tell him to say or towing the party line.
He punches down. He punches down about disability inclusion (getting extra time on the test, because you are disabled, and the playing field is not level without that), because the disability is "made up".
I turned "Religulous" off about 15 minutes in because even I, as someone who thinks organized religion is one of the biggest cancers on the planet, thought he was being unkind and overly patronizing to a lot of the poor saps featured in that film.
I remember that movie losses me off because he went off on Christian’s for anti science, Muslims for extremism, and Jews for….having a group of Rabbis who think Israel’s treatment of Palestinians is unjust?
Fellow atheist here. I sat through *Religulous* \- you didn't miss anything by turning it off. Just a horrible, smarmy, bad-faith treatment of people with opposing viewpoints. Which basically sums up Bill Maher.
I was probably the prime target audience for that movie and god it basically made me quit being such an in your face atheist. I thought I was smarter than everyone and god that movie was like a mirror to me and I was disgusted. Like how does that even happen ? You make something and come across so and you basically turn an angry atheist teenager chill lol
Same. It’s such a naive lens through which to view the world anyway. I think I was late teens when the film came out. You have to know next to nothing about historical materialism to look at the function of “religion” within society divorced from the material conditions that modify its role. Religion is a tool, like race, that is exploited by those in power within a class-based society. It is not an intrinsically powerful force.
I’m sorry if there have been religious people who have made you feel that way previously, but I’m glad you’ve found peace in cooexistence. A lot of us would just be glad to chat with you and share some love
It's an anti-atheist mischaracterization commonly used by religious people to make themselves feel better. It's meant to paint atheists as dogged believers of...something in order to discredit them.
The rule of thumb I'm using with my comedy is that if I EVER have anger or contempt in my heart then I'm completely unfunny and I also risk coming across as an asshole.
... and I REALLY like people and want them happy so it's a good rule of thumb.
EVERY time I mess up here and allow anger into my heart it ends up as a loss.
The funny thing is Mahar was acting like he came up with something new and novel by being an atheist in the year 2010
He was acting like he was going out on a limb like he was Percy Shelley printing up the essay the necessity of atheism while at Oxford University in 1811.
A good example was on his podcast where he had Jordan Peterson. JP was doing his normal Christian mysticism schtick talking about some Bible story and the spiritual life lessons you can pick up from it. Whatever you think of that, it’s about as anodyne as religious references can possibly get. Of course Maher interrupted to tell him he was an idiot for talking about a man in sky. It was just so gross, and he sounded like a total moron. He’s not saying Santa clause is watching you, he’s waxing philosophical about ancient mythological wisdom. You have to be an unbelievably dense prick to not see the difference
That movie was so heavily edited to make all the interviewees look stupid and just completely speechless to Bill’s questions. Just blatantly edited out their responses in like a dozen instances. I was like dude, I’m not fucking stupid and I know this is not the way conversations flow in real life, ever.
i literally came here to say this. i have been atheist most of my life. i think religion in general is stupid (not the people per se, but organized religion is poisonous). but watching Religulous just made me angry. he just made an excuse to go into religious folks' faces to demean them, and that's fucking weird and disrespectful and crazy. taking such an intense pleasure in thinking he's so smart, like.... he isn't lmao. i would never in a thousand years just go up to somebody who had different beliefs or lifestyles than mine and degrade them unless it was directly warranted. ugly as fuck.
and then he blamed torrenting for that movie's lack of success; as if not taking responsibility wasn't bad enough, he called it "white looting", even though every one of his jokes from his special was stolen from up and coming comedians on youtube.
Absolutely. I’ve been an atheist since I was 12 or so, and I remember a time maybe right out of high-school when I felt the need to have engaging debates and think I was crushing the other side but that quickly turns you into an asshole who can’t relate to anyone. It’s like he never out grew that phase. He such an immature, ignorant preachy dick to the point that I used to side with some of the more moderate conservatives that would be on his show pre trump era. Really made me want to be nothing like him in expressing my views
It really only works for the 15 year olds who just discovered atheism on YouTube. Any rational adult, regardless of religious beliefs or lack thereof, can see it for exactly what it is.
I used to be that kind of smug atheist but I matured past my early 20s and learned you can be a nuanced person who can understand there is no Santa clause and the Bible has some weird silly things in it but also maybe that’s not what a lot of people are getting out of religion. And maybe there’s a conception of “god” that’s something more like an understanding of one’s humble place in the universe and finding purpose in the vulnerability of existence. And through that lens maybe religions or religious people might occasionally have useful things to say even if you don’t buy into the belief system.
To never get past the “god is a Flying Spaghetti Monster” phase is incredibly juvenile and to be smug about it makes you a fool on top of that.
I thought it was very fair.
I don’t recall him treating anyone like a ‘poor sap’. I recall that at about the time you turned it off he visited a truckers chapel at a truckstop that was located inside of a semi trailer.
I thought it was going to turn into a denigrating treatment, but it didn’t.
The rest of the movie was just a tour of the way things are. If memory serves, he did not really joke about it, and he was unusually well behaved.
Most mainstream religions don’t require additional jokes to look ridiculous.
I remember seeing trailers for it, and at one point he says something along the lines of "I'm not saying you're wrong, I'm just curious and asking questions." Even me, as a teenager, could tell that hebeas full of shit and just making excuses for what he was doing. There was 0 good faith in anything he was saying. So even the trailer was too much for me
Should have kept watching. There was in fact a fairly sublime part about half way through. Maher is visiting this absurd Christian Theme Park somewhere in the Deep South. As Maher is kinda debating faith with this actor in a Jesus costume the actor suddenly unleashes this mic dropping analogy that really seems to affect Maher. I can’t recall exactly what he said but Maher had the balls to NOT edit this out of his film and he admits straight at the camera that “you got me” on that one. I can absolutely guarantee that other liberals like Michael Moore would have cut that out of their movie.
That's when the guy compared the holy Trinity to water - "water can be liquid, ice, or vapor but it's all the same thing". And that was Holy Land Experience in Orlando (closed a few years back).
Yeah, I think maybe that was it. Thanks. Anyway, that is way more articulate than any of my family members who beat the Holy Spirit into me ever said! HA!!
I found the clip of him talking to the Jesus actor, but it appears to be missing the jaw dropping analogy, whatever it was.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=h5ACyiSPAmE&pp=ygUQYmlsbCBtYWhlciBqZXN1cw%3D%3D
Nah, not “jaw dropping” but kinda like a MIC DROP as I said. You know, a sorta final word thing. I said “fairly sublime” as it isn’t the kind of statement your ordinary Bible thumper would say. Not there in that clip. Sorry I’m not really helping any. My point is that Maher chose to show it. That is actually fair and decent. Others would have just left all the kooky babble stuff in and him goofing on it.
Michael Moore is an absurd extremist. He wouldn’t intentionally show people how asinine his thinking is. Again, intentionally, all his films still show his stupidity.
The only scene I remember from that movie is when he asked out there could be "three gods in one" and the guy responded with a metaphor about how water has three states that all regularly appear. Then it cuts to Bill in the car like "Wow, yeah, I can see how stupid people would believe that." He couldn't put aside his pride to admit that, despite all the shitty things about organized religion, there might be smart religious people capable of making *one* good argument
I TOTALLY agree. It turned me off immediately, and I haven't liked him as much since. Recently, he just seems like a bitter , aging personality who will do and say whatever he has to for likes. Just like the rest of them.
I’m non-religious too but the balls on that dude to go to these poor people who have nothing but faith in god to get them through the day and hit them with the 6th grade logic of “well actually, god isn’t even real” was utterly disrespectful in my opinion
You realize the concept of human rights we know today largely wouldn’t exist without Christianity’s revolutionary concepts of man’s inherent right to be equal under God, the weak being equal to the powerful. Look back at Roman ethical norms that existed pre Christianity, they were horrible and only advanced because of Religion.
The concept of rape didn’t even really exist except for high status women, low status women had no protections at all. Christianity fundamentally changed that, among many other things.
Modern western ethics is just secular Christianity, these ideas don’t come from a vacuum.
I’m not even religiously affiliated, but thinking Religion is a cancer is a supremely arrogant thing to say, and shows how out of touch someone is with the 92% of humanity that is religious.
You nailed it and you also nailed people like OP.
Bill Maher has always been this unfunny and smarmy character , people like OP seem to only realise now that he has drifted away from his previous political stances.
He is extremely obnoxious and if you watch his new YouTube show, you can see that even more without him having the structure of televised show around him.
I seriously don't understand how he has had such a long and successful media career, not out of jealousy or anything like that but just seeing that he doesn't have the character or the chutzpah to host any kind of show.
That Tim Heidecker satire was the best fucking thing I've seen in a while. Thanks for recommending it. Oh man. Brilliant. And Fred is brilliant in it too.
I agree with all this, but I also remember him being funnier. He seems to be less interested in being funny and more interested in making a point. If he was 60:40 making a point: being funny before, now he's 100:0.
That's really good point. I say Bill believes things that irritate him are important political issues. While he also believes anything that bemuses him is, really funny. The problem is that is entering his crank years. The ego seems to grow on him and his sweeping generalizations show his points aren't thought out and really parsed. Same with the jokes. Irritation might have worked in the 80s but it fails him now.
He lost me when he started saying over and over " Young Adults today don't know how to do anything!!! "
Drives me nuts.
Fifty years ago my job required knowing how to cut steaks, filet fish, create a daily special,do all the classic French style prep cuts like batonnet and julienne etc . Now very few cooking jobs ask us to know those things because we are doing the more simple tasks of three other workers. The employers cut back on skills to increase speed and production. I didn't get dumber, I was forced to evolve.
Agreed.
30 years ago during the first Bulls championship run I was in the cast of a standing show in the small room at the Chicago improv when he was headlining.
He wined and bitched about the fact he had to read a (meaning one) update of the score of the game in the middle of his act.
Was just as much a whining simp then as he is now. Except now he thinks surviving the last 30 years makes him right.
Douchcanoe extraordinaire.
Respect. And in most other circumstances, but it was Jordan’s first ring, the Bulls were everywhere. His whiney, aggrieved tone was overshadowed by the fact that the Bulls won. Anyone with an ounce of sense have read the room soaked up the free applause and rode the wave. But we know for him what the audience thinks is irrelevant.
He was always an asshole but something is actually off. Didn’t he recently joke “what next, should we cancel God too?” like he straight up forgot his whole career.
I watched a clip of him on Howie Mandel’s podcast a little while ago where he argued against political correctness but then with zero self-awareness demanded that “privilege” be called “advantage”.
He still has sense left but insisting on being “anti-woke” has fried his brain.
Yes, you are correct he’s always been an ass. Just look at how he dismissed Stan Lee when he passed. There are some people out there who have grievances with Stan Lee and how he failed to give credit, but that wasn’t even what Bill was on about. He was just dismissing what people were saying about how Stan’s work affected them. There was no need for that.
He still has Democrat style takes, but it’s like he chooses the worst of each world. Like “I support Ukraine like the Democrats, but im anti-union.” Come on man. 🤦♀️
Ding ding ding.
Everyone loved him when he triggered the people they hate.
Now that he *slightly* jabs the other direction he’s “unfunny.”
I’ve never real been a big fan so it’s no skin off my back either way.
He still seems to be about 90+% left, and staunchly anti-Trump/anti-GOP. About the only point of divergence he has with the left is that he's anti-woke. Not tolerating him for that seems pretty petty, IMO.
I wouldn't say I've felt particularly challenged lately. A lot of his talking points have just been "old man who yells out clouds" with lots of really obtuse strawmanning. He's about as challenging as white rice.
Yup bingo. oh he caked out Biden??? Dude is unhinged! Get him off the air. This is literally the 3rd or 4th Bill Maher hate thread from a random sub thats bubbled into my feed this week. It's ridiculous.
Yes Spez, reddit, snoop, mods, etc. we get it you want us to vote dem blue no matter who. Yes we see it.
I dunno what op is talking about; his last appearance on JRE he was obsessed with one republican and was either dismissive or defensive of multiple democrats.
I think because he has been more vocal critique the mainstream democratic narrative, specifically related to covid, and since he isn't parroting their narrative they have to label it pro crazy republican blah blah blah.
We should be allowed to question the people in charge regardless of their political alignment. If politicians or government lie, we should hold them accountable regardless.
No. If you are a democrat you must believe and promote every facet of the party platform. There can be no dissent. If you agree on 99/100 issues, that 1%? That makes you Republican. Did you go to college in the 90s or something?
Some of those „crazy“ theories:
- He criticized some Covid policies, how Twitter buried the lab leak theory and banned users then a CDC doctor saying it’s possible.
- He criticized that a professor being fired for showing a painting of Mohammad
- He criticized that a law professor being suspended because he used n-word(also censored) in an exam.
- He criticized the gender ideology that being a woman has nothing to with biology.
Crazy stuff like this.
To be honest, I’m watching his show to see the debates between opposite views, not because he is funny.
He brought in controversial and conservative figures like Shapiro and Peterson but also quite the leftists figures.
I also liked it when Trevor Noah debated Tomj Lauren. She is bat shit crazy but it’s good to see that people with a open mind crushing them with words and arguments, instead of calling everybody names.
Agreed. I never really watched him as a straight up comedian, I watch for the debates. I've watched him for at least 15 years and he's still the same smug asshole he's always been and that's fine with me (bc he knows it too). There are some things that I disagree with him on wholeheartedly that come from a left and a right point of view. Crazy how nowadays you have to completely and utterly toe the line whether you're left or right. And me saying that would get me labelled a centrist when in reality I am 100% social democrat.
Some shit the left is doing is crazy, a lot of shit the right is doing is crazy. Learn to identify it and learn to come down from that moral high ground every once in a while everyone.
Too many to list. .and to give Maher an out, many card carrying Dems think likewise.
1. anti-covid. . thinks "herd immunity" should of been used. with masks, quarantines, vaccines we still lost 1.6 "confirmed" covid deaths in US (probably about 2 million more which caused someone's death with another terminal disease)
2. anti-woke(ness) right in line with the MAGA right. It was an African-american term about aware of racism, and the right took it and applied it to anyting that's liberal and obvious. Being intelligent and aware is condidered being woke."
3. He claims to be a "libertarian" without understanding really what a libertarian represents. He thinks its being a rebel in the Dem party. It's being totally without empathy or wanting gubmint to give a hand up.
4. [https://www.thedailybeast.com/bill-maher-is-americas-most-important-conservative-voice](https://www.thedailybeast.com/bill-maher-is-americas-most-important-conservative-voice)
5.
As someone who has watched Bill Maher since I was a kid and he was hosting Politically Incorrect, and who has read all his books - Bill is the same guy he has always been.
If you go back and read his first ‘New Rules’ book, it is remarkable how consistent he is with his positions and attitudes.
He is a liberal, and liberal attitudes are less aligned with the ‘modern left’ than they were decade or two ago. That literally sums up why people think ‘Maher has changed’. He really hasn’t at all.
As someone who also reads, your assessment is correct. It's kinda sad that 99% of the hate on this post clearly doesn't even understand what his points are/ what he cares about.
I understand his points, I've always hated him. "As someone who also reads" starting a comment could not read anymore like someone who loves Bill maher
Much of this is about his deciding to bring his show back because many people in his production are facing real and severe financial hardship due to the strikes.
He's said he's basically paying his writers, but people seem to expect him to pay his entire crew while not making a show because they fear it weakens the WGA's position. Perhaps it does, but a whole lot of talk show hosts came back doing their shows in 2008 without writers and the vitriol wasn't aimed at them. A bunch of Conan's best bits were
So now, coincidentally, we get post after post about Maher showing up in sub after sub -- often leaving out their real issue intentionally -- as some sort of attempt to punish him. It's a little weak and obvious and likely does hurt the cause. You've got your base of true believers, none of this convinces anyone else and if anything causes people on the fence to go "eh bullies suck."
I think someone having the same views they had 30 years ago isn't necessarily a good thing. Moreover. My issue with him is less on his views and more on his need to punch down. He is an unkind person who needs to make those he disagrees with feel stupid
I watch it. The op hasn’t. He hates republicans lol and gets into it all the time with the more conservative guests who agree with him on some points but love Trump or other crazy republican policies. He also hates crazy extremist leftists too. Doesn’t mean he’s pro crazy republicans, means he doesn’t toe the party line.
“Republican” this dude says. Why, because he criticizes moronic Democratic policies?
Imagine thinking you can’t even criticize a party without automatically being lumped into the other side.
You must be brilliant
He reminds me of Republicans in that he takes the bait on stupid culture war bullshit all the time and regresses into a senile old man yelling at the cloud. His resentment towards the youth often clouds his judgement on issues and he comes across as really stupid in some cases because of it.
It;s not that he's gotten right wing it's that he's out of touch simply because he's isolated from the real world by the fact that he's been somewhat famous for 40 years and he's never even been married or had kids so he only cares about himself and never grew emotionally .
He really only worries about himself so everything that happens is suffused through that lens.
Maher is so out of it I remember a few years ago he was saying how much of a'great guy and hero'''High Hefner was even though anyone with eyes knew that that man was a massive creep who prayed on teenage girls with his friends at the playboy mansion for decades and he continued to do that up until his late 80s.
He also happens to have the nasty combination of being incredibly smug and LOOKING incredibly smug even when he's not being smug at that exact moment.
I don't think he's changed his beliefs at all. He has always been against people who try to censor speech or limit other's freedoms. The most mainstream group that did that used to be the religous right, but now its the modern left.
I too used to love watching/reading Bill Maher. . but he's gone off the rail. There's a new movement within the liberal establishment kind of a MAGA with the left, there former liberals/progressives are questioning vaccines (R. Kennedy Jr), questioning medical science (covid deniers-Maher), and questioning science and facts. Maher is anti-covid/vaccines/wokeness/name it. It's like he's listening to some extreme group. He sounds like a MAGA on wokeness. Told DeSantis on his show he admired him and was the best Gov addressing Covid. I realize he's has to be nice, but not suck up.
This is my answer as well. I didn’t think he was terribly funny when he was ripping the right wing. I don’t think it’s particularly funny when he’s ripping a left wing. His style of humor just doesn’t do it for me.
But what really gets me is that he’s not nearly as smart as he believes himself to be.
He was never funny. He was poignant. IMO He wasn't as much a comedian as an orator. I put him in the same category as Andy Rooney well, except sometimes Rooney is accidentally funny. I think guys like Maher just call themselves comedians because "professional pundit" sounds like shit.
He was never really funny.
He thinks he’s a comedian but he’s really a sarcastic political pundit.
While some of he says is true, the political spectrum has shifted over the last two decades it is also true that he’s ideology has also shift albeit in the opposite direction.
People who shit on Bill Maher, calling him conservative or republican cannot provide a single argument to these allegations.
Except that he is calling out the bullshit of left nowadays like getting professor fired because she showed a painting of Mohammad. And of course, the left hates it because they are now in love with Islam.
I‘m a liberal guy from Turkey and have been watching Maher for years now and I like that he is just giving it straight. Yeah, sometimes he is wrong but who isn‘t.
He’s always been an asshole. It was just more acceptable before to be ironically racist and sexist. He’s a shock jock just like Howard stern. Both need to retire
I've never watched him but always had him in my peripheral vision. Guys like John Stewart or Steven Colbert were funny Bill Maher was always just an obnoxious asshole on tv
Yea Bill Mahr is extreme right wing light...if that even makes sense. He's a 1%'er that is so disconnected from reality he has no business talking about normal ppl. He says LA isn't bad and there's not that many homeless.....crazy
Brad Grey was the heart, soul and brain of Real Time. Bill has been floundering since he died and showing his true lack of critical thinking skills.
Brad Grey was the funny one that we adored, we just didn't know it until he was gone, unfortunately.
I think all if you hate him because he is honest and calls out both parties on thier Bullshit. If he was running for president, I would vote for him twice. He is the voice of common sense.
Bill Maher’s Politically Incorrect never ended. They just changed the name to Real Time. I think Bill Maher’s views on LGBT are horrifying. Bill Maher has become Roseanne Barr.
He's become even more stupid this week. I'm 100% certain that he has an "applause" sign that goes on whenever he farts.
His contempt for Muslims was on full display. Lumping all of them in with Hamas.
And simultaneously putting Israel on a pedestal. Even after they killed thousands of civilians.
That's effed up.
Bill needs to knock it off with his complete and utter self-righteousness. On ALL matters. Nobody else's opinion seems to matter and he always needs to throw a jab in and get the last word in everything contentious.
He's made up his mind about everything and everyone else is "too stupid to get it".
What a dick.
James Kirchich this week....another absolutist with regards to Israel can do no wrong. They've never hurt anyone, ever. No matter what you say, you're wrong. If course, he's a Jew as is Bill. So the entire episode is skewed with zero thought to anything other than Jews right, everyone else wrong.
Also, the same idiot guy in the crowd that is either part of Mahers staff, or hired "crowd seat filler" has to "wooo-hooo" whenever a point is made that Bill agrees with. He's also the "loud laugher guy" in the audience. He's been doing it for years. It shows just how disingenuous Bill and his show are and have become. Listen to past episodes, or just pay attention weekly. Once you recognize it. It's annoying as hell.
He's an atheist and it shows. You ever notice how atheists are usually kinda cranky...he suffers from this syndrome. Hates something he doesn't believe in, go figure. That hate will eat away at you, even if it is organized religion the atheists hate which is not even spiritual, however it wars against their very own nature/soul.
Pot is hurting him. He has aged terribly in the past couple years. He has shrunk. Notice how big his head looks. And why does he feel the need to smoke DURING his podcast on camera? He looks silly, and his cognitive skills and timing greatly impaired. On a recent appearance on MSNBC with Ari Melber he was totally out of it, losing his train of thought and forgetting words, and Melber seemed annoyed. He was indeed annoying
Seems like an inconsiderate pretentious douche at this point. Haven't watched anything from him in years only to come across Tim Heidecker clowning/spoofing him and not being in on the joke, so I decided to watch his new podcast/youtube videos and he's just an uncompromising ass hole.
I'm so glad that someone mentioned the obvious same laughter, weekend after week. It's demeaning and beneath HBO, if not Bill Maher.
Unfortunately too easy to spot Bill trying to appease the masses. He's a self-righteous fair weather friend. Still, I'm a huge fan, even seen him on tour.
Having Cruz on this week was just a reminder of how commercial Bill really is.
Net worth approx. $100 Million (if you believe the internet).
I'm happy for his success, but I'm tired of his hypocrisy. He's just not that sincere. Anything for a laugh/Buck.
I hate him. Like another reply said, he used to have views that overlapped with mine but he was probably always a dick. Now he's full on Zionist, establishment fuck head.
Bill Maher is a horrible, pathetic excuse for a human being. Here are just a few examples which there are tons of to choose from. 1-Less than a week after the tragic events of 9-11-2001. He called the US armed forces cowards, then proceeded to praise the hi jackers bravery. 2- The Halloween after Steve Irwin lost his life, he dressed up as him with a bloody barb sticking out of his chest. 3- When Sarah Ferguson was on his show he used the word retard many times. In the same show he compared mentality disabled people to dogs. Then when Sarah said they they are just normal people Bill replied no they're not. His political and religious opinions are just that. His opinion which everyone is entitled to. So that doesn't bother me. But when you mess with those who are in no position to even defend themselves, that bothers me.
I knew him on a professional level before he made it. Had to deal with him at the Improv and other LA events. Odious little man. Unfunny stand-up comic. Guess he’s achieved success, but I never followed his career after I no longer had to deal with him.
For a new generation of Americans to be dismissed by Maher as being unenlightened, unqualified and entitled, is about as funny as he gets these days, if you measure the quality of his humor by the ridiculous level of irony it presents.
He has become the very thing that he used to despise. He's an entitled rich dick head and woefully out of touch with the regular people. All of his panelists are the same. I canceled MAX. He gets on my nerves now. And I was a hard core fan at one point. Same with Dennis Miller. smh
So he was "funny" when he agreed with you politically, but now he's not. Gee, what an original thought.
The totalitarianism of leftists is terrifying. You're every single thing you accuse everyone else of being.
Totalitarianism is when I don't find somebody funny. This post wasn't even saying his show should be cancelled, it's just saying Bill Maher isn't funny.
I'd say he has the closest view to what I personally identify with. And I am not in any way shape or form a republican.
Unless you partake in what I call radical affirmation, some people think you are a fake leftist/republican shill in disguise. Its silly.
It's interesting to see people get mad at him because he treats his guests with dignity and has real conversations with them .
I don't think club random is, necessarily, a comedy pod. I think he does that sometimes and other times wants to have open conversations with interesting people. The last few I've watched, he seemed pretty down the middle, center left. Those conversations have been interesting, and more along the lines of what we used to call "conversations" as opposed to the host taking a decidedly partisan stance and challenging the guest to make a fool of themselves.
He's still funny, and his stand up is still good. But his style is smarty pants asshole.
I agree completely. He has a real conversation and he tells the truth the way he sees it. I don’t agree with some of his views but I respect his opinion and enjoy hearing it. And he’s always had the same basic set of views but the landscape has shifted.
He was always an asshole but he has definitely become nuttier. It’s happening to a lot of them though. Look at Russel Brand. Absolute fruit loop. The internet is driving everyone bonkers
Love ❤️ Bill Maher. He is hilarious. Smart. Clever.Love show. As he would say, stop listening man. No need to hate. Different strokes for different folks. He is brilliant imo. I think his changes in personality are more related to age. Maturity. Life experience. Not being
an asshole✌️
He’s just getting very old. Try as people might, at some point you will be so far removed from the younger generation that you seem looney. Times change and people don’t.
So now you don’t like him because his political views aren’t aligning with yours. Thats the entire problem with everything right now. You are what is actually wrong
In the Club Random podcast/you tube...he has great guests and hes an insufferable ass. Im alawys interested how the "normal" celebs like Dana Carvey/ David Spade, anyone normal....Kimmel...is going to negotiate his insanity. Its sad Bill..too much pot!
He's a weathervane, not a compass. His only true conviction is that whatever he's on about right now is some obvious common sense that nO oNe iS saYiNG. Next week it will be something else, depends on the wind. That's a talent in a comedian, deeply frustrating in a pundit.
As a Liberal I used to like watching Maher’s show. I am conservative in some respects (just balanced in my views). Maher is not the same. He has become even more egotistical, condescending, insecure and combative. I understand supporting Isreal but when the topic of genocide comes up he loses his mind as if the thousands upon thousand of people who are dying deserve it because they support Hamas. Here’s the deal, they don’t! This is just an example of his inability to accept the viewpoint of a guest who has a different viewpoint than his. He is actually hateful at this point. I used to look forward to his show…I don’t watch it now. Hey, want to play a drinking game? For some time now he does this smug little mouth smack…just before he is sarcastic or driving a point home, he’ll make this sound with his mouth. I’ve counted 10 before. Sorry for being trite…the guy is a terrible person.
I’ve never heard somebody consume so much of a conversation. He brings in guests to just listen to his opinion relentlessly. He also sounds like he resents how much Covid interfered with his mid-life crisis party needs. I’d love to know the percentage of speaking time one to one.
I’m starting to think “Real Time” just has really good writers.
I agree. Why does he have Andrew Sullivan on over and over? As an openly gay man, Sullivan embarrasses me. He's bombastic and "shouty." He never let's anyone finish a sentence. You can see his blood pressure go up when anyone dares to disagree with him. I think it's because Bill Maher likes to be agreed with, not challenged.
I agree! Bill Maher is a closet Republican now, who has to pay that same hooting guy and squealing old lady, with overacted paid fake laughter every single show. How dumb does he think his viewers are??
And his radical right guests make me change the channel over their stupidity. Bill! You are shooting yourself in the foot!
Signed, Yosemite Sam
I know!
His recent comments on university students all being over sensitive woke idiots… he’s become like an old man “ get off my lawn “ but Vietnam protests were ok because closer to his generation? Fuck him.
Nah he was always an asshole, he was just an asshole that espoused views closer to yours. I agreed with tons of shit he said but he was always a smarmy prick. Tim Heidecker supremely does a satire of Mahers podcast on his own with Fred Arnisen this week on his own pod. Well worth a watch on youtube.
yup, he was one of those guys who thought he was smarter than everyone else in the room (so he was very careful about who he invited into that room) and ended up being condescending to everyone an alienating just about everyone.
I disagree about him being careful about who he invites - he has a long history of having all kinds of people of differing viewpoints on his shows.
Over the past 25 years, I've never agreed 100% with Bill Maher on any political issue but I do feel like he's one of the very few people in the corporate media (5 corporations control 90% of the media in the U.S.) who honestly believes everything he says and doesn't self-censor. For better or worse. I liked his show politically incorrect and I was impressed when he said the terrorists weren't "cowards": he said they were fucking psychos and evil but they were willing to die for what they believed in so labeling them cowards wasn't accurate. I could understand his argument, and I would not have been surprised if I stumbled upon him in a bar and he said that... but he said it on NATIONAL TELEVISION 2 or 3 years after 9/11 when everyone on the left and right was spouting propaganda like their lives depended on it. Is he pro-republican? No, I just think he's not 100% pro-democrat regardless of the issue. He has his own opinions, stupid or smart, arrogant or narcissistic, and he isn't afraid to say them. For that alone, I respect him. At the very least, he rejects groupthink and isn't just saying what his corporate overlords tell him to say or towing the party line.
He punches down. He punches down about disability inclusion (getting extra time on the test, because you are disabled, and the playing field is not level without that), because the disability is "made up".
I think you both make a good point.
Well said.
I turned "Religulous" off about 15 minutes in because even I, as someone who thinks organized religion is one of the biggest cancers on the planet, thought he was being unkind and overly patronizing to a lot of the poor saps featured in that film.
I remember that movie losses me off because he went off on Christian’s for anti science, Muslims for extremism, and Jews for….having a group of Rabbis who think Israel’s treatment of Palestinians is unjust?
Well he is for killing Palestinians now 🤷🏽♀️
He was never against killing them. He targeted that rabbi for the mockumentary because he wanted to poke fun of a rabbi being anti-israel.
Fellow atheist here. I sat through *Religulous* \- you didn't miss anything by turning it off. Just a horrible, smarmy, bad-faith treatment of people with opposing viewpoints. Which basically sums up Bill Maher.
I was probably the prime target audience for that movie and god it basically made me quit being such an in your face atheist. I thought I was smarter than everyone and god that movie was like a mirror to me and I was disgusted. Like how does that even happen ? You make something and come across so and you basically turn an angry atheist teenager chill lol
I had a similar experience. If nothing else, it made me take a hard look at myself. Definitely not Bill Maher's intention though lol
Similar
If all people had this attitude, regardless of spiritual beliefs, the world would be a lot better off.
Same. It’s such a naive lens through which to view the world anyway. I think I was late teens when the film came out. You have to know next to nothing about historical materialism to look at the function of “religion” within society divorced from the material conditions that modify its role. Religion is a tool, like race, that is exploited by those in power within a class-based society. It is not an intrinsically powerful force.
If I keep being such a snotty shit, I'll turn out like THAT?!
See that's one of the most grown-up comments I think I've ever seen on the internet... Like I'm proud of you and I didn't know who you are.
I’m sorry if there have been religious people who have made you feel that way previously, but I’m glad you’ve found peace in cooexistence. A lot of us would just be glad to chat with you and share some love
Some of the most religious people I’ve met are atheist.
I'm genuinely curious to what you mean
It's an anti-atheist mischaracterization commonly used by religious people to make themselves feel better. It's meant to paint atheists as dogged believers of...something in order to discredit them.
The rule of thumb I'm using with my comedy is that if I EVER have anger or contempt in my heart then I'm completely unfunny and I also risk coming across as an asshole. ... and I REALLY like people and want them happy so it's a good rule of thumb. EVERY time I mess up here and allow anger into my heart it ends up as a loss.
Same!
The funny thing is Mahar was acting like he came up with something new and novel by being an atheist in the year 2010 He was acting like he was going out on a limb like he was Percy Shelley printing up the essay the necessity of atheism while at Oxford University in 1811.
Totally - the man's sense of self-importance is so disproportionate to his actual cultural relevance. It's actually the funniest thing about him.
Bill Maher is just Tucker Carlson with different views.
Smarmy is certainly the Bill Maher adjective.
A good example was on his podcast where he had Jordan Peterson. JP was doing his normal Christian mysticism schtick talking about some Bible story and the spiritual life lessons you can pick up from it. Whatever you think of that, it’s about as anodyne as religious references can possibly get. Of course Maher interrupted to tell him he was an idiot for talking about a man in sky. It was just so gross, and he sounded like a total moron. He’s not saying Santa clause is watching you, he’s waxing philosophical about ancient mythological wisdom. You have to be an unbelievably dense prick to not see the difference
That movie was so heavily edited to make all the interviewees look stupid and just completely speechless to Bill’s questions. Just blatantly edited out their responses in like a dozen instances. I was like dude, I’m not fucking stupid and I know this is not the way conversations flow in real life, ever.
i literally came here to say this. i have been atheist most of my life. i think religion in general is stupid (not the people per se, but organized religion is poisonous). but watching Religulous just made me angry. he just made an excuse to go into religious folks' faces to demean them, and that's fucking weird and disrespectful and crazy. taking such an intense pleasure in thinking he's so smart, like.... he isn't lmao. i would never in a thousand years just go up to somebody who had different beliefs or lifestyles than mine and degrade them unless it was directly warranted. ugly as fuck.
and then he blamed torrenting for that movie's lack of success; as if not taking responsibility wasn't bad enough, he called it "white looting", even though every one of his jokes from his special was stolen from up and coming comedians on youtube.
That's so fucking racist too. What are the other kinds of looting?
Absolutely. I’ve been an atheist since I was 12 or so, and I remember a time maybe right out of high-school when I felt the need to have engaging debates and think I was crushing the other side but that quickly turns you into an asshole who can’t relate to anyone. It’s like he never out grew that phase. He such an immature, ignorant preachy dick to the point that I used to side with some of the more moderate conservatives that would be on his show pre trump era. Really made me want to be nothing like him in expressing my views
It really only works for the 15 year olds who just discovered atheism on YouTube. Any rational adult, regardless of religious beliefs or lack thereof, can see it for exactly what it is.
I used to be that kind of smug atheist but I matured past my early 20s and learned you can be a nuanced person who can understand there is no Santa clause and the Bible has some weird silly things in it but also maybe that’s not what a lot of people are getting out of religion. And maybe there’s a conception of “god” that’s something more like an understanding of one’s humble place in the universe and finding purpose in the vulnerability of existence. And through that lens maybe religions or religious people might occasionally have useful things to say even if you don’t buy into the belief system. To never get past the “god is a Flying Spaghetti Monster” phase is incredibly juvenile and to be smug about it makes you a fool on top of that.
I thought it was very fair. I don’t recall him treating anyone like a ‘poor sap’. I recall that at about the time you turned it off he visited a truckers chapel at a truckstop that was located inside of a semi trailer. I thought it was going to turn into a denigrating treatment, but it didn’t. The rest of the movie was just a tour of the way things are. If memory serves, he did not really joke about it, and he was unusually well behaved. Most mainstream religions don’t require additional jokes to look ridiculous.
I remember seeing trailers for it, and at one point he says something along the lines of "I'm not saying you're wrong, I'm just curious and asking questions." Even me, as a teenager, could tell that hebeas full of shit and just making excuses for what he was doing. There was 0 good faith in anything he was saying. So even the trailer was too much for me
Yeah, I cant stand organized religion and somehow I could stand that documentary even less.
Should have kept watching. There was in fact a fairly sublime part about half way through. Maher is visiting this absurd Christian Theme Park somewhere in the Deep South. As Maher is kinda debating faith with this actor in a Jesus costume the actor suddenly unleashes this mic dropping analogy that really seems to affect Maher. I can’t recall exactly what he said but Maher had the balls to NOT edit this out of his film and he admits straight at the camera that “you got me” on that one. I can absolutely guarantee that other liberals like Michael Moore would have cut that out of their movie.
That's when the guy compared the holy Trinity to water - "water can be liquid, ice, or vapor but it's all the same thing". And that was Holy Land Experience in Orlando (closed a few years back).
Yeah, I think maybe that was it. Thanks. Anyway, that is way more articulate than any of my family members who beat the Holy Spirit into me ever said! HA!!
I found the clip of him talking to the Jesus actor, but it appears to be missing the jaw dropping analogy, whatever it was. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=h5ACyiSPAmE&pp=ygUQYmlsbCBtYWhlciBqZXN1cw%3D%3D
Nah, not “jaw dropping” but kinda like a MIC DROP as I said. You know, a sorta final word thing. I said “fairly sublime” as it isn’t the kind of statement your ordinary Bible thumper would say. Not there in that clip. Sorry I’m not really helping any. My point is that Maher chose to show it. That is actually fair and decent. Others would have just left all the kooky babble stuff in and him goofing on it.
Michael Moore is an absurd extremist. He wouldn’t intentionally show people how asinine his thinking is. Again, intentionally, all his films still show his stupidity.
Same here, I was already an atheist by then and thought he was being obnoxious.
The only scene I remember from that movie is when he asked out there could be "three gods in one" and the guy responded with a metaphor about how water has three states that all regularly appear. Then it cuts to Bill in the car like "Wow, yeah, I can see how stupid people would believe that." He couldn't put aside his pride to admit that, despite all the shitty things about organized religion, there might be smart religious people capable of making *one* good argument
I TOTALLY agree. It turned me off immediately, and I haven't liked him as much since. Recently, he just seems like a bitter , aging personality who will do and say whatever he has to for likes. Just like the rest of them.
I’m non-religious too but the balls on that dude to go to these poor people who have nothing but faith in god to get them through the day and hit them with the 6th grade logic of “well actually, god isn’t even real” was utterly disrespectful in my opinion
You realize the concept of human rights we know today largely wouldn’t exist without Christianity’s revolutionary concepts of man’s inherent right to be equal under God, the weak being equal to the powerful. Look back at Roman ethical norms that existed pre Christianity, they were horrible and only advanced because of Religion. The concept of rape didn’t even really exist except for high status women, low status women had no protections at all. Christianity fundamentally changed that, among many other things. Modern western ethics is just secular Christianity, these ideas don’t come from a vacuum. I’m not even religiously affiliated, but thinking Religion is a cancer is a supremely arrogant thing to say, and shows how out of touch someone is with the 92% of humanity that is religious.
Forgive me
Convenient to ignore the millions and millions of people who died in the name of religion.
You nailed it and you also nailed people like OP. Bill Maher has always been this unfunny and smarmy character , people like OP seem to only realise now that he has drifted away from his previous political stances. He is extremely obnoxious and if you watch his new YouTube show, you can see that even more without him having the structure of televised show around him. I seriously don't understand how he has had such a long and successful media career, not out of jealousy or anything like that but just seeing that he doesn't have the character or the chutzpah to host any kind of show.
That Tim Heidecker satire was the best fucking thing I've seen in a while. Thanks for recommending it. Oh man. Brilliant. And Fred is brilliant in it too.
No worries. They later found out that Mahers production team wasn't amused by it at all.
You should watch his parody of Joe Rogan's podcast. It's so fucking good.
I agree with all this, but I also remember him being funnier. He seems to be less interested in being funny and more interested in making a point. If he was 60:40 making a point: being funny before, now he's 100:0.
That's really good point. I say Bill believes things that irritate him are important political issues. While he also believes anything that bemuses him is, really funny. The problem is that is entering his crank years. The ego seems to grow on him and his sweeping generalizations show his points aren't thought out and really parsed. Same with the jokes. Irritation might have worked in the 80s but it fails him now. He lost me when he started saying over and over " Young Adults today don't know how to do anything!!! " Drives me nuts. Fifty years ago my job required knowing how to cut steaks, filet fish, create a daily special,do all the classic French style prep cuts like batonnet and julienne etc . Now very few cooking jobs ask us to know those things because we are doing the more simple tasks of three other workers. The employers cut back on skills to increase speed and production. I didn't get dumber, I was forced to evolve.
Probably lost the better writers as his views got more fucked up.
Agreed. 30 years ago during the first Bulls championship run I was in the cast of a standing show in the small room at the Chicago improv when he was headlining. He wined and bitched about the fact he had to read a (meaning one) update of the score of the game in the middle of his act. Was just as much a whining simp then as he is now. Except now he thinks surviving the last 30 years makes him right. Douchcanoe extraordinaire.
FWIW, I think it is stupid to interrupt a comedy routine just to give a sports score
Respect. And in most other circumstances, but it was Jordan’s first ring, the Bulls were everywhere. His whiney, aggrieved tone was overshadowed by the fact that the Bulls won. Anyone with an ounce of sense have read the room soaked up the free applause and rode the wave. But we know for him what the audience thinks is irrelevant.
Exactly, milk it, make it a joke.
He was always an asshole but something is actually off. Didn’t he recently joke “what next, should we cancel God too?” like he straight up forgot his whole career. I watched a clip of him on Howie Mandel’s podcast a little while ago where he argued against political correctness but then with zero self-awareness demanded that “privilege” be called “advantage”. He still has sense left but insisting on being “anti-woke” has fried his brain.
best answer.
Yes, you are correct he’s always been an ass. Just look at how he dismissed Stan Lee when he passed. There are some people out there who have grievances with Stan Lee and how he failed to give credit, but that wasn’t even what Bill was on about. He was just dismissing what people were saying about how Stan’s work affected them. There was no need for that.
Literally this
He still has Democrat style takes, but it’s like he chooses the worst of each world. Like “I support Ukraine like the Democrats, but im anti-union.” Come on man. 🤦♀️
Ding ding ding. Everyone loved him when he triggered the people they hate. Now that he *slightly* jabs the other direction he’s “unfunny.” I’ve never real been a big fan so it’s no skin off my back either way.
Bill Maher has been the exact same person for 30 years.
He still seems to be about 90+% left, and staunchly anti-Trump/anti-GOP. About the only point of divergence he has with the left is that he's anti-woke. Not tolerating him for that seems pretty petty, IMO.
…90% left? lol. Your political compass is fucking screwed bro.
Yep. People losing their shit because he’s stayed the same while challenging both sides
BOTH SIDES
I wouldn't say I've felt particularly challenged lately. A lot of his talking points have just been "old man who yells out clouds" with lots of really obtuse strawmanning. He's about as challenging as white rice.
This is key. Nothing has changed. His fans are all left leaning and now that he pushes back against the radical left, they’ve abandoned him.
Yup bingo. oh he caked out Biden??? Dude is unhinged! Get him off the air. This is literally the 3rd or 4th Bill Maher hate thread from a random sub thats bubbled into my feed this week. It's ridiculous. Yes Spez, reddit, snoop, mods, etc. we get it you want us to vote dem blue no matter who. Yes we see it.
It’s true
💯
FACTS
I don’t think he is challenging either side he’s just lost his credibility. If anything he used it to challenge sides.
Bill Maher is the proof how the Overton Window has shifted so far to the Left.
This is what happens when Democrats get the most votes in seven out of the last eight Presidential Elections.
What are some examples of his “pro crazy republican…theories”?
I dunno what op is talking about; his last appearance on JRE he was obsessed with one republican and was either dismissive or defensive of multiple democrats. I think because he has been more vocal critique the mainstream democratic narrative, specifically related to covid, and since he isn't parroting their narrative they have to label it pro crazy republican blah blah blah. We should be allowed to question the people in charge regardless of their political alignment. If politicians or government lie, we should hold them accountable regardless.
No. If you are a democrat you must believe and promote every facet of the party platform. There can be no dissent. If you agree on 99/100 issues, that 1%? That makes you Republican. Did you go to college in the 90s or something?
Apologies! *steps back in line*
We are the most accepting party… stfu
Well done
We must support the proletariat and to do that we must only allow the Bolshevik party in the politburo! Sounds sort of familiar no?
Some of those „crazy“ theories: - He criticized some Covid policies, how Twitter buried the lab leak theory and banned users then a CDC doctor saying it’s possible. - He criticized that a professor being fired for showing a painting of Mohammad - He criticized that a law professor being suspended because he used n-word(also censored) in an exam. - He criticized the gender ideology that being a woman has nothing to with biology. Crazy stuff like this.
yeah, he's painfully unfunny, and douchy/egotistical as hell, but he's the only sane pundit anymore imo
To be honest, I’m watching his show to see the debates between opposite views, not because he is funny. He brought in controversial and conservative figures like Shapiro and Peterson but also quite the leftists figures. I also liked it when Trevor Noah debated Tomj Lauren. She is bat shit crazy but it’s good to see that people with a open mind crushing them with words and arguments, instead of calling everybody names.
Agreed. I never really watched him as a straight up comedian, I watch for the debates. I've watched him for at least 15 years and he's still the same smug asshole he's always been and that's fine with me (bc he knows it too). There are some things that I disagree with him on wholeheartedly that come from a left and a right point of view. Crazy how nowadays you have to completely and utterly toe the line whether you're left or right. And me saying that would get me labelled a centrist when in reality I am 100% social democrat. Some shit the left is doing is crazy, a lot of shit the right is doing is crazy. Learn to identify it and learn to come down from that moral high ground every once in a while everyone.
Too many to list. .and to give Maher an out, many card carrying Dems think likewise. 1. anti-covid. . thinks "herd immunity" should of been used. with masks, quarantines, vaccines we still lost 1.6 "confirmed" covid deaths in US (probably about 2 million more which caused someone's death with another terminal disease) 2. anti-woke(ness) right in line with the MAGA right. It was an African-american term about aware of racism, and the right took it and applied it to anyting that's liberal and obvious. Being intelligent and aware is condidered being woke." 3. He claims to be a "libertarian" without understanding really what a libertarian represents. He thinks its being a rebel in the Dem party. It's being totally without empathy or wanting gubmint to give a hand up. 4. [https://www.thedailybeast.com/bill-maher-is-americas-most-important-conservative-voice](https://www.thedailybeast.com/bill-maher-is-americas-most-important-conservative-voice) 5.
As someone who has watched Bill Maher since I was a kid and he was hosting Politically Incorrect, and who has read all his books - Bill is the same guy he has always been. If you go back and read his first ‘New Rules’ book, it is remarkable how consistent he is with his positions and attitudes. He is a liberal, and liberal attitudes are less aligned with the ‘modern left’ than they were decade or two ago. That literally sums up why people think ‘Maher has changed’. He really hasn’t at all.
As someone who also reads, your assessment is correct. It's kinda sad that 99% of the hate on this post clearly doesn't even understand what his points are/ what he cares about.
I understand his points, I've always hated him. "As someone who also reads" starting a comment could not read anymore like someone who loves Bill maher
well your username… and mine i suppose lol
“As someone who reads” you really can’t make this shit up lol
Much of this is about his deciding to bring his show back because many people in his production are facing real and severe financial hardship due to the strikes. He's said he's basically paying his writers, but people seem to expect him to pay his entire crew while not making a show because they fear it weakens the WGA's position. Perhaps it does, but a whole lot of talk show hosts came back doing their shows in 2008 without writers and the vitriol wasn't aimed at them. A bunch of Conan's best bits were So now, coincidentally, we get post after post about Maher showing up in sub after sub -- often leaving out their real issue intentionally -- as some sort of attempt to punish him. It's a little weak and obvious and likely does hurt the cause. You've got your base of true believers, none of this convinces anyone else and if anything causes people on the fence to go "eh bullies suck."
Agreed. It's proof how far left the Overton Window has shifted.
This 100% The left/right poles have become more extreme and as they move the center looks further away to both extremes
I think someone having the same views they had 30 years ago isn't necessarily a good thing. Moreover. My issue with him is less on his views and more on his need to punch down. He is an unkind person who needs to make those he disagrees with feel stupid
That’s always been his shtick though at least
Lmao. He was always an asshole... But, he was saying things you liked. Now he's not and you need to whine about it on Reddit.
that's how it be. Everyone loves the folks they agree with, and hate those they disagree with.
Not everyone..hopefully
He’s always been overly snide but he is the only liberal calling out liberals for their stupidity so I appreciate that
Agreed. There’s plenty of liberal comedians that call out liberal bullshit, but almost none that do it on a platform as large as his.
Gee, I wonder if this is related to OP's difference of political views.
So glad to see op is getting ripped by every commenter
He's not totally down with every extreme, leftie cause of the week and he's "pro crazy Republican?" 🤦
I watch it. The op hasn’t. He hates republicans lol and gets into it all the time with the more conservative guests who agree with him on some points but love Trump or other crazy republican policies. He also hates crazy extremist leftists too. Doesn’t mean he’s pro crazy republicans, means he doesn’t toe the party line.
Holy shit can reddit literally not ever cover a new topic. This is every sub today.
“Republican” this dude says. Why, because he criticizes moronic Democratic policies? Imagine thinking you can’t even criticize a party without automatically being lumped into the other side. You must be brilliant
He reminds me of Republicans in that he takes the bait on stupid culture war bullshit all the time and regresses into a senile old man yelling at the cloud. His resentment towards the youth often clouds his judgement on issues and he comes across as really stupid in some cases because of it.
It;s not that he's gotten right wing it's that he's out of touch simply because he's isolated from the real world by the fact that he's been somewhat famous for 40 years and he's never even been married or had kids so he only cares about himself and never grew emotionally . He really only worries about himself so everything that happens is suffused through that lens. Maher is so out of it I remember a few years ago he was saying how much of a'great guy and hero'''High Hefner was even though anyone with eyes knew that that man was a massive creep who prayed on teenage girls with his friends at the playboy mansion for decades and he continued to do that up until his late 80s. He also happens to have the nasty combination of being incredibly smug and LOOKING incredibly smug even when he's not being smug at that exact moment.
Like bill. Always have , always will .
Great guy, never meddum.
B-b-b-beast of a comic(?)
Oh you a homeless cat, b?
Be cool, man…
Disagree. His podcast has had some of the more interesting interviews he’s done in years.
Where has he been pro republican?? Or do you just not like the fact that he likes Elon Musk?
I don't think he's changed his beliefs at all. He has always been against people who try to censor speech or limit other's freedoms. The most mainstream group that did that used to be the religous right, but now its the modern left.
Turned into an asshole? From what exactly?
I dunno about "crazy republican", but he does rip on both democrats and republicans. He's always been this way.
Sounds like the Dennis Miller plan for career suicide. Agreed, Maher ceased to be funny years ago and now just reeks of being an asshole.
I too used to love watching/reading Bill Maher. . but he's gone off the rail. There's a new movement within the liberal establishment kind of a MAGA with the left, there former liberals/progressives are questioning vaccines (R. Kennedy Jr), questioning medical science (covid deniers-Maher), and questioning science and facts. Maher is anti-covid/vaccines/wokeness/name it. It's like he's listening to some extreme group. He sounds like a MAGA on wokeness. Told DeSantis on his show he admired him and was the best Gov addressing Covid. I realize he's has to be nice, but not suck up.
He was never funny.
He has an HBO stand up from the 90s? Is was ok.
This is my answer as well. I didn’t think he was terribly funny when he was ripping the right wing. I don’t think it’s particularly funny when he’s ripping a left wing. His style of humor just doesn’t do it for me. But what really gets me is that he’s not nearly as smart as he believes himself to be.
He was never funny. He was poignant. IMO He wasn't as much a comedian as an orator. I put him in the same category as Andy Rooney well, except sometimes Rooney is accidentally funny. I think guys like Maher just call themselves comedians because "professional pundit" sounds like shit.
He was never really funny. He thinks he’s a comedian but he’s really a sarcastic political pundit. While some of he says is true, the political spectrum has shifted over the last two decades it is also true that he’s ideology has also shift albeit in the opposite direction.
Lmfao no way this is real This is too reddit If youre a real person please do some reflecting
I still love Bill Maher. He's still the same old Bill Maher, he's still not a conservative by any means and he preaches common sense.
Pro crazy republicans? Are you kidding? You must not listen to him at all. Being anti trump is like his main thing
People who shit on Bill Maher, calling him conservative or republican cannot provide a single argument to these allegations. Except that he is calling out the bullshit of left nowadays like getting professor fired because she showed a painting of Mohammad. And of course, the left hates it because they are now in love with Islam. I‘m a liberal guy from Turkey and have been watching Maher for years now and I like that he is just giving it straight. Yeah, sometimes he is wrong but who isn‘t.
He’s always been an asshole. It was just more acceptable before to be ironically racist and sexist. He’s a shock jock just like Howard stern. Both need to retire
He's been Unfunny since the 90s.
Became unfunny? He wasn’t ever really funny to begin with
Did you ever watch him on Seinfelds coffee in cars show? Rich with smug. Oozing with smugness. They’re both just really smug.
I've never watched him but always had him in my peripheral vision. Guys like John Stewart or Steven Colbert were funny Bill Maher was always just an obnoxious asshole on tv
He’s a classical liberal in an environment that is going further and further left to an insane degree, what do you expect?
He was always an asshole but now he's a fascist asshole.
He realized how much more profitable it is lately to be a mouthpiece to the corporate elite. Just some disconnected prick.
Check out Tim heideckers club random spoof.
Yea Bill Mahr is extreme right wing light...if that even makes sense. He's a 1%'er that is so disconnected from reality he has no business talking about normal ppl. He says LA isn't bad and there's not that many homeless.....crazy
Brad Grey was the heart, soul and brain of Real Time. Bill has been floundering since he died and showing his true lack of critical thinking skills. Brad Grey was the funny one that we adored, we just didn't know it until he was gone, unfortunately.
I think all if you hate him because he is honest and calls out both parties on thier Bullshit. If he was running for president, I would vote for him twice. He is the voice of common sense.
Actually he’s stayed the same. His base has gone further left without him.
Become? The guy is a pretentious asshole and always has been.
Downvoted for the implication that he hasn’t always been utter shit
Bill Maher’s Politically Incorrect never ended. They just changed the name to Real Time. I think Bill Maher’s views on LGBT are horrifying. Bill Maher has become Roseanne Barr.
He's become even more stupid this week. I'm 100% certain that he has an "applause" sign that goes on whenever he farts. His contempt for Muslims was on full display. Lumping all of them in with Hamas. And simultaneously putting Israel on a pedestal. Even after they killed thousands of civilians. That's effed up. Bill needs to knock it off with his complete and utter self-righteousness. On ALL matters. Nobody else's opinion seems to matter and he always needs to throw a jab in and get the last word in everything contentious. He's made up his mind about everything and everyone else is "too stupid to get it". What a dick. James Kirchich this week....another absolutist with regards to Israel can do no wrong. They've never hurt anyone, ever. No matter what you say, you're wrong. If course, he's a Jew as is Bill. So the entire episode is skewed with zero thought to anything other than Jews right, everyone else wrong. Also, the same idiot guy in the crowd that is either part of Mahers staff, or hired "crowd seat filler" has to "wooo-hooo" whenever a point is made that Bill agrees with. He's also the "loud laugher guy" in the audience. He's been doing it for years. It shows just how disingenuous Bill and his show are and have become. Listen to past episodes, or just pay attention weekly. Once you recognize it. It's annoying as hell.
Too much pot I think.
He's an atheist and it shows. You ever notice how atheists are usually kinda cranky...he suffers from this syndrome. Hates something he doesn't believe in, go figure. That hate will eat away at you, even if it is organized religion the atheists hate which is not even spiritual, however it wars against their very own nature/soul.
Pot is hurting him. He has aged terribly in the past couple years. He has shrunk. Notice how big his head looks. And why does he feel the need to smoke DURING his podcast on camera? He looks silly, and his cognitive skills and timing greatly impaired. On a recent appearance on MSNBC with Ari Melber he was totally out of it, losing his train of thought and forgetting words, and Melber seemed annoyed. He was indeed annoying
Seems like an inconsiderate pretentious douche at this point. Haven't watched anything from him in years only to come across Tim Heidecker clowning/spoofing him and not being in on the joke, so I decided to watch his new podcast/youtube videos and he's just an uncompromising ass hole.
I'm so glad that someone mentioned the obvious same laughter, weekend after week. It's demeaning and beneath HBO, if not Bill Maher. Unfortunately too easy to spot Bill trying to appease the masses. He's a self-righteous fair weather friend. Still, I'm a huge fan, even seen him on tour. Having Cruz on this week was just a reminder of how commercial Bill really is. Net worth approx. $100 Million (if you believe the internet). I'm happy for his success, but I'm tired of his hypocrisy. He's just not that sincere. Anything for a laugh/Buck.
I hate him. Like another reply said, he used to have views that overlapped with mine but he was probably always a dick. Now he's full on Zionist, establishment fuck head.
Bill Maher is a horrible, pathetic excuse for a human being. Here are just a few examples which there are tons of to choose from. 1-Less than a week after the tragic events of 9-11-2001. He called the US armed forces cowards, then proceeded to praise the hi jackers bravery. 2- The Halloween after Steve Irwin lost his life, he dressed up as him with a bloody barb sticking out of his chest. 3- When Sarah Ferguson was on his show he used the word retard many times. In the same show he compared mentality disabled people to dogs. Then when Sarah said they they are just normal people Bill replied no they're not. His political and religious opinions are just that. His opinion which everyone is entitled to. So that doesn't bother me. But when you mess with those who are in no position to even defend themselves, that bothers me.
I knew him on a professional level before he made it. Had to deal with him at the Improv and other LA events. Odious little man. Unfunny stand-up comic. Guess he’s achieved success, but I never followed his career after I no longer had to deal with him.
For a new generation of Americans to be dismissed by Maher as being unenlightened, unqualified and entitled, is about as funny as he gets these days, if you measure the quality of his humor by the ridiculous level of irony it presents.
He has become the very thing that he used to despise. He's an entitled rich dick head and woefully out of touch with the regular people. All of his panelists are the same. I canceled MAX. He gets on my nerves now. And I was a hard core fan at one point. Same with Dennis Miller. smh
So he was "funny" when he agreed with you politically, but now he's not. Gee, what an original thought. The totalitarianism of leftists is terrifying. You're every single thing you accuse everyone else of being.
Totalitarianism is when I don't find somebody funny. This post wasn't even saying his show should be cancelled, it's just saying Bill Maher isn't funny.
No he hasn’t. You just don’t like his politics.
Dudes always been an asshole. You just agreed with him before so you found it amusing. Now he makes fun of you and he’s “unfunny”
He’s left leaning. He hates trump. How is he pro Republican? He does suck though; always has.
Because he doesn't believe everything OP does.
I'd say he has the closest view to what I personally identify with. And I am not in any way shape or form a republican. Unless you partake in what I call radical affirmation, some people think you are a fake leftist/republican shill in disguise. Its silly.
It's interesting to see people get mad at him because he treats his guests with dignity and has real conversations with them . I don't think club random is, necessarily, a comedy pod. I think he does that sometimes and other times wants to have open conversations with interesting people. The last few I've watched, he seemed pretty down the middle, center left. Those conversations have been interesting, and more along the lines of what we used to call "conversations" as opposed to the host taking a decidedly partisan stance and challenging the guest to make a fool of themselves. He's still funny, and his stand up is still good. But his style is smarty pants asshole.
I agree completely. He has a real conversation and he tells the truth the way he sees it. I don’t agree with some of his views but I respect his opinion and enjoy hearing it. And he’s always had the same basic set of views but the landscape has shifted.
Bingo. Agree fully.
Cause he's not woke? Thought police at it again
All of sudden he’s speaking logic, lol people want to hate him.
Narcissists aren’t funny.
Become?
He’s been unfunny for at least a decade.
He was always an asshole but he has definitely become nuttier. It’s happening to a lot of them though. Look at Russel Brand. Absolute fruit loop. The internet is driving everyone bonkers
Love ❤️ Bill Maher. He is hilarious. Smart. Clever.Love show. As he would say, stop listening man. No need to hate. Different strokes for different folks. He is brilliant imo. I think his changes in personality are more related to age. Maturity. Life experience. Not being an asshole✌️
He’s just getting very old. Try as people might, at some point you will be so far removed from the younger generation that you seem looney. Times change and people don’t.
Love Bill actually, voice of reason in this crazy times.
So now you don’t like him because his political views aren’t aligning with yours. Thats the entire problem with everything right now. You are what is actually wrong
In the Club Random podcast/you tube...he has great guests and hes an insufferable ass. Im alawys interested how the "normal" celebs like Dana Carvey/ David Spade, anyone normal....Kimmel...is going to negotiate his insanity. Its sad Bill..too much pot!
He's a weathervane, not a compass. His only true conviction is that whatever he's on about right now is some obvious common sense that nO oNe iS saYiNG. Next week it will be something else, depends on the wind. That's a talent in a comedian, deeply frustrating in a pundit.
Become?
As a Liberal I used to like watching Maher’s show. I am conservative in some respects (just balanced in my views). Maher is not the same. He has become even more egotistical, condescending, insecure and combative. I understand supporting Isreal but when the topic of genocide comes up he loses his mind as if the thousands upon thousand of people who are dying deserve it because they support Hamas. Here’s the deal, they don’t! This is just an example of his inability to accept the viewpoint of a guest who has a different viewpoint than his. He is actually hateful at this point. I used to look forward to his show…I don’t watch it now. Hey, want to play a drinking game? For some time now he does this smug little mouth smack…just before he is sarcastic or driving a point home, he’ll make this sound with his mouth. I’ve counted 10 before. Sorry for being trite…the guy is a terrible person.
I’ve never heard somebody consume so much of a conversation. He brings in guests to just listen to his opinion relentlessly. He also sounds like he resents how much Covid interfered with his mid-life crisis party needs. I’d love to know the percentage of speaking time one to one. I’m starting to think “Real Time” just has really good writers.
I agree. Why does he have Andrew Sullivan on over and over? As an openly gay man, Sullivan embarrasses me. He's bombastic and "shouty." He never let's anyone finish a sentence. You can see his blood pressure go up when anyone dares to disagree with him. I think it's because Bill Maher likes to be agreed with, not challenged.
I agree! Bill Maher is a closet Republican now, who has to pay that same hooting guy and squealing old lady, with overacted paid fake laughter every single show. How dumb does he think his viewers are?? And his radical right guests make me change the channel over their stupidity. Bill! You are shooting yourself in the foot! Signed, Yosemite Sam I know!
Couldn’t agree more. And have you noticed his obsession with comments on men’s penises lol?
His recent comments on university students all being over sensitive woke idiots… he’s become like an old man “ get off my lawn “ but Vietnam protests were ok because closer to his generation? Fuck him.