Comments on: Jarvis Does Our Dirty Work

By: Dan

Dan — Sun, 13 Mar 2005 05:44:31 +0000

And Maher isn’t even funny, but he thinks he is.

By: freetotem

freetotem — Sat, 12 Mar 2005 23:58:55 +0000

Many people upset with Al Franken’s descent into deranged mania say they never found him funny. But I did. I used think he was hilarious back before he decided he was so important to world events. But Maher was never funny. He is just the smarmy, insecure class clown who tries far too hard to convince you how cool he is by ridiculing everyone else. The archetypal loser. He was always a fraud.

Of course he would give Ward Churchill a sympathetic forum to rehabilitate himself and even feed him his lines, as he had to do to follow his script for the appearance. Because, you know, these guys are brothers in the struggle, man. Men who dare to speak painful and unpopular truths to the rest of us frightened sheep of the programmed proletariat. These guys are visionaries.

His HBO show is just like PI, stacked with 3 loony lefties to one conservative, heavy on the quick “humorous” putdown (because this is all just comedy, you see, in case you want to get all party pooperish on how incoherent his opinions are.) Gang up on the conservative one and make him look like a fool. Maher is far too cowardly to ever take a conservative on in a fair fight, or to have more than one at a time on his show. Whatsamatter Bill? Chicke-e-en?

Maher isn’t just the worst kind of lefty, he is the worst kind of Boomer narcissist—the lifelong class clown who now wants to be seen as a great mind, a man of intelligent opinions. An expert on religion who has given the most profound matter throughout human history 30 seconds of thought and thinks he is the smart guy in the discussion. Replaying 60s dorm room cliches, trickle down cocktail party Marxist drivel and antique sexual revolution hooey lifted directly from circa 1960s Hugh Hefner Playboy Philosophy. Like so many Boomers, he thinks he’s still really hip, not realizing his schtick is 30 years out of date. He walked right by me in an airport the other day, and he looked like every other little shlemiel wise guy I’ve ever known.

By: CMN

CMN — Mon, 07 Mar 2005 22:51:38 +0000

If you watched the whole episode, you saw that they’re actually soliciting an all conservative audience for at least one show, so you have to give Maher at least a modicum of credit for being willing to step out of a safe cocoon to mix it up. And while I frequently find him infuriating for the same reasons enumerated above, I don’t think it’s accurate to say he is simply pandering to the left. He still, occasionally, does take an authentic politically incorrect position, usually on sexual/gender issues, as when he defended Larry Summers. He also gave (albeit reluctantly) props to Bush for the positive recent developments in the ME.

By: Capt Trevett at the Commons

Capt Trevett at the Commons — Sun, 06 Mar 2005 13:53:23 +0000

“Politically Incorrect left the airwaves because Bill Maher committed the one sin no comedian can afford to commit- he wasn’t being funny.”

I watched it once and decided never again. It was Michael Moore agitating the crown against-I believe-Tom Ridge.

That show was already on its way to being cancelled because the ratings sucked. Maher exploited the post-911 controversy and leveraged it into a new show by playing the martyr (and reminding everyone about it).

By: Pat Curley

Pat Curley — Sun, 06 Mar 2005 05:55:40 +0000

“He claims to be a libertarian….”

That’s the part that really chaps me. He’s about as libertarian as Noam Chomsky is anarchistic, and yet they get away with it. What’s next, Barbra claiming she’s really a neocon?

By: MisterSnitch

MisterSnitch — Sun, 06 Mar 2005 05:01:56 +0000

“To be fair, it wasn’t his audience, but did you ever see the Pat Sajak Show, when Rush Limbaugh sat in for Pat? They had to get rid of the audience, so Rush could continue. It is a classic.”

Thanks for that recollection, Jabba (or is it MISTER Hutt?). It must have been one WILD scene! That actually sort of makes the point, though. TV audiences are chosen, like juries, to support the host. (In fact they kind of choose themselves – who would show up to sit in the audience for a host or show they hated, anyway?) So the audience that shows up for one host may detest an unexpected replacement if the replacement is coming from a whole ‘nother place.

There was a scene at the end of Brian De Palma’s ‘Untouchables’ film where a less-than-impartial jury is switched to insure a fair verdict. Imagine the fun if we switched the audiences for a Bush “town hall” appearance and Maher’s show…

By: richard mcenroe

richard mcenroe — Sun, 06 Mar 2005 03:41:43 +0000

Jeff Jarvis now has a podcast fisking of the Maher/Churchill … um… what’s the opposite of “Summit?” Sinkhole? over at his site at the link in my previous post.

By: Jakester

Jakester — Sun, 06 Mar 2005 03:18:43 +0000

Funny how the subject of the Irak sanctions gets brought up and no one has the brains to hint that maybe Saddam and the UN are the bad guys, not some selfish yuppie in the Towers. No one had the diligence to read off the reasons Osama and Co. gave for their attack and notice that neither sanctions nor Malaysian sweatshops were mentioned. Doesn’t anyone do any research? I don’t hate Bill Maher, narcissist is the most over used word in our modern lexicon. Teb years ago his show was somewhat interesting and original but he settled for superficiality rather than substance and now I’m glad he’s been exiled to HBO, which I don’t have!

By: richard mcenroe

richard mcenroe — Sun, 06 Mar 2005 02:56:49 +0000

The Jeff Jarvis thread is still going. Picking on Oliver Willis and Jay Rosen is fun! Come on over!

By: Captain Hate

Captain Hate — Sat, 05 Mar 2005 20:55:28 +0000

“He came on stage drunk and did 30 minutes of incoherent material culminating with a Bob Dole impression that included kneeling on a stool and waving a clawed hand at the crowd.”

Nice highbrow humor, Bill!! I’m sure the mensa’s over at Daily KOS and DU were rolling in the aisles over that one. If he had an ounce of self-respect he’d take all the prior posts here to heart.

Not holding my breath on that one.