Some years back (okay, 33), when The Big Fix was first published, some people congratulated me on my humor. “You wrote a very funny book, y’know,” they said. I didn’t (know, that is). In fact, I was totally surprised. I hadn’t, for the most part, been trying to be humorous at all. Of course, I didn’t let that on. I was smart enough just to nod and say thanks. I parlayed that into a couple of more books in which I was trying (although perhaps not succeeding) to be a little funnier and into a career writing comedies in Hollywood for some pretty funny people, Richard Pryor and Lili Tomlin. What’s interesting is that neither of these comics was very in funny in private. Pryor especially could be quite dour, a depressed sort taken, as everyone knows, to medicating himself heavily. On stage, however, he was the funniest I ever saw because he was ruthlessly honest about himself and others. I learned from him that that was the essence of the best comedy, just being true to yourself, calling things as you geniunely see them.
In that sense, Bill Maher is the exact opposite of Pryor. I always feel that Maher is lying about what he really thinks and playing to the audience. In fact, he works so hard at it he seems to be convincing himself of his lies in the process, which makes him come across as one of the smarmier figures on television. And not funny at all to me. I can’t bear to watch him, so I missed his recent dust up with Christopher Hitchens, but the transcript says it all. Surely Maher can’t believe Bush and Ahmadinejad are even roughly equivalent in their religious messianism, but Maher’s language, his pandering for a laugh, creates that illusion. He is like the worst sort of Borscht Belt comic, scanning the crowd with a knowing “How do you like those Mets?” or “Take my wife…” (apologies to Shecky Greene – correction, Henny Youngman – who is or was vastly more funny than Maher – in either case), only this time the crowd is a group of wannabe bien pensants bent on applauding themselves for agreeing with this reactionary idiocy. No wonder Hitchens gave them the finger – not that that probably made any difference. One of the salient features of our times is how much noise there is and how few people are actually listening. This is what makes performers like Maher particularly dangerous, taking the most conventional of conventional wisdom and reinforcing it for their docile fandom – liberal pabulum for the new bourgeoisie.
UPDATE: Another comic (exponentially funnier than Maher) is having his problems.
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57 Comments
1. Jim Bass:Your typo threw me for a moment. You meant Bill Maher.
Aug 26, 2006 - 4:53 pm 2. Skookumchuk:Roger:
Surely Maher can’t believe Bush and Ahmadinejad are even roughly equivalent in their religious messianism
I don’t know. After 9/11, as troops were going to Afghanistan, I had a discussion with a well-educated liberal friend who had gone to Catholic school and who blandly informed me that the priests who educated him and the Taliban were “the same thing”. My answer was “yes – in your fantasies”. Undoubtedly your assessment of Maher is correct. But there is also a profound ignorance of what totalitarian societies are really like.
My mother, who came from El Salvador in the ’40s, had been a schoolteacher in that country. She endured much, at one point having her students lay on the floor as machine gun bullets hit the outside walls of the schoolhouse. She emigrated to California, where she married the man who became my Dad and where I grew up. I remember a dinner with family when I was a kid – 7 or 8 maybe – where some one was saying that some US politician, who knows who, was “as bad as Hitler.” I don’t remember the politician, but I remember my Mom’s reaction. I was carrying dishes from the dining room to the kitchen when the remark was made. She said to me (in Spanish) “The people of this country are good people. But they don’t know anything about the world.”
Sometimes the simplest explanations are the best. They don’t know anything about the world.
Aug 26, 2006 - 5:03 pm 3. Luther McLeod:Roger
Your comments are exact. The thing that gets me about Maher is his completely facile attempt at ‘gravitas’ while yet attempting to be a comedian. There may be some who can pull that off, but, as you say, they mix it with devastating truth about their person. Meaning honesty about one’s self to a degree that Maher is likely unable to contemplate. If you want to make fun/ridicule someone else, it is usually better to start with yourself. You get a lot more empathy that way.
Aug 26, 2006 - 5:26 pm 4. Luther McLeod:Damn, I forgot to add, Skookumchuk, great and oh so perceptive comment by your Mother.
“Sometimes the simplest explanations are the best”
Here, here to that.
Aug 26, 2006 - 5:29 pm 5. ArthurStone:George talks to the man upstairs and bases his actions on the ‘word of god’.
This does not inspire my confidence in the C in C.
I’m not in a big hurry for George to have his rapture.
Aug 26, 2006 - 5:53 pm 6. Mitch:ArthurStone, sneering is not an argument.
You don’t like Bush? Fine, but don’t insult the religion he shares with millions of other Americans. If you’re feeling frisky, why not go to Teheran and deprecate Mohammed?
Aug 26, 2006 - 6:22 pm 7. Captain Hate:The popularity of Maher has to be some benchmark of the decline of culture in our country. His audience of jackals is a testimony to the complete failure of public schools. I’ve always considered a smarmy hack like Maher to be a third rate Chevy Chase; and I’ve always hated Chevy Chase. I have no idea why Hitch thought going on that worthless show would be a good thing.
Aug 26, 2006 - 6:42 pm 8. Patrick Brown:Arthur Stone, Roger wrote a post about flippancy applied to serious topics. That’s a serious topic. You made a flippant response. Roger just isn’t reaching you.
Or maybe he is and it makes you uncomfortable. Either way, your suggestion, and Maher’s suggestion, that Bush is anything like Ahmadinejad is obscene. To see why, go to Google Image and search Iran executions – if you have the stomach for it. What you’ll see is horrible, and shows how unserious any comparison between the US and Iran or Bush and Ahmadinejad is. Go look and then come back and argue your point, if you can.
Aug 26, 2006 - 7:22 pm 9. TedM:“Take my wife” was a famous line by Henny Youngman.
Aug 26, 2006 - 8:02 pm 10. ArthurStone:http://www.iraqbodycount.net/
George Bush is responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of civilians in Iraq.
And we’re supposed to be the good guys.
Now I don’t have much use for Ahmadinejad or the rest of the fanatics in Iran but let’s take a look at who is doing the actually killing versus who’s making a lot of noise.
Aug 26, 2006 - 8:42 pm 11. Roger:Thanks, Ted. Corrected.
Aug 26, 2006 - 9:10 pm 12. Captain Hate:ArthurStone,
Please apologize to Roger for wasting his bandwidth for no apparent reason and go away forever.
Aug 26, 2006 - 9:15 pm 13. Buddy Larsen:Roger is right, Maher is horrid less for his half-developed politics than for his smarmy insincerity. Like Arthur Stone, people who glory in their “war is bad for children and other living things” holier-than-thou fence-sitting moral-equivalence are not worth the stuff they’re made of.
Aug 27, 2006 - 4:22 am 14. HA:Roger,
liberal pabulum for the new bourgeoisie
Ha! HA!!! Bwahhahhaahah!!!!!
You crack me up, Roger! Sooo many layers of irony packed into one little comment. All without resorting to scare quotes!
How do you do it?
Aug 27, 2006 - 5:39 am 15. Ric Locke:ArthurStone,
Very well. As a Bush supporter, I accept my part in the deaths caused by the war. Of course, I always did, and I don’t believe George Bush tries to escape responsibility.
But that means the half-million who died because of your hero(es) are on your soul. Gassing entire Kurd villages so Saddam’s relatives could have the land: yours. Destroying an ecosystem to starve the Marsh Arabs: yours. Tossing live infants into a slit trench, then cutting their parents’ throats and using the bodies to stifle the screams: all on your head. Tell me, was it fun?
Regards,
Aug 27, 2006 - 6:54 am 16. Richard Nieporent:Ric
Bill Maher is an ugly man. No I am not referring to his physical appearance, but his soul. What Bill Maher does is not humor. Rather it is an expression of his hatred for the Right in general and the Bush Administration in particular. The sycophants in the audience wait with baited breath for his bons mots and howl with delight as if his comments were the gospel truth and not an expression of his hateful, twisted soul.
There can be no humor in the Left, because humor requires the ability to be self-deprecating. One cannot laugh at others unless one is able to laugh at oneself. Otherwise what we get is viciousness in the guise of humor. The Left is all about hatred. If they could get in power they would do all of the things that they accuse the Bush administration of doing. We would all learn to love Big Brother.
Aug 27, 2006 - 7:06 am 17. Ripper:Maher, along with his bobo protege Arianna Huffington, long ago sold his soul to the liberal Hollywood establishment. I admire Hitchens (although for some reason he still is somewhat less then sympathetic to Israel’s struggles against Islamofascism) for going into the lion’s den and standing his ground.
Aug 27, 2006 - 7:46 am 18. Mark_Belt:I saw Larry King tell Bill Maher that he (Maher) was a latter-day Mark Twain. I nearly vomited before turning the channel.
Aug 27, 2006 - 9:02 am 19. syn:A couple of months ago I tried to rid my cable package of the premium channels ie HBO but found out that it would cost me more each month to change so now I’m forced to pay for Maher’s and the rest of the useful idiot’s crappy comedy/dramedy/faux documentary. And, I can’t change cable companies because I live in the Peoples Republic of NYC where choice is only one choice.
Agreed Richard, if the Left comes to power we will be forced to love Big Brother.
Aug 27, 2006 - 9:06 am 20. Terrye:Not long ago Maher was saying he appreciated Bush’s support for Israel.
My borther and I rarely speak anymore and one of the reasons for that is that he said something stupid like Arthur did and I told him the same thing I will tell Arthur. Saddam Hussein killed more Muslims than the Crusaders and would still be killing them today and he would not lift a finger to help them so do not pretend to give a rat’s ass about the Iraqi civilians.
BTW, most of the civilians killed in Iraq have not been killed by coalition forces they have been killed by the socalled freedom fighters the left is so in love with.
Aug 27, 2006 - 9:12 am 21. Terrye:Arthur:
BTW, the fact that George Bush is a Christian puts him the same category with more than 80% of the population of the United States.
The fact that he prays makes him a typical American. The truth is he mentions God less than Bill Clinton, the difference we all knew Bill was just blowing off and Bush actually means what he says.
But there is no reason to believe that Bush gets his direction from God, he has never said that. It is the just the kind of thing that snarky little moral relativists who do not see the difference between stoning a woman to death for adultery and a lethal injection for a serial killer like to come up with to be cool and flip and funny and idiotic. It impresses others of their ilk.
Aug 27, 2006 - 9:17 am 22. patrick neid:bill sold his soul over bill clintons bj’s. i had watched maher from his very first show over at comedy central to his move to abc and then on to hbo. he was for a very long time the funniest guy on tv. then it happened. he literally snapped on the clinton/monica mess. he started doing his playboy mansion shows and rationalizing clinton’s bad behavior on the stress of the white house etc. rape became excusable. it’s been situational ethics ever since. along the way he lost his soul. he’s impossible to watch.
Aug 27, 2006 - 9:21 am 23. heather:That story about 100,000 Iraqi civilians slaughtered by the Evil Yank Hordes jingles around the skull of each and every lefty.
I really really do not believe that figure, and wish there were a better source than a lefty bunch of Doctors. In fact, I would bet – really bet – that a person had a better chance of survivial in the warzone of Baghdad in August 2003 than they would have had in Paris. Tens of thousands of Euro old folk died in the heat because their relatives were on holiday and could not be bothered to come home to pick up their bodies from the morgue…
Of course, I am sure there are a whole bunch of lefties who would justify that die-off as a useful euthanasia project. The hassle for them would be that the bodies had to be individually “disposed of.”
Aug 27, 2006 - 11:22 am 24. Barbara Skolaut:“Surely Maher can’t believe Bush and Ahmadinejad are even roughly equivalent in their religious messianism”
Why not?
Unless, of course, you mean that Maher thinks Bush is worse – which he probably does. >:-(
Aug 27, 2006 - 12:02 pm 25. Terrye:heather:
That figure has been discounted by just about everyone, maybe even by the doctors themselves. The number was just too absurd for any but the most deranged to believe. Remember that claim was made a few days before the 2004 Presidential election, that is 22 months ago. If I remember correctly the number was thought to be between 8,000 and 190,000 and they picked 100,000 because they thought it “fair”. The fact that they believe facts are something to be averaged or negotiated or in some way made relative tells you a lot about the way they think…after all these are the fake but accurate people.
The truth is the numbers killed still have not come close to the supposed 60,000 who died because of US sanctions each year before the war. Whatever works at the moment. Either hundreds of thousands of children are dying from hunger or they are all flying kites in a fairy land.Whatever.
Aug 27, 2006 - 12:05 pm 26. Lem:Mahmoud Ahmadinejad an alleged hostage kidnaper wants a nuclear bomb.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran_hostage_crisis#Mahmoud_Ahmadinejad.27s_alleged_involvement
It doesn’t take a genius to figure out he intends to replace one form of blackmail with another.
Where Sadam Hussein failed (attacking before having the bomb) he intends to succeed.
Aug 27, 2006 - 1:57 pm 27. ForNow:The claim about 100,000 was made in a study published in the Lancet (UK). The study’s author demanded the Lancet publish it shortly before the US presidential election despite incompletion of peer review, else he wouldn’t let them publish it at all. The Lancet played along, felt, ahem, compelled to publish when and as told. Author and Lancet soiled themselves for all to see and legitimized the subsequent strong politically based criticism against them and the study. The theoretically based criticism was withering as well.
I remember arguing in the Chicago Boyz comments section with some butthead claiming to be a scientist who insisted as dryly as a mannikin that rebuttals should take no account of the egregious and admitted political machinations involved in the study’s premature publication and should be only by time-consuming scientific research lasting well past the election.
Even the Washington Post cast doubt on the study in its “100,000 Civilian Deaths Estimated in Iraq” by Rob Stein, p. A-16, Oct. 29, 2004: “The methods that they used are certainly prone to inflation due to overcounting,” said Marc E. Garlasco, senior military analyst for Human Rights Watch, which investigated the number of civilian deaths that occurred during the invasion. “These numbers seem to be inflated.”
–”100,000 Dead?or 8,000: How many Iraqi civilians have died as a result of the war?” by Fred Kaplan, Slate, Oct. 29, 2004.
–”Bogus Lancet Study” by Shannon Love, Chicago Boyz, Oct. 29, 2004.
–”Lancet Civilian Death Report Kills the Truth” by Michael Fumento, Tech Central Station, Nov. 1, 2004.
There had already been a number of article posted at TCS about the politicization and degeneration of the once reputable Lancet.
Aug 27, 2006 - 3:22 pm 28. ForNow:As for the Iraqi children supposedly killed by sanctions, here are some blasts from the recent past:
Aug 27, 2006 - 3:37 pm 29. Barry Dauphin:– “Confessions of an Anti-Sanctions Activist” by Charles M. Brown, Summer 2003, Middle East Forum
– “Saddam’s parades of dead babies are exposed as a cynical charade” by Charlotte Edwards, filed May 25, 2003, the Telegraph (UK).
– Suffer The Children (scroll down a bit and ye shall find) by Andrew Bolt, June 16, 2003, Herald Sun (Australia).
– “Propagandizing Sanctions” a.k.a. “Blood of Innocents” a.k.a. “MDs now blame Saddam, not sanctions, in babies’ deaths” by Matthew McAllester of Newsday, May 24, 2003, Sun Journal via Newsday and other newspapers.
The dirty little secret (although it’s not much of a secret) is that Maher’s stint on ABC was cancelled due to low ratings because….ta dahhhhh….he wasn’t funny. He committed one of the few sins not forgivable in Hollywood…for a comedian to be dull. Since comedy is out, he has to try something else. Problem is that he’s not studious enough to actually be a pundit. So instead, he gets a show on HBO, where he can pretned to be important, and nobody cares if he does his show stoned.
Aug 27, 2006 - 3:43 pm 30. diversityhire:Maher tripped over Clinton’s revolutionary introduction of absurdist humor into late-night monologues. For a time, jokes just wrote themselves. Perhaps Maher was too industrious and hard working to pander to the least-common-demominator humor of the day? Perhaps he could not accept blurring the lines between raunchy send-up and white-house press release? Whatever, he got caught on the wrong side of funny and hasn’t been able to find his way back.
Aug 27, 2006 - 4:58 pm 31. Charlie (Colorado):I’m not in a big hurry for George to have his rapture.
You know, I just don’t get it. A friend of mine is a hard-core liberal, and this seems to come up all the time: George is “awaiting the Rapture”, he’s a “Baptist”, he’s “expecting the imminent arrival of his Messiah just like Ahmed-&c”.
Where does this come from? he’s admittedly said he’s “born again”, but then that’s mainstream Christianity and pretty common for a sober alcoholic; he’s a Methodist, not a Baptist; and I don’t recall him ever saying anything eschatalogical.
Aug 27, 2006 - 5:16 pm 32. Rick Ballard:“he’s a Methodist, not a Baptist; and I don’t recall him ever saying anything eschatalogical.”
Nor will you. Evangelicals (and I know whereof I speak) have no need for the public expression of faith embodied by Blow Job Bill clutching a 30lb King James to his chest as he made his exit from Easter services on his way to being serviced by Monica. The image of “Kiss Me, Hugo, I think I love you” Carter with a hammer in his hand is also less than convincing.
The President has done well to remove religious symbolism from public view. The nation is far too diverse for a single creed to be lifted above all others and he is making that statement in a purposeful manner – to those with eyes.
I would never listen to an evangelist who declared that there is only one true path and I know without doubt that the very best evangelists never speak except through action.
There is no need for the President to put on a performance just as there is no reason to pay attention to performers whose ever shrinking audiences have lost all significance.
Aug 27, 2006 - 6:23 pm 33. Luther McLeod:Thanks Charlie.
As Tim Blair says I don’t really have a god in this hunt. But for anyone to equivocate similarities between madasahatter and GWB is beyond ‘in the moment’ reality. I live among many who believe this to be true, yet I still do not understand it. And suspect I never will.
I may not agree with everything you say Rick. But you most often nail it. No pun intended.
Aug 27, 2006 - 6:36 pm 34. Terrye:Luther:
But do they mean or do they think it just makes them sound clever to say things like that? Jimmy Carter was much more open about his faith and yet that was ok. He had the D behind his name and all.
Aug 27, 2006 - 8:27 pm 35. Ragnell:Roger,
Oliver Stone missed the main lessons of September 11th in his recent movie. We need a well-known, good screenwriter to set the real story of 9/11 into a great movie script. Ever consider taking on this demanding yet essential job?
Aug 27, 2006 - 8:27 pm 36. Buddy Larsen:Where from is this bitterly anti-religion rancor? Why, it’s from grandstanding G-d-walloping frauds like Clinton & Carter (and all their antecedents throughout history).
Aug 28, 2006 - 4:03 am 37. ms anne:let’s say a word on behalf of christopher hitchens. he’s brilliant, experienced in media, well-travelled in the middle east, devastatingly literate in person and on paper, and witty whether he’s sloshed on his “water bottle” or not. i thoroughly enjoyed watching him bitch-slap that poseur bill maher. when there’s a war on, hitch goes in on foot–even if he has to hire a taxi to get there. his commentary and reporting are first rate. so there’s nobody better to prick the bubble of pretentiousness that is the hallmark of this smarmy, lightweight show. frankly, entourage has much more heft in the brains department than this other hbo also-ran. as carville said, it’s the talent, stupid.
Aug 28, 2006 - 9:01 am 38. markus:Terrye — “The fact that he prays makes him a typical American. The truth is he mentions God less than Bill Clinton, the difference we all knew Bill was just blowing off and Bush actually means what he says.”
Any evidence for this, you stone-throwing blowhard?
On the contrary, both Clinton by all accounts, are quite religious. Unlike most Democrats, and unlike George W. himself, they actually attend church regularly.
Both Clinton and Bush mentioned God frequently. Difference is that Bush tries whenever he can get away with it to toss a little red meat at the Religious Right, even when this means holding back federal science research.
Aug 28, 2006 - 10:02 am 39. Roger:Any evidence for this, you stone-throwing blowhard?
Markus, as pretty much of an atheist who has little use for organized religion in his personal life, I think I can answer that one as an objective outsider. If Clinton were any kind of serious religious person, he wouldn’t have been soliciting blowjobs (and then lying about it) in the corridors of the Oval Office. Seems a bit off the charts of the Ten Commandments, doncha think? (Time to reread your Moliere,Markus)
Aug 28, 2006 - 10:54 am 40. Buddy Larsen:Hopeless. Really hopeless.
Aug 28, 2006 - 10:55 am 41. Buddy Larsen:I had the same thought, that answering Markus had to begin with the Ten Commandments. But, then I became overwhelmed with the hopelessness of the task. Roger’s made of stronger stuff.
Aug 28, 2006 - 10:59 am 42. Skookumchuk:Buddy:
It is called “picking your battles”.
Aug 28, 2006 - 11:18 am 43. Buddy Larsen:Guess you’re right, Skook. You always pick your friends, and you sometimes pick your nose, but you almost never pick your friend’s nose.
Aug 28, 2006 - 11:28 am 44. Terrye:Markus:
Why do I {blowhard that I am} say that? Well because none of the lefties seem to be worried about either Clinton or Carter’s religion. So I take that to mean that either the lefties are hypocrites who only pick on Christians with an R behind their names or they believe that Carter was harmless and Slick Willie just quoting all those scriptures so that he could pander to the Jesus freaks. If I am wrong, pray tell why it is only Bush’s religious beliefs which are constantly belittled.
And by the way my dear, sticks and stones may break my bones but words can never hurt me.
Aug 28, 2006 - 11:54 am 45. Rick Ballard:I’m not sue than an M1A1 Abrams could hurt you, Terrye.
Aug 28, 2006 - 12:48 pm 46. Terrye:Rick:
I am a tough old broad, but I have feelings too and markus was mean to me. I bet I am old enough to be his mother. Now is that anyway to treat your elders?
Aug 28, 2006 - 2:36 pm 47. Buddy Larsen:Yeah, and you in the helping professions and all. That boy just ain’t right, I tells ya.
Aug 28, 2006 - 2:40 pm 48. Ray Zacek:“On the contrary, both Clinton(s) by all accounts, are quite religious.”
If you consider self-worship to be a religion, yes.I fail to see either Bill or Hillary believe in anything larger than their own ambitions.
Aug 28, 2006 - 4:09 pm 49. Terrye:Buddy:
Who knows, maybe someday markus will need to have his temperature taken and someone like me will be there, insisting on doing it the old fashioned way. Far more accurate doncha know.
Aug 28, 2006 - 4:30 pm 50. ex-democrat:its much more likely that he’ll need an op to servive or remove the small particle of brain lodged in his skull.
Aug 28, 2006 - 4:54 pm 51. ex-democrat:the clintons are about as religious as swaggart
Aug 28, 2006 - 4:54 pm 52. Buddy Larsen:Yeh–with the Clintons, G-d and Man are soooo beside the point.
Aug 28, 2006 - 5:40 pm 53. Terrye:Can’t you just see Bill promising God that he will never ever ever ever get a blow job from an intern again if He will just let it slide this one time.
Aug 28, 2006 - 5:45 pm 54. Luther McLeod:markus
You stepped in it at the wrong time, with the wrong people and with the wrong argument. Talk about glass houses and/or stones. I bet you also believe that GWB is equivalent to Madasahatter. Come on, fess up. You do don’t ya.
Terrye, no pun intended, I’m sure
Yes, I am a sick individual, at times.
Aug 28, 2006 - 6:57 pm 55. Terrye:Luteher:
No you’re not. You are a nice man.
Aug 29, 2006 - 4:11 am 56. markus:Terrye — I’m sorry for what I said, that was a rude stupid thing for me to say. You’re actually quite articulate, it is just that much of what you say seems designed to inflame and anger liberals like myself, rather than give us something to try to argue with. Perhaps I am in somewhat similar, in the reverse.
“none of the lefties seem to be worried about either Clinton or Carter’s religion.”
That is because neither Clinton or Carter tried to give the force of law to the moral teachings of their faith. With the exception being values growing out of the Social Gospel, i.e. “the working man shall not be crucified on a cross of gold.” And most secular liberals usually agree with the Social Gospel.
On the other hand, the reason secular liberals hate Bush’s religious views is that he explicitly rejects the social gospel, while trying as hard as possible to implement the religious values in other spheres of government, stem cell research being the most obvious example.
Roger — I’m not a Christian, but my understanding is that most Christian theology argues that men are INCAPABLE of following the Ten Commandments. Hence, the need for atonement through Christ. Hence, many people, Republican and Democrat, who frequently solicit bj’s, yet pray quite devoutedly. Clinton, by all accounts, is in this catagory, as are a whole bunch of Catholic priests.
Aug 29, 2006 - 8:46 am 57. PJ:I saw the show, and what I saw was Hitchens as fed up as I am with the obstinate BDS of the opposition. He just can’t play the game any more. And good on him!
Aug 30, 2006 - 9:14 am