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Real Time with Bill Maher has been on HBO since 2003. I admit that I watched with some regularity in those first years. I was young, then, and enjoyed the fact that for some reason his face visually reminded me of Sylvester the Cat. Mainly I tuned in for the New Rules segment at the end. My favorites were the absurdist, non-political throw away ones he’d mix in, like “new rule: cornbread isn’t bread, it’s cake!” and then he’d move onto the next with no further explanation. During his twenty-year tenure, Maher has offered a veritable cornucopia of reasons to be fired. Yet stubbornly, he remains. Let’s see how he fairs with his latest stunt, which is bringing back his show without his writers, during the ongoing strike. I guess he saw how well it was going for Drew Barrymore and wanted in on that glowing PR. Some words on the strike from Bill the Scab:
“Real Time is coming back, unfortunately, sans writers or writing. It has been five months, and it is time to bring people back to work,” Maher said Wednesday on X, formerly known as Twitter.
The WGA strike started in May and was swiftly joined by striking actors in the union known as SAG-AFTRA, which began their strike in July. Writers have asked the Alliance of Motion Pictures and Television Producers, which is made up of studios and executives, to provide them with better pay and residuals, bigger writers’ rooms and protections against artificial intelligence.
“The writers have important issues that I sympathize with, and hope they are addressed to their satisfaction. But they are not the only people with issues, problems, and concerns,” Maher continued on X. “Despite some assistance from me, much of the staff is struggling mightily. We all were hopeful this would come to an end after Labor Day, but that day has come and gone, and there still seems to be nothing happening. I love my writers, I am one of them, but I’m not prepared to lose an entire year and see so many below-the-line people suffer so much.”
Maher says that he will “honor the spirit of the strike” by not showing any written pieces.
“And I’ll say it upfront to the audience: the show I will be doing without my writers will not be as good as our normal show, full stop. But the heart of the show is an off-the-cuff panel discussion that aims to cut through the bullsh-t and predictable partisanship, and that will continue. The show will not disappoint,” he added.
Earlier this month, Maher criticized the WGA strike on his “Club Random” podcast.
“They’re asking for a lot of things that are, like, kooky,” Maher told stand-up comedian Jim Gaffigan on the podcast. “What I find objectionable about the philosophy of the strike [is] it seems to be, they have really morphed a long way from 2007’s strike, where they kind of believe that you’re owed a living as a writer, and you’re not. This is show business. This is the make-or-miss league.”
Yeah, those goofy demands of writers to be able to, you know, get healthcare and pay rent! To borrow my grandmother’s Yiddish, what a schmuck. This line also really leapt out at me: “We were all hopeful this would come to an end after Labor Day, but that day has come and gone, and there still seems to be nothing happening.” File that away for future reference, union members — Summer holiday strikes are ok, but anything longer and you’re on your own. I don’t mean to minimize the struggle of below-the-line crew, because they are all out of work too right now, and not getting the same attention and recognition. But there are other ways to support them. And I doubt that fat cat Bill has even scratched the surface of his resources with the “assistance” he says he’s provided. I will agree with him on one point though: the show will not disappoint, but only because it hasn’t been good for years.
Who still listens to this Boomer? Dude is so effin out-of-touch, completely Islamophobic, transphobic, misogynistic and all the bad things. How has he not completely faded into irrelevancy at this point?
A-fkn-men.
Maybe you didn’t notice it, but the answer to Kitten’s question is in the last 3 letters of what you wrote.
He is so smug, I’ve never been able to watch him.
@kitten- You are trueing so hard this Friday morning.
I am old and i LOVED politically incorrect in the late 1990s- it was a fun show.
Note: the pilot’s guests were Marion Berry, Gordon Liddy and Harvey Firestein- and i forget the 4th guy- but it was such a good show.
He, like many before him, has aged into a rich old man republican.
He thinks he is sane.
He is just woefully behind the times and irrelevant.
But hbo keeps him propped up- b/c he’s an old white man.
Ariel I too loved political incorrect. I got into it when I was in middle school or elementary. I would wake up watch some TV, walk around, and go back to sleep. That show was great because there was other people. Bill started going Hollywood like the second year of his hbo show. He tried to go Hollywood earlier but they didn’t care about him.
First he used libertarianism to hide his nepotism roots. Then it became to hide -he is a republican. Not just a republican but he stereotypes heavily. Did Ann Coulter turn him -they dated-
or has he always been this elitist.
Exactly this.
If by all the bad things you mean economically conservative, I agree.
My husband watches him. I loathe him and his show.
Wow that last comment really misses the mark. The strike isn’t about absolutely anyone getting a job regardless of qualification — it’s about the people who already have these jobs being able to have a livable wage, a reliable contract, and health care.
Yeah, I stopped watching him a long time ago. He seems not to have aged well – he’s still smug and smirks, but in an old man “I know better than you whippersnappers” kind of way.
He spends so much time at the Playboy Club he is starting to resemble Hugh Hefner. Whenever I see a photo of him, at first glance I think it’s Hefner. Another douche.
“The make-or-miss league?” In which at the moment the streamer suits make all the money? Hello? That is somehow all right? What if it Maher got only two dollars per episode for something he had worked on all week? How is he this dumb? When things are not right they need to be changed, you can’t just say well “that’s how it’s always been, too bad.”
I noticed he placed all responsibility for “nothing happening” on the writers.
Yes. Bill taking the side of the oppressor is on brand for him at this point. He thinks he’s a sort of radical curmudgeon but he’s just an asshole.
Yep, it’s not the writers’ faults. It’s the AMPTP, the ones who write the checks, the ones who hold an unfair amount of money, money accumulated bc they are not paying fair wages.
Who’s surprised by this? Scab.
I am constantly surprised his show is still running. Either his ratings must be higher than seems possible or his costs lower. Or the suits love him.
Barrymore opened the floodgates.
Will never again support anything she is in ever again.
Can’t say that about him, as i never watched his show anyway
I don’t watch any daytime TV so all this escaped me but I also heard Jennifer Hudson’s show is coming back on and I didn’t hear anything about it (maybe because she didn’t release a comment about it) and also the View has never stopped. I know there are some rules regarding “news” formats which perhaps the View is under but definitely not Drew’s or Jennifer’s shows. Also the Talk and I have no idea who is in that show. The floodgates are opening. This is what undermines strikes. They are supposed to hurt Duh.
ITA Flowerlake and Lens: Drew DID open the floodgates and I personally think she was chosen to do so. I don’t know if it has anything to do with the company she owns with Jimmy Fallon’s wife, Nancy Juvonen, or not, but she’s literally told us she actively chose to say FU to letting writers earn a living wage. She’s also chose to split opinion between actors and writers by focusing on all of her staff who wouldn’t be working during the strike. To her, the writers are the bad guys. Clearly Bill Mayer feels the exact same way, though given how he winds up in the news, this isn’t surprising. Après moi, le deluge.
There was a time I thought he was kind of funny way back when with Politically Incorrect, but at some point he became insufferable and I haven’t watched anything he does in years. Definitely a “Boomer go home” situation.
Dude, all employees are owed a living wage. Bring on all the strikes. I’m so over these rich, white, assholes sitting atop the oppression pile. Burn it down.
Bill Maher is racist, Islamophobic, and misogynist. So it’s no surprise that he’s also a scab.
those same people who laughed at jay Leno for not wanting to pay staff wages, during the last strike, are silent. And jay was just an employee. Jay had very little say at the tonight show. He helped hire the band and “stuttering john Melendez”.
Jimmy Kimmel cannot do his show without writers. Is he paying his staff. That “fox force five” podcast doesnt count. Kimmel is in a better position than the rest and it’s actually his staff. He fires people.
Bill Maher staff have a tough job because they have to continously book his guest. Plus Bill is a real WGA member. He has made enough on hbo to partial pay his staff. He doesn’t have to cross the picket line. H
Yes there are ways to support the ancillary people who are not part of the writers/actors strikes. But as far as the GM strikes others are a lot of connected businesses whose employees stand to lose everything during the strikes. For example, warehouse businesses in which GM is the main client. Those employees make a fraction of GM employees pay and most are furloughed during a GM strike, having to rely on a pathetically small unemployment check. Many lost everything during the last strike as they are at the paycheck to paycheck level of pay. The same with trucking companies that have GM as their main client. There are no support services for them. These logistics based businesses have an enormous number of employees who quietly suffer but no one anywhere ever thinks about them.
Hi looks like I imagine a herpes infested “eggplant” who watches this boomer lol
Time to bring people back to work?? Who made that your decision? He sounds like those CEO douchebags (like Musk) that are demanding employees come back to the office. Clueless, entitled & out of touch. I hope he’s finally cancelled.
“they kind of believe that you’re owed a living as a writer, and you’re not.”
Actually, we believe we’re owed a living wage because we create content that creates literal billions of dollars of wealth for other people. It’s not rocket science, my dude.