June 7, 2017

Bill Maher's ex-girlfriend — who unsuccessfully sued him for $9 million because he didn't marry her — is talking to TMZ...

... and expressing herself:
We got Coco [Johnson] Tuesday at Burbank Airport, and she told us she believes Bill simply thought it was no big deal and no one would care that he jokingly referred to himself as a "house n*****."... She thinks Bill could use some sensitivity training courtesy of the NAACP.
Sensitivity training for comedians? That doesn't sound right.

55 comments:

n.n said...

Redistributive change didn't work. So, she's seeking retributive change as a social justice warrior.

Rumpletweezer said...

Is there any other word that can bring this about? We've fallen so far from racial healing that Blazing Saddles couldn't be made today.

Bay Area Guy said...

Send Maher to a reeducation camp immediately! Doesn't he know white comedians can't say the word "Nigger" in their acts?

Only black comedians can say the word "Nigger" in their acts!

The mere fact that Maher has forced me to expressly state this rule that everyone knows, but shouldn't be stated, is deeply offensive and warrants an extra week at the camp for this damn racist comedian!

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

maher is enjoying a little taste of the PC
"you're a racist" crap from the shallow PC "everyone is a racist" left.

Saint Croix said...

Ice Cube is scheduled to appear on Real Time to discuss Maher's use of the N word.

Senator Al Franken decided to back out of his scheduled appearance.

Wimp!

Owen said...

It sounds like a great idea, getting the NAACP to reprogram Bill Maher. He can afford it and they need a reason for their continued existence. I think that organization has followed the arc described by Eric Hoffer's: "Every cause begins as a movement, becomes a business, and ends as a racket."

rhhardin said...

We need science. Justify the feelz.

Sebastian said...

"Sensitivity training for comedians? That doesn't sound right." To a nice midwestern former law prof, maybe. To the rest of us, it sounds just about right. It would give him a real taste lot of prog culture and plenty of new material, assuming the left doesn't eat this one of its own (and if so, too bad). He should be happy we're not sicking the Evergreen Red Guards or the Portland antifas on him.

Owen said...

I misquoted Hoffer slightly: "Every great cause begins as a movement, becomes a business and eventually degenerates into a racket."

Apologies.

n.n said...

NAACP... Eric Hoffer's: "Every cause begins as a movement, becomes a business, and ends as a racket."

So, other people have noticed that progression. Yeah, it's a racket. A protection racket. Today, it enjoys a civil veneer as [class] diversity.

Bay Area Guy said...

Sainted comedian, George Carlin, succinctly explains the proper comedic use of the word "Nigger".

Anonymous said...

Sensitivity training? That doesn't sound right.

FTFY.

Bob Boyd said...

Is it just me or does the link not work?

Tommy Duncan said...

I watched a rerun of Johnny Carson last night. He was funny, classy and apolitical. How far we have fallen.

rhhardin said...

I'm a house nigger. Too soon?

metajoke

rhhardin said...

Hitting the left with PC requirements is a bad idea.

We're trying to kill PC, not reinvigorate it.

rehajm said...

She thinks Bill could use some sensitivity training courtesy of the NAACP

This means some black guys to beat the crap out him, right?

Comedy gold...

Fernandinande said...

Let's all care what a dumped gold-digger says.

Rae said...

I agree with Coco. Comedians must pass a mandatory sensitivity course, in order to be licensed to comede.

Eric the Fruit Bat said...

I took the "house nigger" thing to mean he called himself a shamefully successful, unprincipled, opportunist piece of shit." I hope it's not pretentious of me to suspect that I tend to apply the principle of charity more often than my fellow man.

Dave from Minnesota said...

Recall that last year a Canadian comedian (Mike Ward) was fined $42,000 for telling insensitive jokes.

urbane legend said...

Canadian comedian? When did that start? :-)

Earnest Prole said...

Now I ain't saying she a gold digger
But she ain't messing with no field niggas

Dave from Minnesota said...

Urbane.....there can't be too many of them if they have to self censor themselves or get fined by The State.

Limited blogger said...

I guess if I followed the advice of my ex's, they wouldn't be my ex's.

Freeman Hunt said...

Link isn't working for me.

jimbino said...

If you want to control use of a word, you need to have a copyright or trademark. Otherwise, you don't own the word and it's nonsense to deprive anyone of the right to use it any way he wants to.

Furthermore, anyone under our system has the right to insult another person or a group any way he wants to. If you can't charge slander or "fighting words," give it up and try to enjoy life in a free country (or find a place like Germany, which prohibits certain unpopular gestures and words and charges you church taxes).

tcrosse said...

Canadian comedian? When did that start? :-)

Dan Aykroyd, John Candy, Norm McDonald, David Steinberg, Phil Hartman, Jim Carrey, Martin Short, Mike Meyers, Eugene Levy, Howie Mandel, etc. etc.

Ann Althouse said...

Link fixed, photo of Johnson qnd Maher worth gazing upon.

madAsHell said...

photo of Johnson qnd Maher worth gazing upon.

Can you imagine the ass-kicking my mother would dish out if I came home with a woman dressed like that?

madAsHell said...

Mom's 91 years old.

Birkel said...

@ Althouse

I ask again whether we should pre-miss all those conservative and non-Leftist comedians who never became known because the industry stifles their expression.

Ignorance is Bliss said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Ignorance is Bliss said...

Link fixed, photo of Johnson qnd Maher worth gazing upon.

From just the picture of the two of them together, I would have assumed she wore the choker to hide her adam's apple.

Roger Sweeny said...

Like all mind workers, comedians must work for the revolution, not against it.

Earnest Prole said...

Canadian comedian? When did that start? :-)

Go back to sleep.

tim in vermont said...

Howie Mandell? I always figured Canadians were funny because they were a lot like us, but just different enough to notice quirks we take for granted and don't really see.

Brian McKim and/or Traci Skene said...

That doesn't sound right because it is not right.

Last week, GQ (yes, it's still a thing) ran an article which was hard to read for veteran comedians like myself and my lovely wife. It was several hundred words about how comics are dumbstruck and are having difficulty joking about Trump. This, after eight years of being dumbstruck and having a difficult time making jokes about Obama.

The nut graf:

As the 45th president enters his fifth month in office, stand-up comedians continue to wrangle with the paradox that is President Donald Trump. He is an absurdist’s dream: a braggadocious, self-pitying billionaire with a Donald Duck temper; our nation’s punchline-in-chief. But Trump is not comedy gold. He’s pyrite, a one-note, worn-out punchline—even children have the impression down. Mocking him can feel redundant: What parody could be more outlandish than Trump himself? He already makes gruff boasts alongside bespectacled Easter bunnies, and tweets words that are not actually words. And yet, ignoring Trump would be flagrantly tone deaf. As comic Bill Dawes puts it: “It’s the orange elephant in the room.”

That's the fourth paragraph, and what follows is just more of the same nonsense in which comedians are quoted basically talking themselves out of doing Trump material.

My favorite is this one: "The problem isn’t that he’s unmockable; it’s that he’s too dangerous to simply mock."

None of it makes sense and it is an alarming trend. Comedians are self-censoring and, if we are to be brutally honest, they're talking themselves and each other out of doing what they should be doing-- mocking the powerful-- in a pathetic bid to be taken seriously. (Mind you, comics are not required to mock the powerful, but they certainly should keep their traps shut about their outright refusal to do so.)

After blogging about standup for 15 years, we mothballed our blog and wrote three chapters and an intro of a book that explores all of this and more. Couldn't find a publisher. All that we predicted is coming true. It's over.

I have declared June 2 as the day the comedy died. It had a nice, long run.

SeanF said...

I'm with Angel-Dyne. Ann, can you explain the implication that the rest of us are subject to "sensitivity training" but comedians, for some reason, are not?

Going by the linked article, after all, it would seem that Johnson's suggestion of training for Maher is based on his day-to-day, real-life, behavior, not his act.

johns said...

Trump "jokes" are not comedy, they are attempts at mockery that fail because the mocker is too angry to be even remotely clever. For years my wife and I have had the DVR set to record the Tonight Show. We liked Jay Leno, and initially liked Jimmy Fallon. Jimmy's monologue is now about 1/2 Trump derangement, but even my Trump-hating wife says "this isn't funny anymore."
I think the late night comedians have a dilemma--they would be pilloried if they didn't spend this time attacking Trump, but all that they have is lame mockery. It's the daily five minutes of hate that must be observed.

Jay Vogt said...

BAG, Your insights are almost always interesting, but in this case Richard Pryor >George Carlin > everyone else.
Pryor owns it

exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...

Recall that Paula Deen lost her gig on the Food Network because she had used the n word 30 years earlier.

eddie willers said...

The word never escapes my lips....unless I'm in traffic.

Bilwick said...

I don't know about sensitivity training, but I'm sure Maher--like most "liberals"--could benefit from courses in economics and logic.

Gahrie said...

Isn't Black people using the word nigger a form of cultural appropriation?

rehajm said...

Brian McKim & Traci Skene said...

Last week, GQ (yes, it's still a thing) ran an article which was hard to read for veteran comedians like myself and my lovely wife. It was several hundred words about how comics are dumbstruck and are having difficulty joking about Trump. This, after eight years of being dumbstruck and having a difficult time making jokes about Obama.

I have declared June 2 as the day the comedy died.


Generally, political comedy is easy and thereforeboring. Seinfeld made 'nothing' funny. Many great comics mine comedy gold from topics besides politics. Go there! I know you've been (very) funny in the past but maybe you just aren't funny anymore? It happened to Steve Martin...

William said...

Maher is not a racist in any ordinary understanding of the word, but he's an asshole in all known definitions. For a guy with a modicum of fame and money, that's not such great nookie. Maher is in no position to ever make a joke about Trump's sex life.

Fernandinande said...

Dave from Minnesota said...
Recall that last year a Canadian comedian (Mike Ward) was fined $42,000 for telling insensitive jokes.


He made fun of an FLK. That's worse than making fun of MLK.

Martin Luther King (Jr!) walked into a bar and the bartender says "What'll you have?" and Dr. King answered "Have you seen the prostitute I was with last night? I had a dream that she has the bag with the rest of the cash from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference."

True story!

tcrosse said...

Louis CK on the N word

Bill said...

"... unsuccessfully sued him for $9 million because he didn't marry her —"

Wow! Breach-of-promise suits are still a thing?

Humperdink said...

"Link fixed, photo of Johnson qnd Maher worth gazing upon."

After looking at the photo, I just assumed she was suing him because he forced her to change her name to Coco. You know, as part of his house ni**er shtick.

JaimeRoberto said...

Why am I reminded of Lashonda from Napoleon Dynamite?

Earnest Prole said...

The subtext of the Maher “racist” flap is that he’s had relationships with women of various races, not to mention famous white drag queens Ann Coulter and Ariana Huffington.

TWW said...

Bill Mayer and Kathy Griffin are a lot alike. Their biggest failure is not that they are occasionally offensive, obscene, insensitive or just plain mean. No, their failure is they are consistently not funny.

The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...

Well that explains a lot. Maher is that white boy. Thinks he's down with the Brothers just because he had a black chick. Not surprised he felt he could use "nigger' with impunity.