I'll make that a gift link. It's long and hard to find good excerpts, even though many celebrities are quoted. E.g., Dave Chappelle: "I’m so [expletive] tired of his little smug, cracker-ass commentary."
Wow, that's the first gift link I've used this month. The NYT gives 10 per month, and I try to conserve them so I don't run out. Today is the 21st, and I'd conserved them all. Maybe that's some measure of the slowness of this news month, but probably it's me and the way I've set a high threshold for certain continuing subjects.
Posts
37 comments:
"self-satisfied"
Bill is the original Mr. Smuggie.
Imus and Charles McCord had Maher's dad as news editor at NBC and wound up babysitting young Maher from time to time. They set him up with NBC page girls and generally compromised his upbringing.
Imus oft-repeated story but here's one place (interviewing Dowd).
Maher is the poster boy of 20th century white USA liberals: A product of and still desires the shallow, selfish goals of his culture but knows much of it is wrong/unsustainable. He can't or won't change and sits there constipated.
"Lead, follow, or get out of the way."
He won't do any of those. Just whine, flip-flop, and equivocate. Year in, year out.
There's no better way to get on a man's nerves, than to personally approve him receiving a coveted award, to remind him that the man he detests is in charge.
Is there any form of gossip with a higher ratio of dross to truth than Show Biz Talk?
ABC News’ Jonathan Karl interviews “Real Time” host Bill Maher on “This Week” about winning the Mark Twain Prize and the current political moment at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dx_5W0DgJJM
"He can't or won't change and sits there constipated."
He's played an active role in cobbling together the Frankenstein he now chides. It'll be fun watching his monster eat him.
--- Today is the 21st, and I'd conserved them all.
Good work; almost made it. Next month you can do better.
They should give Dave Chappell the Mark Twain award and then retire it. They could bring out a new award, The Smug Toadie.
The Mark Twain Prize lost such prestige as it had when they gave it to relative newcomer Tina Fey for political reasons. Tina Fey before Carol Burnett? And where will the ceremony be now that the Kennedy Center is closed?
The media isn't the same when you've heard of "Gell-Mann amnesia." The best example is Bill Murray who, after reading what Bob Woodward wrote about John Belushi, concluded that Nixon was railroaded. Whether it's Maher vs. Trump or Chapelle vs. Maher this is just the Times trying to create drama where it doesn't exist or concern us.
Gotta hand it to Chapelle. Calls it like he sees it.
Maher was a good young stand-up comic back in the 1980s, before he decided to get political.
Although in fairness, if Maher responded in kind he would be permanently banned from any form of public life. Which ain't fair but is the world we live in.
Overall, Maher has done some good as a defender of some important values, like free speech. But as someone who's been watching him since his pre-talk-show stand-up days, I've never found him to be terribly funny. The Mark Twain award doesn't really fit.
Thanks for the link. Good article on a guy who is his own man. Like him or not, and it seems that most have been on both sides of that, he is consistent and his own man. He doesn't much care what others think, except for those who vote on the Emmys.
rhhardin- great link to Imus talking about how he and Charles McCord used to 'babysit' the young Bill Maher. Imus and Maher- two uniquely funny men, both saying what's on their mind, repercussions be damned.
Beware of Democrats bearing gift links…
just kiddin’…
That was a very interesting article, and more postive toward Bill Maher than the little snippet led me to think.
Here's a NYT reader comment I liked:
The true through line of TV comedy starts with Steve Allen and progresses to David Letterman and Conan O'Brien, truly deep geniuses who could make fun of the medium on which they appeared. Maher, on the other hand, chooses to exploit that medium to do what others, like Jerry Springer, Joe Prine, and Alan Burke and, arguably, Trump have done, and do; to shock people's sensibilities. It's his ego trip with political satire thrown in.
Of course a lot of comments are standard Leftist dumb think. "Bill Maher was so great when he was trashing all the people we don't like, but when he attacked DEI and had dinner with Trump, well that was just mean and immoral."
And I'd forgetten what a stalinist jackass Larry David is behind the smirky "subversive" facade.
Dave Chappelle is a Muslim, so he probably has an issue with Maher’s take on what Muslims have become well known for.
That’s my suspicion…
Is Andrew Sullivan still alive? He seemed to have dropped off planet earth about 10 years ago. but anyway, the article makes a good point that Sullivan and Maher have identical views on all kinds of issues, especially foreign policy and marijuana. What the article doesn't point out is that those views are also held by the Publishers and TV execs who hired both men.
Mark Twain wrote his own material. Should be a requirement.
Takes a real genius to conflate Joe Pyne with John Prine.
If the Mark Twain award is "Comedies biggest Prize" then the award business isn't doing too well. Of course, comedians don't need awards. They can look see how many tickets they sell and how big their ratings are. Unlike a lot of art/entertainment, good comedy makes money, and bad comedy doesn't.
I often joke about Bill Maher's ugliness. And God he is awful to look, and he's gotten worse with age. But as comedians go he's not terrible and is occassionly funny. As someone upthread stated his standup is usually co-written.
But off the top of my head, I cant of a single Bill Maher joke. And he's rarely funny on Club Random. Sometimes witty but even thats rarely memorable.
And he can be a bit of a bore. He had kevin spacey on, and I listened to it because Spacey can be funny and had an interesting career, but Maher dominated the consersation, and blabbed on and on about nothing in particular.
I guess that's why Maher never got a late night network talk show.
"E.g., Dave Chappelle: "I’m so [expletive] tired of his little smug, cracker-ass commentary."
So, you are OK with a black using the c-word? I guess not all racial slurs are offensive.
I don't care for him one bit. I have a memory of what a nasty piece of work he was (and still is)
It always strikes me that Bill Maher is a small man the size of a large child.
Was Chapelle talking about Trump or Bill Maher?
What were the "White House's objections" referred to in the heading? Or, let me guess; did they just make that part up? (No, I am not providing my email to the NYT for a "gift link.")
Also am I the only person who has never heard of "comedy's biggest prize" before today?
So, you are OK with a black using the c-word?
I was called a cracker once, back in fourth grade. The retort to that, my 10-year-old self would say, is "burnt marshmallow," which gets a lot of laughs with the kids.
They should give Dave Chappell the Mark Twain award
they did
Oddly, I don't mind Chapelle calling out Maher for his little smug, cracker-ass comedy. Does that make me woke or racist or both, or just able to appreciate a really good comedic line?
Prickly = kind of a prick, not always, but more than occasionally, and by nature, a good portion of his essence. Effortless.
Shows how much I care about it.
Is there ever a thread that doesn’t bring up hatred for Muslims? It’s almost like we are being programmed to accept genocide. You do know that the US put an al Qaeda head chopper in charge of Syria. It’s almost like they work for us manufacturing pretexts for wars against countries with huge amounts of oil.
St. Croix: he uses both cracker and cunt. But Christian white people don't count as people. He wouldn't, in his industry, dare slur a Jew, as he once did and then had to do penance, ironically. Now the trannies are after him. I say if you packed your own bag for the oppressed minority train, you should just shut up.
I like Chapelle. He's funny.
Post a Comment
Please use the comments forum to respond to the post. Don't fight with each other. Be substantive... or interesting... or funny. Comments should go up immediately... unless you're commenting on a post older than 4 days. Then you have to wait for us to moderate you through. It's also possible to get shunted into spam by the machine. We try to keep an eye on that and release the miscaught good stuff. We do delete some comments, but not for viewpoint... for bad faith. Also: No italics, even briefly. Use asterisks for emphasis. And don't play with the format by changing fonts or using boldface or all caps. Never include more than one extra line break between paragraphs.