Did anybody catch Bill Maher last night? Alan Simpson (WY -R) was a guest via satellite. It was such a bizarre exchange. Simpson kept acting like Maher was being a jerk, but Maher wasn’t.
Anybody else see it?
Well, Simpson was right in principle…if Maher wasn’t being a jerk that night, it would the first time.
I saw it, and yes, Sen. Alan Simpson seemed to have a bug up his ass. It seemed that he got offended because he thought Bill Maher made an anti-gay joke, which Maher did not do. It was weird to see a Republican senator from Wyoming (the state where Matthew Shepard was beaten to death) get mad at a Hollywood liberal for (supposedly) telling a joke about gay people. The interaction between Bill Maher and Andrew Sullivan was also interesting.
I saw it and was also taken aback by how defensive and cranky Simpson was. Someone should’ve reminded him that it was his side that won.
Of course, it’s not surprising that even a decisive victory in both the presidency and the congressional races would make the right-wing in this country any less angry and hypersensitive. They are apparently locked into a state of perpetual wrath against anything that even seems the slightest bit liberal.
For what it’s worth, Alan Simpson’s always kind of cranky.
Why is it relevant that a guy from Wyoming gets upset over this? Just because a gay man was beaten to death there?
The stereotype is that the Hollywood liberal is the one who is sensitive to homophobia or any anti-gay bias, while Republicans and rural people have no experience with gay people and think they are immoral. The senator even said something about how he works with gay people in some non-profit group he works with.
The interaction between Bill Maher and the senator was remarkable; if you get a chance to watch it, I recommend you do so. There are transcripts of Maher’s earlier shows on his website. When the transcript of the November 5 show is posted, I’ll try to link to it from here.
The “news rules” part was pretty funny, especially the part about Bush’s daughter not wearing a bra.
“Nader had more support!”
“And they call Kerry a flip-flopper…”
Anyone know when the new season is starting?
I’d hate for Maher to miss out on the first few months of Bush’s lame duck term.
I’ve not seen it yet. My wife told me about it. She said Maher, who I really like, was visibly angry the entire show. I’ll have to wait for a repeat to confirm.
Yes, it was all very strange and I certainly hope it’s not a sign of what is yet to come culturally, here in the US. The conservatives are using the momentum of the election and now seem doubly self-righteous. They are now justified (In their own minds) and dangerous! It appears Simpson is out of his gourd and pulled a Zell Miller. Bill came out looking moderate and decent in the end…but he was visibly upset at all of the hypocritical attacks. It was overall a great show… Some excellent points made by all. That Andrew Sullivan kinda pissed me off though, dissing my boy, Noam Chomsky. (Chomsky invoked Godwin’s Law and made a comparison to sompnnother the US is up to and the Nuremberg trials, Sullivan didn’t like that!..Hear that Diogenes? Great minds think alike!)
The transcript is up.
I was just telling a friend here at work how Maher seemed to be deeply, personally angered and offended for basically the whole show. He’d try to start out each bit fairly light-hearted, but the bitterness would seep in pretty quickly.
I honestly think he had Andrew Sullivan on just to give himself someone to rant at. Mind you Sullivan - as the sole voice of the right - got his back up pretty quickly, too. It’s probably just as well that Bill’s taking a bit of a break. A few deep breaths and a walk in the park would probably do him well.
Sigh, Bill Maher comes to Toronto this weekend, and I can’t go. Boo hoo.
thwartme
All I’ve heard about this show was about Andrew Sullivan’s butt-rubbing. I didn’t see it - can anybody fill me in?
I caught a repeat the other night, didn’t see the start of Simpson’s segment though.
From where I tuned in, it looked like both Simpson and Maher missed an opportunity to learn something. Simpson took umbrage at Maher’s flippant gay comments (something about being invited to a party), but he didn’t seem to understand that Maher’s quips were just quips. He’s supposed to try and be funny, some of the time anyway.
Seemed like Simpson was ticked off at being lumped in with the Christian Right, which Maher wasn’t doing, but by then it was too late, neither of them were listening.
I just saw the exchange and it was incredibly interesting. Simpson did seem to get angry quick, but I guess I can kind of understand why. Simpson is a moderate Republican and has probably been stung a lot by being called part of the ‘Christian right’ or a homophobe, etc, for being a Republican from Wyoming. Yeah, he jumped too quickly, but he probably is sick and tired of being told that his party in his state were people who killed Matthew Shepard (or somethings to that effect).
I wondered the same thing. It’s like saying that it’s weird when a guy named Jeffrey denounces cannibalism.
Simpson came off as a lunatic. He figured he was gonna have to defend himself so he went on an attack (and a bad one at that).
Maher did treat Chomsky like a fricking folk hero and I love when Sullivan called him on it.
Sarandon came off as an utter idiot.
As I recall, the exchange went something like this:
Maher: So, how come these fucking morons don’t listen to what we have to say?
Simpson: Because when you insult people, they refuse to listen to you, shithead.
Maher: Fuck you, I refuse to learn anything from this.
I got the impression Simpson came onto the show thinking he was going to be ambushed, and so he was hypersensitive to that and also looking for any opportunity to go on the offensive against Maher.
Same thing as happened with Zell Miller and Chris Matthews.