I agree about John Oliver and I’ve said it before. As much as I sometimes tend to defend Maher against the most opprobrious attacks, Oliver makes him look like a smarmy jerk in comparison. Last Week Tonight has turned into a unique form of television that combines witty humour with serious investigative journalism. In the days of yore I used to think of Oliver as just Jon Stewart’s sidekick on The Daily Show, but man, that guy has carved out an important niche for himself in television history.
Well, if I’m forced to play golf and drink beer, I’d still rather do it with AOC, Obama, Biden, or Hillary Clinton.
Though I suppose beer might be appropriate for a meeting with Trump, as it will prep me for a good spew. On him.
A cabbage makes Maher look like a smarmy jerk.
If it washes away some of his bronzer, please report back with what’s underneath?
( Just my luck if this timeline is a bad remake of “V”. )
He was also pretty good in Community.
And Oliver has balls. Maher likes to pretend he does, but he’s a pussy.
It’s like the way Maher laughs at his own jokes, if he was funny, he wouldn’t have to provide his own laugh track.
Yes, that is very annoying.
I do still watch his show, most of the time*. But I’ve learned NOT to tune in until two or three minutes after the start time—not just to avoid the overly-long opening theme-and-graphics (discussed up there somewhere), but mainly to avoid his pathetic milking of the applause that greets his entry. It’s so clear that the audience has been ramped up (possibly by use of ringers who are paid to cheer like they’re seeing Elvis).
It’s nauseating.
*at least until I see who the guests are going to be.
I still watch the show, too, because – criticize Maher all you will – he usually has interesting guests and it’s informative. But Maher has come way down in my estimation since the infamous Trump dinner and his attitude towards it.
And speaking of opening themes, I remember Maher commenting proudly on the revised one that was introduced a few years ago. I think it sucks. The opening theme to Last Week Tonight With John Oliver is not only far superior, but if you watch carefully, elements of it change from week to week, introducing topical imagery.
Maher had Terrance Howard on his show (he of the 1x1=2 fame), and the teardown by David Farina is hilarious.
It’s 50 minutes…but this isn’t me dropping a huge video claiming it makes some point for me, it’s just an entertaining watch for anyone that has the time.
In terms of making this thread-relevant though, I should add that Maher doesn’t push back against anything (he doesn’t agree with everything, but just suspends judgement), and demonstrates several scientific and medical misconceptions of his own.
I haven’t watched Maher in ages (because he usually makes me projectile vomit) but I decided to take a look at this vid.
The first thing I noticed was how freaking old he’s gotten, and then Howard says how good he looks. Idiot contest, indeed. Oh, and that smoking is so performative.
Yes, I’ve tried to train myself to ‘look fast’ to catch some of those ever-changing elements.
When it gets to the end I always hit Pause to see that week’s final graphic.
I should do that. It’s always something smart.
The last graphic is always related to some news story from the past week and is sometimes obscure.
I think I’m still more inclined to stand by my position on this one than to come around to yours 
If this is supposed to be a snarky reference to the cancellation of Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel, those guys were on OTA broadcast networks over which Trump’s FCC has leverage. Maher is on HBO, which requires neither a broadcast license nor sponsors. Maybe some pressure could be put on HBO’s owner, Warner Bros. Discovery, but that seems like a long shot.
Next up? Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers.
And while they, too, may also be on OTA networks, Maher is enough of a student of history to understand how “First They Came” often plays out with the Trump regime.
Ruling out that there could even be an element of self-preservation involved … to me, seems untenable.
Particularly since – for Maher – it was a zero downside move. Ask the tech bros who keep flying to DC to kiss the ass ring.
What I think of as a likely possibility, you seem to be framing as an impossibility, which – to me – seems like you’re out over your skis a wee bit.
And the winking smiley face should downgrade “snarky” to “lighthearted good humor.”
Should.
I have to say that Maher has been pissing me off somewhat more than usual lately. Having Tom Homan as the interview guest on his last show was pointless and inexcusable as the man has nothing of interest to say, and most of the time I can’t understand what the hell he’s saying anyway because of his horrible enunciation. But that’s not what this post is about.
What it’s about – and I thought this would be as good a place as any to put it – is that I recently stumbled across Maher’s YouTube channel and podcast, “Club Random”. Maher haters will no doubt dismiss this out of hand, but I found the concept intriguing. Somewhere in his house Maher set up a sort of man-cave (although he claims you can’t have a “man-cave” if you’re not married, so he calls it something else). The centerpiece of this area is a table with drinks and an ice bucket (and Maher’s weed, of course), soft lighting, and two comfortable chairs.
The premise of the show is that Maher invites a guest into his home and they just sit around this table, have a few drinks, and just chat, completely without structure or agenda and with no particular time limit. Most of the conversations are just over an hour and change, but sometimes run to over two hours.
What makes it work is that, like it or not, Maher is a well-known celebrity and when he invites celebrity guests to join him in Club Random, they come. I’ve only seen a handful of episodes, but among the guests with whom he had extensive one-on-one casual conversations were Neil Degrasse Tyson, Jerry Seinfeld, John Cleese, Woody Allen, Jay Leno, Rob Reiner, Sean Penn, Maureen Dowd, Sam Harris, Quentin Tarantino, Seth MacFarlane, and many others.
I found the whole thing to be quite an interesting and innovative concept in broadcasting – casual conversations with well-known people that are completely unstructured and unfiltered. Unless you totally can’t stand Maher, it’s worth a look.
Does anyone else besides me remember Michael Moore’s TV Nation ? It had a pretty similar vibe, as I recall.
I thought this comment from Marc Maron was pretty spot on
“I always had a problem with his tone," Maron, 61, said of Maher, 69.
He continued, “I feel with Bill that there is this – and it happens with some of the other boomers – desperate chasing of relevance that changes someone’s mind, in terms of how they approach what they do, and also makes the whole undertaking feel desperate.”