I vote for Bill Maher. Mainly because he gets the last word, says something ‘soft’, then cuts to something else, allowing himself maximum smugness.
(By ‘soft’, I mean he says something like, “Oh yeah, drop leaflets…that’ll work. People can’t eat leaflets”. He then rolls to something else smugly…even with the twisted face he uses.)
Maher comes off as being more smarmy then smug.
Which isn’t a good thing.
O’Reilly is definitely more smug.
But they are both Ass Hats.
Yes. But at least Bill Maher doesn’t have homophobic tendencies oozing out of his pores.
I think that since Maher was once considered a comedian (I don’t find him funny anymore) it can be tacitly understood that he’s pulling a chain when he’s being an ass.
With O’Reilly, it can be tacitly understood that he’s being an ass when he’s being an ass.
Both have large portions of their audiences that don’t comprehend the shtick, then ape what they heard when they’re at the mythical water cooler the next morning.
The scale tips slightly against O’Reilly due to his sometimes hateful tilt.
I’d say that Maher is more hateful than O’Reilly. Anyone who thinks America had it coming to them (9-11) is an asshole. Maher has repeatedly demonstrated his loathing of the United States on Politically Incorrect and that live show he does for HBO- which I must say, despite my dislike of the man, is pretty good most of the time. It seems that at least he TRIES to keep the playing field balanced during the debates he mediates, so I do give him points for that.
As for smugness, that’s a tough one, but I think Payton’s Servant
is right, O’Reilly is more smug whereas Maher is smarmy.
Hard call - I’ll give it to Maher for sexism.
Both are lightweights compared to that dark-haired dude, on Hannity & Combs (sp?), who I just watched (actually listened to) for the first time tonight. What’s with that guy [sub]clown[/sub]?
Peace,
mangeorge
mangeorge, you seem to be talking about Sean Hannity.
This poll is definitely Pit-bound.
When did Maher ever say this? Cite? I call horseshit on this one.
This isn’t even close. O’Reilly is untouchable when it comes to being a smug, self-important, sanctimonious fuckhead.
That would be Sean hannity. The guy is smarm with a suit on.
j.c., I agree with you on Maher’s misogyny. That’s probably his least redeeming quality.
Here’s an anecdote which shows just how charming Bill Maher can be: There was a staff meeting for PI and they decided to order pizza, and a pretty assistant asked Bill what he would like on his pizza. “Your cum.” was his reply.
Classy, really classy.:rolleyes: :rolleyes:
This is like trying to decide whether Adolph Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Pol Pot, or a genocidal maniac to be named later was a worse person.
Once you hit a certain point, subtle gradations become effectively meaningless.
But hardly a proven fact.
Bill Maher - more smug
Bill O’Reilly - more self-righteous
I definitely vote for Bill Maher. He is an arrogant bastard.
Maher used to be funny. And he was mostly Libertarian.
Somewhere along the line, he went Hollywood, and got a really big head.
O’Reilly, at least, was consistently an asshat.
Tie.
C’mon, ‘the guy with the black hair’? On a show with two guys with black hair and two people give it to Hannity? Alan Colmes isn’t smarmy?
Actually, Alan Colmes would be smarmy if he weren’t so damn creepy. He looks like the Klingon version of Larry King.
Anyhoo, O’Reilly gets my vote. I wish they had an outtakes video of the looks on the guests faces when he says he’ll give them the last word and then cuts off their mic and says something. That is the best.
Methinks DtC had a knee-jerk reaction!
Now if you’ll observe I didn’t actually say that he said “we deserved the attack”. That’s my back door.
Actually, that was something the media (specifically Rushie IIRC) blew up into the stratosphere. But he has revealed his loathing of America on his HBO show numerous times when he made such statements as “instead of building a memorial of those who died on 9-11, we should build a center to understand why the rest of the world hates us.” Real nice. I’d provide a cite but Real Time with Bill Maher doesn’t provide transcripts.
Regardless, if you look at O’Reilly and Maher OBJECTIVELY you’ll see two things:
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In general Maher is much more offensive- he can be because he’s on HBO.
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O’Reilly is much more smug.
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I don’t care enough about either of them to get my feathers ruffled sticking up for their ideologies.
Bill Maher thinks a little too highly of himself. How the hell did this bozo ever wind up as a Playboy Mansion regular?
Yes, he is a regular dater of models and bunnies.
So, when he asks why we don’t build a memorial which helps us explore why the rest of the world hates us, he should look at himself as one reason. I’m sure Islam embraces the whole concept of sleeping around, hanging out with Hef and the bunnies…