In truth, Real Time with Bill Maher is not the kind of television show that we typically review or even cover. The weekly HBO series used to feature two interviews and a panel discussion with luminaries from the worlds of both entertainment and politics. While the format remains the same, the quality of the guests and the show itself is not even worthy of TikTok Live let alone HBO, a hub for prestige television.
For the first 20 or so years of my journalism career, I primarily covered politics, policy, and criminal justice. Yet my interest in those subject began even earlier. I used to watch Politically Incorrect, the nightly precursor to Real Time, religiously. I always enjoyed both series, but never for Maher himself. He’s barely a comedian, and what people think is intelligence is just a White Man’s Arrogance™. What I did appreciate about him was that he rarely allowed bullshit to pass by unchallenged. He also used to attract very bright people of various ideological backgrounds. Of course, it hasn’t been that for around a decade, and we can pinpoint the moment everything changed.
The Beginning Of The End For Real Time Began When Ben Affleck Shut Down Bigotry
The peak of Bill Maher’s career came during the Obama years, as he relentlessly challenged bad-faith conservatives who paved the political way for someone like Donald Trump. His satirical documentary about atheism, Religulous, debuted in theaters (the first movie he headlined since 1991’s Pizza Man). It made more than ten times its budget at the box office. He also infamously donated $1 million to President Obama’s reelection campaign at the end of one of his hour-long specials.
Maher felt untouchable, and Real Time became a regular late-night press tour stop for intellectual stars unafraid to speak on controversial political issues. He got his biggest mainstream media breakout moment on October 3, 2014. Fresh off winning his second Oscar and being cast as Batman, Ben Affleck faced off with Maher and one of his favorite guests, Sam Harris a neuroscientist and self-proclaimed philosopher. The Real Time host liked Harris because he presented the most intellectual argument for the kind of post-9/11 Islamophobic bigotry embraced by right-wingers.
In fairness, the clip is still captivating to watch because the sincerity of Affleck’s disgust is matched only by its intensity. He hangs his head and interjects with curt, dismissive replies as Harris goes on and on with his admittedly dubious ‘evidence.’ As the rest of the panel discusses, the actor sits hunched over with closed-off body posture, quietly seething at the loose generalizations of a bunch of non-Muslims about what “most” Muslims believe. In a clever bid to end the exchange, Affleck sharply asks if Harris has any goal, adding “we’ve killed more Muslims than they’ve killed us by an awful lot.” Eventually, Maher shuts down the argument when Affleck regains the rhetorical upper hand. Because Bill Maher loves a fight on his show, but only if he’s the one yelling and he can pretend he “won.”
From Chasing Viral Controversy To Desperately Seeking MAGA Approval
This blow-up earned Real Time media coverage, both in the political and entertainment press. The YouTube clip of this exchange was the most-watched video on the Real Time account for years. Maher learned what Fox News has known since Jon Stewart made his career calling them out on their bullshit: controversy gets you eyeballs. Ever since then, he’s been chasing that by saying even more outlandish things (including casually dropping the N-word).
Maher was always something of a contrarian, but he only plays an intellectual on TV. Yet, ever since a two-time Academy Award-winner was galled on his show, he’s escalated to saying more and more outrageous things. He insulted Stan Lee and his life’s work immediately after he died, smugly denying the provable fact that writers like Melville, Shakespeare, and Dickens were all trashed by elitists in their respective days. Yet most recently, he’s taken to flirting with the right-wingers he used to mock because the people he called “cultists” will celebrate him so long as he says The Right Thing™ about their beloveds.
And it works. The Affleck video is no longer his most popular clip, but the third. The two ahead of it are an interview with Ben Shapiro and incel professor Jordan Peterson. On his most recent broadcast, he praised Trump for “never getting mad” in the White House (despite countless credible reports to the contrary). He hosted inept liar Karoline Leavitt, currently cashing in after selling her integrity and whatever passed for her soul in the Trump White House. Also, because he’s a consummate star-fucker, he’s dined with President Trump at least twice, and really gets a kick out of hanging out with the man who once sued him for a joke about his father being an orangutan.
Bill Maher Is Following The Playbook Of Every Washed Up Celebrity Desperate For Approval
It is not a novel development that Bill Maher is a professional asshole who is not as smart as he thinks he is. What has changed since the days of Politically Incorrect and early seasons of Real Time is the quality of the program. Maher used to not be afraid to host people on his panel who were smarter than he was. He frequently invited people on who disagreed with him, and he even allowed them a fair shot to express their points of view. Maher was never the draw for his shows. The guests and the discussions they had were. That’s changed.
Not only has Maher downsized the number of guests, but the most important qualification to be on the show is agreeing with Bill. They have to hate “leftists” (as if these ideological terms are anything more than just marketing categories) and agree with transphobic nonsense about the sanctity of sports. He remains critical of what passes for Republicans these days, but he saves the lion’s share of his ire for Democrats. He loves to point out how many times he’s correctly predicted elections they’ve lost since Trump’s first term. Of course, he’s predicted they’d lose every election, so in that regard he’s on “broken clock” time.
From the likes of Scott Baio to Kid Rock, celebrities who fall out of fashion deny it has anything to do with their actions or talent. Instead, it’s the leftist groupthink that pollutes Hollywood. Since they are essentially Tinkerbell and survive on applause, they invariably turn to the ideologically gullible haters who’ve gone by many names but most recently identify as “MAGA” (and their pronouns are invariably words that aren’t actually pronouns, because comedy). Bill Maher was never really a voice worth listening to, but his used to be a place where people could her other ones. Now, the best viewers can hope for is hearing the voices who agree the loudest with Bill himself.
Rating: 1/5
Real Time with Bill Maher debuts new episodes Fridays on HBO and streams on HBO Max.
