this post was submitted on 22 Jul 2025
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If you could get through the light without him condescending to you about your lighting technique, your rolling technique, the lighter, and the weed... yeah, he might get stoned enough to shut the fuck up for a few minutes. That would be alright.
Then again, he got along okay with Trump instead of telling him to eat a bag of fascist dicks, so maybe not.
Well, if it's in his usual delivery, I'd probably just be laughing before lighting. People seem to forget he's a comedian. I like his humour.
Because he's much more smug and condescending than actually funny.
What humour? Name something funny he's said in the last decade or so
Watch his HBO stand-up special from this year. Or real time when it's back in August.
I'd rather eat glass.
I'd rather watch the special.
I'm glad he makes you laugh! I won't begrudge you that. Though, it's not that I forget he's a comedian; his humour really doesn't hit home for me. He's had some takes that aged like hot milk, even recently, and the positivity after hanging out with Trump was and is weird.
Weird to me, anyway. But then, I understand the need for inclusive policies that serve a diverse population equitably, I understand how trans rights are human rights, and I understand that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, which puts me further from Trump than Maher is. Quite a bit further, possibly.
And you complain about him being condescending :D
Ha! I don't get how I'm being condescending though; those are the issues I have with him, and it makes it really hard for me to enjoy anything else he says. I also think he aligns with Trump on those things. Where am I wrong?
But also, it's just his style of comedy; I've never been a fan. I don't like Ricky Gervais' comedy either, and I think it's for a lot of the same reasons.
Come on. "But then, I understand ...". Please.
Kind of illustrates that making good points and being condescending are not mutual exclusive.
He deals with weird people on his show all the time, It's very much on brand for him. And it was kind of interesting to get an insight into how Trump acts behind closed doors. I don't think anyone was expecting much out of it, but it also didn't hurt. I really didn't care for that one way or the other.
I think he only aligns with Trump on a single thing you listed, and even that's is for different reasons than Trump's.
I see. I think he's absolutely brilliant.
I do understand those things, and Maher clearly doesn't.
You said:
But Maher said:
It's fine that you want to continue to enjoy his comedy, by all means go ahead. I just gave the reasons I don't like it, and him; I'm not trying to attack you.
I don't see the big contradiction. The monolog you quoted is him cherry-picking a few specifics opinions that do align with Trump, even though he might disagrees on the overall issue. It was for showing that doesn't just pick a contrary position by default, like many other comedians.
If you use that as a basis for what Maher understands about those issues, you're ignoring like 99% of the, often quite nuanced, things he has said about these topics before.
But yeah, you would need to watch his show on the regular to get those.
Same to you! (well, with disliking ofc).
Bill Maher forgot he was a comedian.
I don’t know if he necessarily forgot. The problem with Bill Maher is the same I see with Dennis Miller. After all, they’ve had the exact same schtick for decades, just catered to different audiences, and it was never comedy-first.
They've always been "smug, smartest guy in the room" types that happened to have flashes of cynical wit. They're just insufferably self-important assholes.
That's a fair take.
I first heard of Maher 20 odd years ago when I used to listen to a comedy internet 'radio' channel at work, and remember quite enjoying his 'Be More Cynical' album, but not hearing much else until he reappeared on my radar as a 'pundit' with his own TV show years later, and not being impressed with what he'd become. I've never watched the show itself, but I've heard enough to know I don't want to. It's a bit disappoing, really. I doubt I'd even enjoy that album now, but I'm not about to give it another listen at this point.
Yeah, no. He's not even slightly funny, he's just a complete ass.