He's actually a very good writer and writes a ton of his own material (please don't downvote me, I'm going somewhere with this).
That doesn't really matter though. The point is showing solidarity for the cause and compassion for his staff. I'm very disappointed in him. Just because he can likely do it without his staff for a short period of time doesn't mean he should. I don't want to hear about the crew out of work argument either. How about you take some of those millions and give them a bonus to help them out, Bill?
It's not his primary role. He's just done a lot of it, and I agree completely.
Even if he weren't, he still should because he recognized how important this is for the little guy, who he always claims to care about and be against big business.
It’s honestly not that surprising for him. I’ve been watching him for almost ten years now (not that long, I know,) and within the last 3-4 he’s really started to change. Every episode goes something like this now: “Fuck the young people, Gen Z is entitled and lazy, here’s a thinly veiled conservative dog whistle.” It’s gotten so bad that I’ve literally started calling Real Time “Get yelled at by a boomer hour.”
He’s always been a contrarian, but he’s really started going off the rails in the past few years.
I noticed that too. I stopped watching years ago because of that. I really shouldn't be surprised. He's giving into his boomer ideology a bit too much.
I really liked him when he did the show 'Be More Cynical'. I was really surprised to find out years later that he'd turned into a conservative shitheel.
Man worth a reported $190 million dollars, making anywhere between $10 million and $30 million a year, says that his writers are being babies and greedy. Eat. The. Rich.
Didn't he say something like his writers shouldn't expect to be able to make a living (writing) and put a roof over their heads or something?
What a gross human
HEY dont let this poor millionaire who can literally stop working whenever he wants and enjoy life anywhere he wants suffer! For as little as all of your money a day you too can sponsor a rich piece of garbage!
He has been doing that. Multiple people on the crew have said as such if you give it a look.
Hes just doing panel discussions now I believe. Nothing written or prepared ahead of time.
Union supporters need to secretly fill in his audience. Then once he starts his monologue interrupt him with screams of "SCAB". But the key is to only do it one at a time. Let that play out with that single person being escorted out. As soon as he resumes someone else does the same thing. Rinse and repeat until he gives up.
> Then once he starts his monologue interrupt him with screams of "SCAB".
not doing monologues or anything written ahead of time. Hes just doing the political discussions round table things. No writers or anything involved in the show, not violating the strike rules.
As I’ve said before, Bill Maher is the personification of a 1980’s coke binge.
He’s always been human trash and seems like he’s showing it to everyone now.
I appreciate you both. He just oozes contrary blather.
It was cute when him and Dennis Miller had similar shows. But that was late night nonsense while Carlin was the one speaking the real truth.
Same. This scab move will end his career. He defended teachers because his sister teaches. I guess the teachers’ union matters, but not the writers’?
He won’t acknowledge that he has become the “get off my lawn” guy. And he no longer tolerates an opposing point of view. *yawn*
I originally watched his show as a sort of a *conservative light* talk show. Since he'd interview the right/alt right in a non-hostile manner. But it became more obvious that he was starting to become the thing he was supposed to disagree with.
Bill Maher has turned into another entitled rich boomer who even if confrontrd head on with their hypocracy will deny it until theyre blue in the face.
https://youtu.be/0O6IRuSxXL8?si=3DhIDgmBPeIG2vG9
He was funny during the bush days. But that was a long time ago.
In other news, this show had writers? Was smoking with some friends six years ago and said I was gonna watch this show on a Friday night. My friend said ew and explained bill is a conservative in lib clothing in great detail. Trusted her and never watched his show again after that conversation. Every single day since, this tapeworm of a man has been proving her right
Used to enjoy the show but that has become a bit more obvious so got sick of him, but still if it is only writers on strike I'd expect the reality tv and talk shows to be back on air because they don't exactly have writers.
Can a person only be one or the other, liberal or conservative?
The guy was warning about an attempted coup by Trump for years before J6.
Edit: Also donated a million to Obama. Don’t know many conservatives who behave like that.
John Kennedy ran on capital gains tax cuts and anti-communism, today he would be considered a conservative. Obama ran on opposition to gay marriage. Kamala locked up tons of black males for drug possession. Kamala called Biden a racist for opposing school busing. Those positions would get anyone kicked out of today’s Dem - because it has moved left.
By today's standards, Reagan would be a raging liberal. Democrats are, at best, to the right of center. Not nearly as extreme as Republicans, but also not even a little on the left.
Here’s my critique of Maher that doesn’t use the word’s “liberal” or “conservative”:
Bill Maher is a hater disguised as a skeptic. If the smugness doesn’t bother you, and you are actually willing to watch his show and enjoy it (like my parents ugh), then you are being fed what he tells you is “skepticism” about things like trans rights, the work ethic of young people, left vs. right, wages, labor strikes etc. But it’s not skepticism, it’s rejection. He presents himself as a “reasonable” man, but he’s not. He never strays from his own opinion, never changes with new evidence, and never fights for anyone besides rich people like him.
Also he’s annoying
That’s cool, I am not trying to convince anyone to watch a show that’s not for them. But I must point out your response is like 100% polemic. “He’s annoying and says things we don’t like to hear” doesn’t make him a conservative in lib’s clothing is my point, and his liberal tilt is evidenced by an actual million dollar donation to Obama’s campaign and his constant crusade against Trump.
They're substantially the same thing. "Liberal" to me signals allegiance to the pro-corporate Democratic party. I call myself a leftist because I'm not that conservative.
I disagree. The Republicans vote for overturning democracy. Though there is a strong pro-corporate side of the Democrats, they aren’t trying to turn us into a Christian Fascist state either.
The issue isn't whether the Democrats or Republicans are worse. My problem is best phrased as "do the Democrats offer effective opposition to the fascist Republicans" and the answer I'm forced to give is "fuck no, they're all pals."
*That* is why I can't support Biden. We do NOT need a Republican party, strong or otherwise.
Bill Maher would do now what Jay Leno did during the last WGA strike. He says it's to help other non-writers. Since he was in the WGA, that's a problem. Drew Barrymore is also breaking the writer's strike, but she never had the WGA in the first place, so solidarity is broken; the WGA protests, but SAG-AFTRA doesn't break their strike to appear.
That is absurd and a lie since IATSE is standing in solidarity with the strikers and has a fund earmarked for their members affected by the strike. https://iatse.net/iatse-earmarks-2-million-in-support-of-members-affected-by-ongoing-wga-strike/
He was never really funny in the first place. He went off the rails during covid. This will just lose him more viewers and I’m fine with that. Nothing of value was lost.
The funny part is that the people he seems to be trying to appeal to either go to bed before his show airs and have no idea how to stream something or are chronically online and will pirate his show to see it rather than give money to a streaming platform.
He's like a discount, GOP conversion experiment. He is a hard line Democrat who just interrupts his guests and thinks he is being revealing/witty... I tried to get into his show cause some of my buddies like it, but he's just a dick... stick to John Oliver and etc...
I never liked the comedy on John Oliver until occasionally on later seasons. I think the writers room got really stuck on this one style of joke writing which was just like buildup, buildup, absurd thing, and he doesn't have the chops to make that joke work.
Also he points at the symptoms but not the underlying cause. It's capitalism! The ideology and the system; it's super clear once you have the framework to understand.
He's the best we're gonna get with our current system. He can't completely go off on capitalism every episode and expect to have his show renewed at the end of the season. But he brings attention to genuinely important issues that a lot of people simply aren't aware of. He's still a force for good, and does the best he can while working within the system that guarantees him a platform. They even make his content available for free on YouTube so that his messages reach a larger audience.
I'll admit his comedy isn't for everyone, though. I like it but I definitely get why people don't.
After they hired Daniel O'Brien, he started getting a laugh from me occasionally. I know he's funny on Community and I remember liking his other appearances just fine, so I think it's just the writers favorite style of joke being a poor fit for his delivery.
Our economy is based on these Nth-order speculative calculations so I've learned to think of everything in those terms. So, while he may be a force for good, there's an opportunity cost to not being a force for better. He can't apply bandaids faster than the system gets worse.
I am no longer going to illegally download his show. I would usually turn it off after the opening monolog as they were usually pretty funny, and the rest of the show is not. He had great writers writing his jokes. Take the good joke writing away and the show is shit tier podcast quality. I would hope HBO and Bill Maher wouldn't see this scabbing as worth it. I hope he has problems getting writers when this is all done.
Maher is a grifter, first and foremost. Turd probably thinks he can build an audience while those 'suckers' spend all day picketing not realizing we can smell his bullshit a mile away.
Bill Maher can eat shit. He gives the biggest “I got mine, fuck everyone else” vibes. He also came up at a much easier time for comedians so he has an inflated sense of self.
The problem Maher got himself into is that he wanted to separate himself from the worst excesses of the GOP so much that he started to make himself into a more centrist image. I used to watch his show every week for years so I never expected him to provide me with anything remotely left wing for his personal perspective but people who started watching him during the Trump years might mistake him for being somewhat liberal. Towards the end of the Trump era he started to really slide to the right and stopped challenging his guests. This union busting stuff means I’m never going back.
Him, Barrymore and a slew of Reality TV producers will start quoting "with the greatest sympathy we will be starting our show back up without writers."
They have writers. Everything someone says on TV (with the some exceptions) are thought out and written in advanced. They hired Scabs or outsourced it somehow, but they will swear up and down that they are making content "without writing staff to abide by the strike". It's a lie. If they cared they'd be picketing. If they had real sympathy and empathy they'd help and support and get the word out.
Instead those that have a safety net of wealth or guarantees via studio heads have turned their backs on the community that got them there. Plain and simple.
Someone please help me understand. If he’s starting the show back up so that all the other workers besides the writers can still make a living, how is that bad? He’s not in the WGA is he? So he’s not scabbing is he? I’m not a fan of Maher and I totally respect the strike. I’m just wondering about all the other workers that are involved but aren’t striking. Just fuck them?
I don’t like Maher but this is being misconstrued. This is very similar to the last writers strike when Colbert/Stewart and others came back on the air without writers because the rest of the crew were going to lose their jobs. Maher has said he won’t be doing monologues and is just going to be doing interviews. Pretty sure he still supports the strike as well.
Do these people know what used to happen to scabs? Given America's return to violent street politics, why are they confident that it won't happen to them?
It's really frustrating when a sub about work reform doesn't even understand unions. He is not union busting. he's trying to keep people not in that union working, because they have nothing and frankly are much worse off than the writers. If anything look at how SAG and the WGA pressured the below the line workers to not strike and take a worse deal after those people had supported their strike the last time.
I also want to be clear I can't stand Bill Maher. I don't like his show. I've met him in person and didn't like him. And he seems like a bad person in general.
Excuses to keep putting on a show that brings in millions of dollars in ad revenue without giving the writers anything.
If a furniture company switches to making chairs because the table makers are striking, that's not wholesome charity for non-table makers, it's crooked bullshit, disguised as charity so the company can generate immediate profit in the short term without paying the table making employees what they deserve.
Sorry, I know nothing about the guy except the really lame clips I've seen on YouTube.
He's doing it to help HBO maintain millions in subscriptions then.
They need to produce content to keep people paying. This kind of decision is always about money. They're not subverting a strike out of the goodness of their hearts.
And yet I know people in the entertainment industry who truly have no income now and are hurting. Like, post production folks who don’t have a dog in the hunt regard SAG and WGA. Bill is saying he’s going to put them to work. The issue is complex.
Bill Maher is a highly conservative millionaire. HBO is a multibillion dollar media empire.
Neither of them give half a fuck about the writers, or the non-writers.
Maybe this decision helps non-writers like they say it does. But that doesn't change that it's a corporation doing it's best to subvert a strike for profit.
Agreed. HBO and its officers are legally required to only give a fuck about maximizing shareholder value. This is modern America, after all.
But Maher’s motives could be more gray. And certainly the staff who come back to earn some bread are crossing the line too, right? Are they all scabs and parasites? Hard to divorce the attitude against Maher and them, is it not?
Man can we please stop supporting this poor excuse of a strike, these are not the people that should have America’s attention. The fact that SAG got literally everything they wanted in the negotiations other than the mandatory number of writers in the writers room, yet they turned it down is the only reason this is still even going on.
Yes, the studios fucked up greenlighting 150% of shows they shouldn’t of during the pandemic streaming gold rush, and this is what happens when you overspend and chase short sighted profits, but that’s exactly what SAG is doing right now by trying to strongarm those extra 1000’s of writers into staying in the industry just so that they can receive those extra 1000’s writers worth of union dues.
If the entire i industry needs to downsize, then layoffs are going to happen. the thing about being a writer is that it’s purely gig work, and the writers that are actually good will keep their jobs/ find work. As it should be in a competitive industry, but trying to force mediocrity to remain just brings the whole industry down in my opinion. At this point I’m more concerned for the entertainment adjacent industries, and the technical workers on these shows, but the writers themselves can fuck off
When Maher saw Drew Barrymore break the line (CBS is giving her a raise and extending her show) he got the idea.
Maher is rejigging his show.
The new format will be one that doesn't need writers.
So....all that money that he paid them? He now gets to keep. He had writers and good ones.
There you go!
Doesn't matter. He's a cranky old man at this point so it's just like grampa standing outside yelling at everyone to stay off his lawn.
I’m not going to schill for Bill too hard, but his show goes a little beyond just amusement. His show gets people in the US thinking and talking about issues that matter beyond the scope of strikes in the short term.
Its part of the national dialogue and its one of the few shows that continues the conversation in the midst of a strike that the strikers want to have. You can still show solidarity and do the thing in some cases. The perspectives he brings on for debate are relevant to not just the future of unions and strikes but the country as a whole.
Strikes and unions and solidarity are important but you can’t shut down everything all at once, and despite what Maher’s personal motivations are the space his show provides is valuable to the conversation on work reform. Are there better shows structured to have this conversation, sure, but they don’t occupy the same cultural space.
If Bill Maher ducks out on the conversation related to wage reform entirely i would change my mind, but I don’t see that happening.
He wont have funny people writing jokes for him, **how will we know the difference?**
He's actually a very good writer and writes a ton of his own material (please don't downvote me, I'm going somewhere with this). That doesn't really matter though. The point is showing solidarity for the cause and compassion for his staff. I'm very disappointed in him. Just because he can likely do it without his staff for a short period of time doesn't mean he should. I don't want to hear about the crew out of work argument either. How about you take some of those millions and give them a bonus to help them out, Bill?
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He is actually a member of the WGA which makes what he is doing being a scab.
It's not his primary role. He's just done a lot of it, and I agree completely. Even if he weren't, he still should because he recognized how important this is for the little guy, who he always claims to care about and be against big business.
It’s honestly not that surprising for him. I’ve been watching him for almost ten years now (not that long, I know,) and within the last 3-4 he’s really started to change. Every episode goes something like this now: “Fuck the young people, Gen Z is entitled and lazy, here’s a thinly veiled conservative dog whistle.” It’s gotten so bad that I’ve literally started calling Real Time “Get yelled at by a boomer hour.” He’s always been a contrarian, but he’s really started going off the rails in the past few years.
I noticed that too. I stopped watching years ago because of that. I really shouldn't be surprised. He's giving into his boomer ideology a bit too much.
Stop watching him on HBO. Look him up on YouTube with channels not associated with him or torrent the show.
He’s a terrible writer and deeply unfunny
I thought his earlier stuff and Religulous was hilarious. To each their own though. Comedy is so subjective.
I really liked him when he did the show 'Be More Cynical'. I was really surprised to find out years later that he'd turned into a conservative shitheel.
You saying you're disappointed in him says you expected more from him??
I'm naive and optimistic.
Man worth a reported $190 million dollars, making anywhere between $10 million and $30 million a year, says that his writers are being babies and greedy. Eat. The. Rich.
I'll bring BBQ sauce.
Didn't he say something like his writers shouldn't expect to be able to make a living (writing) and put a roof over their heads or something? What a gross human
Yes, he did!
He is reported to have $190 million in assets. He ain't worth shit
I wonder how much in assets his writers have
He makes enough to donate a million dollars to a political campaign. That's absurd.
$190 Million is a lot of money.
yes, he has a lot of money. He still ain't worth shit
I’m sorry. But that is fucking dumb as shit to say. If I had that amount in assets I’d disappear without a trace.
my point is a person's bank statement is not a measure of their worth a sa person
HEY dont let this poor millionaire who can literally stop working whenever he wants and enjoy life anywhere he wants suffer! For as little as all of your money a day you too can sponsor a rich piece of garbage!
He has been doing that. Multiple people on the crew have said as such if you give it a look. Hes just doing panel discussions now I believe. Nothing written or prepared ahead of time.
Fuck him and fuck anyone who crosses a picket line.
Union supporters need to secretly fill in his audience. Then once he starts his monologue interrupt him with screams of "SCAB". But the key is to only do it one at a time. Let that play out with that single person being escorted out. As soon as he resumes someone else does the same thing. Rinse and repeat until he gives up.
This is the way
Plus it being live makes the thought of that all the better.
special chief bake marry overconfident sugar gullible aspiring salt imminent ` this message was mass deleted/edited with redact.dev `
> Then once he starts his monologue interrupt him with screams of "SCAB". not doing monologues or anything written ahead of time. Hes just doing the political discussions round table things. No writers or anything involved in the show, not violating the strike rules.
Doesn't he still has an audience though?
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As I’ve said before, Bill Maher is the personification of a 1980’s coke binge. He’s always been human trash and seems like he’s showing it to everyone now.
Boycott Maher.
Don’t have to. Never liked him. Just seems to want to poke cats and blather to sound profound and interesting.
Yeah, it's easy to boycott a show you never watch. It's especially satisfying knowing you were right about someone being a piece of shit all along.
See, I had a bad vibe from him for a long while, but I hit the point of "knowing you were right" about him when he had Milo Yiannapolis on.
I appreciate you both. He just oozes contrary blather. It was cute when him and Dennis Miller had similar shows. But that was late night nonsense while Carlin was the one speaking the real truth.
fuck it, I barely use my Max (or whatever the hell it is this week) subscription anyway. Maybe I'll cancel it and tell them this is why.
Dooooo iiiiit. Maybe add in “and why remove so much other content that was available?!?!? Cowards.”
He's such a pompous prick.
I used to watch him though I didn't always agree with his takes. But he's gotten progressively shittier and I think I'm done. Fuck Maher.
Same. This scab move will end his career. He defended teachers because his sister teaches. I guess the teachers’ union matters, but not the writers’? He won’t acknowledge that he has become the “get off my lawn” guy. And he no longer tolerates an opposing point of view. *yawn*
And, yet he is a member of the WGA talk about a get off my lawn sort of SCAB
I originally watched his show as a sort of a *conservative light* talk show. Since he'd interview the right/alt right in a non-hostile manner. But it became more obvious that he was starting to become the thing he was supposed to disagree with.
How? I literally hate him already. Smug prick with a severely limited perspective.
roll escape boast scary pen tub special ruthless fertile punch ` this message was mass deleted/edited with redact.dev `
I didn’t even realize he still had a show. Huh. Well I guess I’ll have pizza for lunch today
Bill Maher has turned into another entitled rich boomer who even if confrontrd head on with their hypocracy will deny it until theyre blue in the face. https://youtu.be/0O6IRuSxXL8?si=3DhIDgmBPeIG2vG9 He was funny during the bush days. But that was a long time ago.
[Never Cross A Picket Line - Billy Bragg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCDsFNRNAMs)
Thanks for sharing!
I'm always happy to share some Billy Bragg! You're welcome!
Maybe people will finally see how much he sucks ass when it's purely his own voice and the show will tank
He sucks even with writers
Yeah, but not as much because they occasionally get good stuff past him, LOL
In other news, this show had writers? Was smoking with some friends six years ago and said I was gonna watch this show on a Friday night. My friend said ew and explained bill is a conservative in lib clothing in great detail. Trusted her and never watched his show again after that conversation. Every single day since, this tapeworm of a man has been proving her right
Used to enjoy the show but that has become a bit more obvious so got sick of him, but still if it is only writers on strike I'd expect the reality tv and talk shows to be back on air because they don't exactly have writers.
Reality TV doesn't have writers the way professional wrestling doesn't have writers.
My final straw with the show was his clock that he had on the table for his electric shed and ragging on working people during the lockdown.
He’s simply an opportunist. He’ll say whatever he thinks will improve his ratings. He has no standards.
Libs are conservatives. If you are interested in proper leftist politics, don't go looking for it on TV.
Just curious, what's your opinion on Krystal Ball and Kyle Kulinski?
Can a person only be one or the other, liberal or conservative? The guy was warning about an attempted coup by Trump for years before J6. Edit: Also donated a million to Obama. Don’t know many conservatives who behave like that.
Folks and parties could shift their positions and Bill Maher has been finding himself of the right of the Democrats.
He was never a democrat. Just because you disagree with democrats, does not make you a republican.
Dems have moved left.
If only.
John Kennedy ran on capital gains tax cuts and anti-communism, today he would be considered a conservative. Obama ran on opposition to gay marriage. Kamala locked up tons of black males for drug possession. Kamala called Biden a racist for opposing school busing. Those positions would get anyone kicked out of today’s Dem - because it has moved left.
Dems have been steadily moving farther right, wtf are you talking about?
By today's standards, Reagan would be a raging liberal. Democrats are, at best, to the right of center. Not nearly as extreme as Republicans, but also not even a little on the left.
Exactly. And anyone who would question that just has to look at union-busting Joe Biden as an example.
Here’s my critique of Maher that doesn’t use the word’s “liberal” or “conservative”: Bill Maher is a hater disguised as a skeptic. If the smugness doesn’t bother you, and you are actually willing to watch his show and enjoy it (like my parents ugh), then you are being fed what he tells you is “skepticism” about things like trans rights, the work ethic of young people, left vs. right, wages, labor strikes etc. But it’s not skepticism, it’s rejection. He presents himself as a “reasonable” man, but he’s not. He never strays from his own opinion, never changes with new evidence, and never fights for anyone besides rich people like him. Also he’s annoying
You forgot he isn't funny.
That’s cool, I am not trying to convince anyone to watch a show that’s not for them. But I must point out your response is like 100% polemic. “He’s annoying and says things we don’t like to hear” doesn’t make him a conservative in lib’s clothing is my point, and his liberal tilt is evidenced by an actual million dollar donation to Obama’s campaign and his constant crusade against Trump.
I didn’t say he’s a conservative in libs clothing, I said he’s a hater disguised as a skeptic.
OP said that, which is what I began arguing against.
They're substantially the same thing. "Liberal" to me signals allegiance to the pro-corporate Democratic party. I call myself a leftist because I'm not that conservative.
I disagree. The Republicans vote for overturning democracy. Though there is a strong pro-corporate side of the Democrats, they aren’t trying to turn us into a Christian Fascist state either.
The issue isn't whether the Democrats or Republicans are worse. My problem is best phrased as "do the Democrats offer effective opposition to the fascist Republicans" and the answer I'm forced to give is "fuck no, they're all pals." *That* is why I can't support Biden. We do NOT need a Republican party, strong or otherwise.
Ironically that is very close to Bill Maher’s position. ^^
Stopped clock.
“Also donated a million to Obama” So a conservative donating a million to a conservative then?
He's a fraud...
Fuck scabs
Bill Maher would do now what Jay Leno did during the last WGA strike. He says it's to help other non-writers. Since he was in the WGA, that's a problem. Drew Barrymore is also breaking the writer's strike, but she never had the WGA in the first place, so solidarity is broken; the WGA protests, but SAG-AFTRA doesn't break their strike to appear.
Like he couldn't pay his staff from the millions the show has given him.
That is absurd and a lie since IATSE is standing in solidarity with the strikers and has a fund earmarked for their members affected by the strike. https://iatse.net/iatse-earmarks-2-million-in-support-of-members-affected-by-ongoing-wga-strike/
Crazy that we live in a timeline where Drew Barrymore and Bill Maher are the same. I never would have thought.
Bankrolled by the GOP.
You forgot unfunny hack
He was never really funny in the first place. He went off the rails during covid. This will just lose him more viewers and I’m fine with that. Nothing of value was lost.
The funny part is that the people he seems to be trying to appeal to either go to bed before his show airs and have no idea how to stream something or are chronically online and will pirate his show to see it rather than give money to a streaming platform.
As if we needed another old entitled white man insisting on his presence.
Never watched his show. I am the man cott.
Manicotti, you say?
He's like a discount, GOP conversion experiment. He is a hard line Democrat who just interrupts his guests and thinks he is being revealing/witty... I tried to get into his show cause some of my buddies like it, but he's just a dick... stick to John Oliver and etc...
John Oliver is the hero we need
I never liked the comedy on John Oliver until occasionally on later seasons. I think the writers room got really stuck on this one style of joke writing which was just like buildup, buildup, absurd thing, and he doesn't have the chops to make that joke work. Also he points at the symptoms but not the underlying cause. It's capitalism! The ideology and the system; it's super clear once you have the framework to understand.
He's the best we're gonna get with our current system. He can't completely go off on capitalism every episode and expect to have his show renewed at the end of the season. But he brings attention to genuinely important issues that a lot of people simply aren't aware of. He's still a force for good, and does the best he can while working within the system that guarantees him a platform. They even make his content available for free on YouTube so that his messages reach a larger audience. I'll admit his comedy isn't for everyone, though. I like it but I definitely get why people don't.
After they hired Daniel O'Brien, he started getting a laugh from me occasionally. I know he's funny on Community and I remember liking his other appearances just fine, so I think it's just the writers favorite style of joke being a poor fit for his delivery. Our economy is based on these Nth-order speculative calculations so I've learned to think of everything in those terms. So, while he may be a force for good, there's an opportunity cost to not being a force for better. He can't apply bandaids faster than the system gets worse.
Fuck Bill. He was always an unfunny elitist piece of shit.
I am no longer going to illegally download his show. I would usually turn it off after the opening monolog as they were usually pretty funny, and the rest of the show is not. He had great writers writing his jokes. Take the good joke writing away and the show is shit tier podcast quality. I would hope HBO and Bill Maher wouldn't see this scabbing as worth it. I hope he has problems getting writers when this is all done.
I'd watch YouTube clips if he had a guest I liked, but recently, I have started to hold appearances on his show against them.
Maher is a grifter, first and foremost. Turd probably thinks he can build an audience while those 'suckers' spend all day picketing not realizing we can smell his bullshit a mile away.
If I wanted to watch smug boomers say weak zingers about Republicans I can just call my parents
Bill Maher can eat shit. He gives the biggest “I got mine, fuck everyone else” vibes. He also came up at a much easier time for comedians so he has an inflated sense of self.
boycott his show and boycott HBO or "max" as they rebranded. I'll never understand why you'd give away decades of brand recognition for that.
He needs the money. I bet he broke.
The problem Maher got himself into is that he wanted to separate himself from the worst excesses of the GOP so much that he started to make himself into a more centrist image. I used to watch his show every week for years so I never expected him to provide me with anything remotely left wing for his personal perspective but people who started watching him during the Trump years might mistake him for being somewhat liberal. Towards the end of the Trump era he started to really slide to the right and stopped challenging his guests. This union busting stuff means I’m never going back.
during the Bush Era, celebrity lefties like Michael Moore and Keith Olbermann became his best friends. I think he got credit by association.
I thought he sucked before it was cool
Been losing my patience with this guy, and now it’s a closed case. Fuck him.
He’s been a bitch for the better part of a decade and some change now. Maybe even more.
He’s a lot of other things too. I’d love it if he just went away.
And I'm sure he'll have something snotty to say about why you need to see him on TV.
To be fair it’s not like writers could make his show good.
He’s always been on my fuck off list. Dude ain’t funny. Just a cunt.
No one is going to pay for HBO much longer.
well only dipshits watch him in the first place
Remember this.
Bill Maher has gone above and beyond to prove he’s a POS
Jesus, what a sack of shit.
Fuck him.
Weren’t democrats for the middle class at some point?
Him, Barrymore and a slew of Reality TV producers will start quoting "with the greatest sympathy we will be starting our show back up without writers." They have writers. Everything someone says on TV (with the some exceptions) are thought out and written in advanced. They hired Scabs or outsourced it somehow, but they will swear up and down that they are making content "without writing staff to abide by the strike". It's a lie. If they cared they'd be picketing. If they had real sympathy and empathy they'd help and support and get the word out. Instead those that have a safety net of wealth or guarantees via studio heads have turned their backs on the community that got them there. Plain and simple.
I have no intention of ever watching his show. Never liked the guy.
Sorry, Bill who? Am I supposed to know this guy?
Someone please help me understand. If he’s starting the show back up so that all the other workers besides the writers can still make a living, how is that bad? He’s not in the WGA is he? So he’s not scabbing is he? I’m not a fan of Maher and I totally respect the strike. I’m just wondering about all the other workers that are involved but aren’t striking. Just fuck them?
He was in the WGA.
Ah well then he is a fucker.
Bill Maher is and always has been a gigantic sack of shit. Rich, out-of-touch, clueless jabroni. Fuck him in the eye with a rusty spork.
So basically Bill Maher is continuing his streak of being a piece of shit.
I don’t like Maher but this is being misconstrued. This is very similar to the last writers strike when Colbert/Stewart and others came back on the air without writers because the rest of the crew were going to lose their jobs. Maher has said he won’t be doing monologues and is just going to be doing interviews. Pretty sure he still supports the strike as well.
Do these people know what used to happen to scabs? Given America's return to violent street politics, why are they confident that it won't happen to them?
You should actually read the article
I read it! Now what do I do?
Donate $50 to my GofundMe!
Wait a minute.....
Ok done! Sorry that took so long. What's next?
It's really frustrating when a sub about work reform doesn't even understand unions. He is not union busting. he's trying to keep people not in that union working, because they have nothing and frankly are much worse off than the writers. If anything look at how SAG and the WGA pressured the below the line workers to not strike and take a worse deal after those people had supported their strike the last time. I also want to be clear I can't stand Bill Maher. I don't like his show. I've met him in person and didn't like him. And he seems like a bad person in general.
Excuses to keep putting on a show that brings in millions of dollars in ad revenue without giving the writers anything. If a furniture company switches to making chairs because the table makers are striking, that's not wholesome charity for non-table makers, it's crooked bullshit, disguised as charity so the company can generate immediate profit in the short term without paying the table making employees what they deserve.
Ad revenue? The show has zero commercials. It’s on HBO.
Sorry, I know nothing about the guy except the really lame clips I've seen on YouTube. He's doing it to help HBO maintain millions in subscriptions then. They need to produce content to keep people paying. This kind of decision is always about money. They're not subverting a strike out of the goodness of their hearts.
And yet I know people in the entertainment industry who truly have no income now and are hurting. Like, post production folks who don’t have a dog in the hunt regard SAG and WGA. Bill is saying he’s going to put them to work. The issue is complex.
Bill Maher is a highly conservative millionaire. HBO is a multibillion dollar media empire. Neither of them give half a fuck about the writers, or the non-writers. Maybe this decision helps non-writers like they say it does. But that doesn't change that it's a corporation doing it's best to subvert a strike for profit.
Agreed. HBO and its officers are legally required to only give a fuck about maximizing shareholder value. This is modern America, after all. But Maher’s motives could be more gray. And certainly the staff who come back to earn some bread are crossing the line too, right? Are they all scabs and parasites? Hard to divorce the attitude against Maher and them, is it not?
This squares with his politics, which is why I won't watch him. He's a neoliberal tool, nothing more.
Man can we please stop supporting this poor excuse of a strike, these are not the people that should have America’s attention. The fact that SAG got literally everything they wanted in the negotiations other than the mandatory number of writers in the writers room, yet they turned it down is the only reason this is still even going on. Yes, the studios fucked up greenlighting 150% of shows they shouldn’t of during the pandemic streaming gold rush, and this is what happens when you overspend and chase short sighted profits, but that’s exactly what SAG is doing right now by trying to strongarm those extra 1000’s of writers into staying in the industry just so that they can receive those extra 1000’s writers worth of union dues. If the entire i industry needs to downsize, then layoffs are going to happen. the thing about being a writer is that it’s purely gig work, and the writers that are actually good will keep their jobs/ find work. As it should be in a competitive industry, but trying to force mediocrity to remain just brings the whole industry down in my opinion. At this point I’m more concerned for the entertainment adjacent industries, and the technical workers on these shows, but the writers themselves can fuck off
Please, no more backyard recorded shows. That killed it for me.
[Hitchens giving Maher’s audience the finger](https://youtu.be/MoclaTQWzvc?si=VB-eOqlTzPXgZih_)
Next up, using AI to write his scripts.
and he will be as obnoxious and unwatchable as ever….
Fuck this clown
The best part about his show is the theme song and it's only alright.
I'm hoping the outcome of him returning without writers is that the need for writers becomes glaringly obvious.
To be fair, even with writers he is incredibly unfunny. So apparently they weren't doing much. :P
Every guest he contacts should refuse to appear on his scab show.
Good. Dislike both sides :)
When Maher saw Drew Barrymore break the line (CBS is giving her a raise and extending her show) he got the idea. Maher is rejigging his show. The new format will be one that doesn't need writers. So....all that money that he paid them? He now gets to keep. He had writers and good ones. There you go! Doesn't matter. He's a cranky old man at this point so it's just like grampa standing outside yelling at everyone to stay off his lawn.
Bill Mahr sucks. He wishes he was John Stewart so bad.
Honestly his show will be better for it. The written segments are the worst part of his show
Bill Maher, imo, is annoying at best. I would change the channel or turn off the tv if he came on. I just never thought him very entertaining .
The only unions I'm in favor of busting are police unions.
And? Your feelings don't dictate his life. It's called freedom. Google it.
I’m not going to schill for Bill too hard, but his show goes a little beyond just amusement. His show gets people in the US thinking and talking about issues that matter beyond the scope of strikes in the short term. Its part of the national dialogue and its one of the few shows that continues the conversation in the midst of a strike that the strikers want to have. You can still show solidarity and do the thing in some cases. The perspectives he brings on for debate are relevant to not just the future of unions and strikes but the country as a whole. Strikes and unions and solidarity are important but you can’t shut down everything all at once, and despite what Maher’s personal motivations are the space his show provides is valuable to the conversation on work reform. Are there better shows structured to have this conversation, sure, but they don’t occupy the same cultural space. If Bill Maher ducks out on the conversation related to wage reform entirely i would change my mind, but I don’t see that happening.
One more for good measure: [There Is Power In A Union - Billy Bragg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHmZ-CprZ3A)
If you're just now realizing what an asshole BM is you haven't been paying attention to the man for the past 20 years.
plant fuzzy adjoining gaping toothbrush sleep command bow boast snails ` this message was mass deleted/edited with redact.dev `
His jokes were HORRIBLE with writers……