I have a new rule to propose and I'll get to it in a moment. This is about last night's Bill Maher retrospective which took the place of last night's Real Time with Bill Maher and which repeats throughout the week. The retrospective covers that show and his previous series, Politically Incorrect. I have been an avid fan of both programs.
Very little has bothered me about either. I didn't like the title of Politically Incorrect because I think that term is one of those phrases that people use according to varying, self-serving definitions. Maher, if I understand correctly, employs it to refer mainly to things that are true but people are afraid to say them out loud or are discouraged from expressing them. That's fine but a lot of racism, misogyny, junk science, hatred and stuff-said-just-to-get-attention gets defended and justified as a blow against "political correctness." Just because a lot of people frown on certain viewpoints doesn't mean you're a hero (or even correct) for saying them. It's Politically Incorrect to insist the Holocaust is a Zionist fantasy.
On Real Time, I think he's smart and gutsy and often very, very funny. My only occasional gripe here is that while (correctly) decrying those who reject Real Science as it relates to Climate Change, Maher often commits the same crime with regard to science about the human body. The worse example was in 2016 when he gave a lot of camera time to a "doctor" who claimed to have cured Charlie Sheen of AIDS with the milk of — I am not making this up — arthritic goats. He hasn't done that kind of thing lately and there was none of it in the retrospective so maybe he's wised up about that kind of thing.
And I guess I sometimes feel sorry for the kind of Conservative guest he can lure onto his panels. Some of them seem to think they can "win" on that playing field with that host and that studio audience…and I guess, about twice a year, one scores a point or two. So does the team that plays the Harlem Globetrotters. I usually wonder which right-wingers on Maher's program really thought they could do their cause some good and which ones merely have Alan Dershowitz Disease, i.e., the emotional inability to decline any opportunity to be on television.
Generally though, I like watching Maher. The few times I've met him or been around him — admittedly, some time ago — I sure got the idea I wouldn't enjoy prolonged exposure to him personally but on my TV, he's great. His "New Rules" segment is often the brightest, most perceptive bit of political commentary I encounter all week. In light of that, I'd like to offer a New Rule inspired by what I saw last night…
New Rule: If there's ever an hour-long special about you that goes on and on about your greatness and brilliance, with all your friends testifying to how incredibly awesome you are, it should not end with a title card that says, "Executive Producer: You."
That's like Trump giving himself an "A-Plus" for everything. That's what, literally, Jerry Lewis did on the last half-dozen or so retrospectives of his career that did nothing but gush at his infinite genius. You might just as well have an announcer proclaim, "This tribute to Your Name Here which treated him as a capital-G God was created by and carefully supervised by Your Name Here."
If Maher had turned the hour over to an outside entity — one with no ax to grind, pro or con — and they'd done a "Fair and Balanced" look at his career, I think he would have come off very well. My little list of things I think he's done wrong is pretty sparse.
I just have a natural distrust of people blowing their own horns. When someone tells me how great their work is, my immediate thought is: You're telling me that because you know I'm not likely to come to that viewpoint on my own. In my experience, that which is self-praised is usually disappointing. And when it isn't disappointing, it's embarrassing to see it sold that way. Bill Maher is better than that…and that's not him saying that. It's me.