I Hate Bill Maher

Not unlike Bill Maher himself, I took a little break from Real Time to watch the only Bill Maher star vehicle, 1991's Pizza Man. I was joined by Podcaster/Writer/Comedian Caitlin Durante, so there is officially a witness to the absolutely fuckin' BIZARRE tonal shifts and plot developments in this thing. Which parts were meant to be jokes? Why is it so fucking dark? And why is the director so opposed to getting some God damned coverage? Caitlin was so determined to answer some of those questions that she... I can't believe i'm saying this, but she watched it twice. Twice! Honestly, this is almost entirely just a fun episode talking about a crazy movie, so definitely enjoy it because next week has got some DARK shit in it.Check out Caitlin's stuff here, and check out all of the Bechdel Cast's links here

Jesus Christ, more fucking Ann Coulter! Filmmaker/Musician/Podcaster Lola Blanc is on the show this week, and we are talking about Real Time Season 1, Episode 10. My expectations for what Horror auteur Clive Barker would be like on one of these shows is shattered, the point of having Ann Coulter on these things is debated, plus we witness perhaps the show's worst explained segment yet, as well as a baffling and disgusting analogy that could only come from the mind of a weird, horny old stand-up comedian (so, like 35% of them).Here are all of Lola's links, I trust your ability to scroll through them and find what you want.

Comedian/Writer/Big Dog Haver Andrew Orvedahl is here this week to talk Real Time season one, episode nine. He loved it! No, I'm kidding, it was fucking dreadful. Andrew revealed which camp his past with Maher falls into: "used to be a fan", or "encountered him here and there during my lifetime". Then we got to the episode and its especially bad panel, though panelist Ann Coulter did force us to consider the age old question "Who whines about the whiners?" (roughly translated from the Latin phrase, "Quis queritur de eo qui queritur?")Listen to Andrew's albums here, and maybe someday Those Who Can't will be fucking streaming somewhere again. Who knows, fucking Zaslav wants even more consolidation in the entertainment industry.

I recorded an episode in-person for the first time ever, and the audio quality is uhhhhhhhhh mixed, we'll say. But hey, when you've got a guest this good, a little diminished audio is worth the trouble. Comedian, Actor, Whole-ass show creator Lindsay Mullan joins us this week, and we spend a lot of time talking about whether or not it's worth it to focus your creative efforts on hating another, much more famous person, and the possible consequences of attaching yourself to someone you don't even like. Then, a quicker than usual Real Time recap but don't worry, there's still a ton of dog shit in there. Aaron McGruder probably takes the title of Best Panel Guest from Connie Rice, for the record.Here's Lindsay's website! Here is Linday's Instagram!

Comedian/Writer/Long time close fiend (intentional) Eliza Skinner joins the show to talk about a parent's love (for Maher). We also explore whether or not Bill Maher likes... anything, really??? I'll be honest, I'm insanely exhausted trying to write this description right now and I just truly have no mental energy to do anything. That's why this episode was so late, I had a lot to get done. Okay?! Fuck!!!!!Anyway, Eliza's great, very funny. Goodnight!Get tickets to Tom Foolery here.

CONTENT WARNING: Roman Polanski comes up in the context of his horrible crimes, and while we don't mention the specifics, we do mention Bill Maher mentioning the specifics.Finally, I get another absolute pervert for Bill Maher on here. Comedian John Hastings joins me to talk about his theory on modern grift culture's role in Real Time's resurgence, the complete and total absence of effort throughout Bill Maher's entire career, and a tonally bizarre episode of Real Time that gets completely fucked up by an absurdly inappropriate throwaway joke. But on the upside, it's the least amount of sexism from Bill so far. So, I don't know, that's good...?Check out John's specials online here.P.S. I told you I would sound better and it would be on time this week. Each of you owes me twenty dollars.

I don't want to go on a rant here, but this week writer Sophia Benoit really gets tossed into the Real Time meat grinder when she's given an episode to discuss that has Dennis Miller on the panel. Has experiencing her mother and former step-father's Bill Maher fandom as a teen prepared her for such an experience, or will she suffer the same amount of psychic damage that Dennis Miller himself does when Arianna Huffington takes a pretty mild shot at him. Also, the evils of American Pie.Check out Sophia's fairly large catalogue of work hereOh, also this should be the last week that my sound is bad and that the episode is so late, since I got a new mic and that means I won't have to spend so much time attempting to tweak every God damn thing I said during the recording. Of course, that's just my opinion, I could be wrong.

On this week's pretty late episode, comedian and writer Emma Arnold joins me to talk about the time she went with a bunch of other people to Hawaii WITH BILL MAHER. That's right, someone who spent time with Bill Maher in the flesh, and is able to confirm that, yes, he is a miserable piece of shit. We also talk about the third ever episode of Real Time, and how that version of him compares with the 2016/17 version.Emma's WebsiteEmma's stand-up