Bill Maher's childlike circus of the stars

Maher's after-show 'Overtime' weed fest has exposed how embarrassingly dumb he is on many topics. In 2008 I opined that 'Real Times' ' kindergarten level of political discourse made it unwatchable.

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

Sunday, Sept. 21, 2008 1

As Bill Maher watched Roseanne Barr deliver her inane rant on the Sept. 12 "Real Time With Bill Maher," it looked -- for half a millisecond -- that he, too, realized what a fool she was making of herself.

But Maher, the caustic comedian who Larry King thinks is a political pundit, let his beloved Roseanne babble on about how Gov. Sarah Palin was getting away with racist comments and how rich people don't pay enough taxes.

Roseanne was a special guest on Episode 132 of Maher's HBO show -- which was re-run all last week -- because some people Maher knew were saying her life story was a lot like Gov. Palin's.

Roseanne, like Palin, was a working-class mother with lots of kids who came out of obscurity to become famous. And, Maher cracked, whereas Palin has an infant with special needs, Roseanne was once married to Tom Arnold.

That was one of the funnier lines in an often obnoxious, mean-spirited, politically lopsided talk show whose anti-Palin theme was broken only by the occasional Bush bashing or token Bill Clinton joke.

Maher's three guest panelists were comedian Janeane Garofalo, author Salman Rushdie and Wall Street Journal columnist John Fund. Paul Begala, the loyal Clintonista, appeared via satellite.

Maher was the alpha dog. He was "officially frightened" by Palin's interview with Charlie Gibson, called Palin "a Category 5 moron" and said it's unfair to compare pigs to Palin because pigs are smart and "don't believe in creationism."

Garofalo accused Fund of being dishonest and a sexist. She said George W. Bush didn't win the election of either 2000 or 2004, when "democracy was hacked." And she semi-joked that Republicans should be jailed for being in favor of things like torture and against "reproductive justice."

Rushdie's two-rupees' worth of commentary was mostly liberal boilerplate about Republican misrule.

Poor John Fund. He was beaten up for being smug (by Rushdie), for being a cynic (by Maher) and for being a liar (by Garofalo).

He defended Republicans and conservatives, even when they didn't deserve it. But he was interrupted long before he could explain that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were government-sponsored enterprises that were poorly regulated and wrecked by politicians of both parties.

Fund's nuances were not appreciated. The partisan gang-bang became so obviously unfair that Maher, not known for a conscience, gave Fund a tip of the hat for putting up a good fight against 4-1 odds. "So what?!" Garofalo shrieked.

Meanwhile, the studio audience, as usual, cheered wildly every time someone knocked Palin or McCain, praised Sen. Obama or said, as Garofalo so cogently did, that Democrats are fundamentally more "decent" than Republicans.

The unbalanced politics of Episode 132 -- not to mention its kindergarten level of discourse -- again demonstrated why "Real Time" has become unwatchable for all non-liberals or libertarians.

Republicans and President Bush deserve to be trashed for the many dumb and bad things they've done at home or abroad. It's also reasonable to question Palin's credentials or the decision to pick her.

But the Maher-Garofalo-Rushdie-Barr tag-team made fools of themselves. Nasty fools. And Episode 132 accomplished what Maher's shows usually do -- validate every stereotype ever made about the simplistic politics, narrow minds and creepy values of Hollywood.