Bill Maher’s weekly monologue

March 2, 2024 • 12:30 pm

Bill Maher’s 8½-minute monologue, largely about the advanced age of Joe Biden, aired on Real Time last night. His point: don’t let the opposition define you, and be who you really are. In Biden’s case, that’s being old, and Biden should, says Maher, “own it.”

I’m not sure that would really work, though. Americans watch Biden, and they’re scared by what they see. But there’s also a nice skit of Maher playing an aged Biden (with a walker) giving the State of the Union address.

Watch before they take it down. The ten-minute “overtime” segment, with a strange mixture of  guests—Dr. Phil, Batya Ungar-Sargon, and Tim Ryan—is here.

13 thoughts on “Bill Maher’s weekly monologue”

  1. “Watch before they take it down.” Why would it be taken down? Have any of Maher’s programs (including his overtime segments) ever been taken down? I’d be curious to know.

    1. Real Time with Bill Maher is aired on HBO which requires a subscription. The show also has its own YouTube channel on which extracts of each episode are posted. The closing monologue (about 8 mins long) is always posted in full, like the Overtime segment (10 mins long). These posts will not be taken down (hence, you still can, today, watch the closing monologue and the overtime segment from the episode that aired two weeks ago).
      If you want to watch a whole episode and you don’t have a subscription to HBO, you can watch the latest episode on YouTube between, approximately, 11 pm on the Friday it airs until about 12 pm the next day. You would be watching an illegal upload. (It takes some time for YouTube to remove illegal uploads.)
      On any given Friday, if you want to know whether there is a Real Time show (there was none last Friday) and who the guests are, check the show’s blog:
      http://www.real-time-with-bill-maher-blog.com/

      1. I subscribe to HBO (Max), so I have no problem watching Maher’s show — and I usually do watch the show — though he and his guests often irritate me.

        I’m most annoyed by Maher’s smarmy lip-licking attitude during his ending monologue*. I do like the clash of ideas that he often presents, with no obeisance to a contrived “balanced” perspective.

        But my question was about why anyone would expect that any of his shows on HBO — or on any of his overtime segments on YouTube — would be taken down.

        I don’t need or want to watch the illegal uploads of his program, but thanks for the info.

        —

        * My wife pointed out to me that he often seems to be checking to see if his zipper is open during his opening monologue.

  3. He’s just not funny. I don’t know if it’s the writers, or his choices, or delivery, but I don’t see how anyone watches him .

    1. He is not funny to you. If this were a widely shared assessment the show would not have lasted as long as it has: about 650 episodes until now (since 2003). Per Wikipedia.

  4. Will Maher address Trump’s dementia? It infuriates me that the media goes on about Biden’s age but says relatively nothing about Trump’s state of mind.

    Here are two enlightening conversations with Dr. John Gartner, a psychologist (links below these excerpts).

    Some examples of Trump’s non-words: Beneficiaries becomes “benefishes.” Renovations become “renoversh.” Pivotal became “pivobal.” Obama became “obamna.” Missiles became “mishiz.” Christmas became “Crissus.” Bipartisan became “bipars.”

    This is a fundamental breakdown in the ability to use language. If you were talking to your father on the phone and he did this you would think he is having a stroke. There is no healthy older person who speaks that way.

    Trump also engages in what we call “tangential speech.” He just becomes incomprehensible when he engages in free association word salad speech that is all over the place. Again, that’s a sign of real brain damage, not being old, not being slow, not losing a step not being, but of severe cognitive deterioration. What I don’t understand is why those clips aren’t replayed over and over in the mainstream media. Isn’t Trump babbling incoherently the most newsworthy part of his rally? You can be sure it would be if it were Biden.

    https://www.salon.com/2024/02/23/dr-john-gartner-on-a-tale-of-two-brains-bidens-brain-is-aging-brain-is-dementing/

    https://www.salon.com/2024/03/01/like-someone-pulled-the-metaphorical-plug-dr-john-gartner-on-accelerating-dementia/

    1. The media is choke-full of negative commentary about Trump. And Bill Maher is not holding back either when it comes to criticizing him. In fact, he has been sued by Trump at least once.
      The reality is that Biden is old (though he’s a good guy – but delusional when thinking that he has the best shot of all potential Democratic candidates at beating Trump) and this matters to swing voters. That it does not matter to you is completely irrelevant (assuming you always vote Democratic). The election will be decided by swing voters. So it’s their perceptions that count.

      If you need more skewering of Trump’s ghibberish watch the opening monologues of Jimmy Kimmel’s Late Night show (or Stephen’ Colbert’s Late Night Show, or Seth Meyer’s Late Night show). They are all posted in full on the show’s respective YouTube channel.
      Thank you for not upbraiding Jerry that he’s not posting enough negative commentary on this website.

    2. The problem is not that we need more media coverage of Trump.

      And the problem is not that Joe Biden is giving too many open press conferences.

  5. Hmmm. I think that this one falls a bit flat. It’s not Biden’s age per se, it’s his apparent frailty and how his ability to form words and sentences has deteriorated. He may very well be capable. He is certainly experienced, which matters a great deal. And he has had some real accomplishments as President (along with a few important failures).

    But Americans of all ages—even my 88-year-old mother—want vigor in their leaders. Biden still seems at times to have passion, but he lacks vigor. The tools that humans have to express vigor—a steady and purposeful gait, a strong voice, the ability to form words crisply and with precision—are all failing him. Consequently, calling on Biden to own his age and target his campaign at the older population—the people who vote—won’t be enough.

    The age issue will be with us in this election.

  6. All joking aside, Biden’s just referred to Ukraine twice when he actually meant Gaza. I think Jill needs to have a quiet word with him about running before it’s too late.

  7. Thing is, the voters have all had an elderly guy like Biden in their family, and as much as they love him, they wouldn’t trust him to put his pants on the right way, let alone run the country. That works against him pretty strongly

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