Bill Maher Blasts Kimmel, Colbert & Other Late-Night Hosts for ‘Copying MSNBC’
Bill Maher is never afraid to share his opinion, especially on political issues, yet he thinks other late-night talk show hosts should keep their political leanings to themselves.
Speaking to The Sopranos alum Drea de Matteo on the latest episode of his Club Random podcast, Maher said he missed the days when late-night hosts kept politics out of comedy. “Letterman, Leno, you know, Carson…they never told you their politics,” he said, per The Daily Beast.
He then took aim at The Late Show‘s Stephen Colbert, The Daily Show‘s Jon Stewart, Last Week Tonight‘s John Oliver, and Jimmy Kimmel, saying they “very predictably” parrot “whatever MSNBC was saying” on their late-night shows.
The Real Time host went on to say that the problem is “that everybody makes their decisions based on the politics of the art and not the art itself,” adding, “I’m not knocking them… The audience, and of course half the country, was like, ‘Well this is just insulting to me.'”
As an example of a late-night host keeping politics out of comedy, Maher pointed to Jay Leno, explaining, “Leno just played it right down the middle. He was just like, ‘I will make fun of everybody.’ And that’s, in a different sort of way, what I’m doing also. I just don’t stop criticizing just because you’re on the left part. If you do something stupid, I’m going to call it out no matter where you are.”
Leno drew ire back in July for making similar comments, telling the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute, “I love political humor, don’t get me wrong. But it’s just what happens when people wind up cozying too much to one side or the other. Why shoot for just half an audience all the time?”
While Leno received backlash from various late-night hosts, including Stewart, who called the former Tonight Show host’s take “f****** ridiculous,” Maher said he agreed, noting, “the most important thing” in this new “era” is “to signal to the audience what your politics are.”
Maher, who argued late-night hosts should keep away from politics, visited the White House earlier this year for a meeting with President Donald Trump. After the meeting, Maher described Trump as “gracious and measured.”
“A crazy person doesn’t live in the White House,” he shared on an episode of Real Time after his visit. “A person who plays a crazy person on TV a lot lives there, which I know is f***** up. It’s just not as f***** up as I thought it was.”
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O
Back in the '80s, and maybe into the '90s, people could go days, if not weeks, without thinking about the POTUS or hearing about some soundbite or comment the president made. Congress did its job-- with some internal squabbling, no doubt-- but stuff got done. And everything happened in the background. In those days, it certainly wasn't unusual for comics (late night or otherwise) to skip over any political humor, as life churned along without much political fanfare.
The same isn't true now. Nowadays, if citizens aren't paying attention, their lives will change for the worse without any pushback. If people don't speak up, the government won't do its job, or will do the bidding of entitled elitists who PAY for the privilege of getting what they want.
Believe me, I'd LOVE to get back to a way of American life in which I could ignore politics and what politicians are doing and why they're doing it. But since that won't happen for at least another 5-10 years, you bet we're going to speak and make noise, whether it's on TV or in the town square.
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Amen! I miss the Obama administration and weeks without worrying about what he was doing.
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Jay Leno only told 4607 Bill Clinton jokes according to George Mason University, you know so it was hard to tell his politics.
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O
This article contradicts itself - which is it?
"...Maher said he agreed, noting, “the most important thing” in this new “era” is “to signal to the audience what your politics are.”
Maher, who argued late-night hosts should keep away from politics,..."
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Maher's comment was acknowledging that in the minds of today's new world comedians, that is the most important. He was not indicating his agreement with that philosophy.
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Ohh I see. Thanks for claritying.
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C
sorry but the theme of Maher's show for the last 10 years was we were witnessing a slow moving coup. As a matter of fact he relished over and over with the fact that he was right. I didn't want to believe what he was warning us about but here we are. That said, it is hard for me to make sense of going to the White House and informing the rest of us how "normal" it is and we need to stop clutching our pearls As to his obsession with "WOKE", when he can step into the life and live like the marginalized among us, knock it off. I'm a white 70 year old woman who raised three teenage sons under my roof and never once had to have the conversation about what to do if they got stopped by the police.
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This may have been true in the past but today, polarization sells. Fair and balanced gets NO clicks.
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Says the wealthy TV host who talks about politics every week for decades.
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O
Excuse me but they don't need MSNBC to get their news. Everything they make fun of is based on facts reported by most news sources. Stop insulting their intelligence.
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And you can't believe the media.
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"No-drama Obama." how many of his cabinet members got indicted or went to prison? NONE. How much of what he accomplished helped citizens in one way or another? All of it. How many times was his policy or his administration protested against?? Ummm, let me try to remember..... I can't think of any times.
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Patently absurd. Leno couldn't go 1 joke without telling a very unfunny Bill Clinton "joke." Literally every other joke was about Bill Clinton, every night for about 22 years.
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We are paying for that Obama era now.
He never left.
Biden was his puppet.
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O
I think most Americans WISH we could have the America that existed during the Obama years.
The economy gained a net 11.6 million jobs. The unemployment rate dropped to below the historical norm.Average weekly earnings for all workers were up 4.2 percent after inflation. The gain was 3.7 percent for just production and nonsupervisory employees.After-tax corporate profits also set records, as did stock prices. The S&P 500 index rose 166 percent.The number of people lacking health insurance dropped by 15 million. Premiums rose, but more slowly than before.The federal debt owed to the public rose 128 percent. Deficits were rising as Obama departed.Home prices rose 20 percent. But the home ownership rate hit the lowest point in half a century.Illegal immigration declined: The Border Patrol caught 35 percent fewer people trying to get into the U.S. from Mexico.Wind and solar power increased 369 percent. Coal production declined 38 percent. Carbon emissions from burning fossil fuel dropped 11 percent.Production of handguns rose 207 percent, to a record level.The murder rate dropped to the lowest on record in 2014, then rose and finished at the same rate as when Obama took office.
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Hahaha, this has to be sarcasm. John Oliver is as bias as they come. You can't handle the truth, you need your bias spoonfed to you. Sad.
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Bill Maher is so over...think he's going for Fox five light..minus two.
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The even handled left leaning Maher has devolved into the right leaning cranky guy yelling at kids for making too much noise. I was so disappointed when he jumped into the 'woke' parade but did not follow up on the stories he heard - the worst being the students who identified as cats crapola. And, he was so very smug in his declarations of superiority.
After that, my Friday nights got a lot quieter as I turned him off.
Now I'm full on Jon Oliver, who does his homework. No, I don't always agree, but I can see that he developed his thoughts with research and study, not just disgust.
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Maher is just like the rest of them: will change his tune for the political winds.
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What's his politics? Not liking Bill Clinton? Does that hurt your feelings?
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What is a Bill Maher? Is it relevant now?
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Shut up Maher. You haven't been relevant since..............20 no................well never.
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