Bill Maher has been around for a long time. He made a name for himself with his shows Politically Incorrect and Real Time with Bill Maher, and he used to spark controversy and debate with his opinions, especially regarding the legalization of same-sex marriage and marijuana, and the war on terror. However, in this day and age, when cultural attitudes have shifted quite a bit more towards what Maher has long been advocating for, he seems to be struggling to find new ground.
Within five seconds of his new special, filmed in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Maher went straight for what he probably viewed as the jugular: making fun of Trump. The issue with criticizing Trump is that there are tactics that work and those that don’t. Maher mentioned Stormy Daniels, Trump’s ineptitude, and called him “aggressively stupid,” which played well to his fans, but aren’t exactly fresh observations. The crowd definitely defied some stereotypes about everyone in the “heartland”, cheering at the mention of Bernie Sanders, booing the separation of children at the border, etc. The point being, it’s not like Maher was taking any real risk with these barbs at Trump.
In addition, for all Maher’s talk about the need to unify the country, I didn’t hear much in the way of him coming up with any ideas on how to accomplish that beyond getting the Democrats back in power. Of course this is a comedy special, and maybe it’s not the best place in the entire world to start bandying about policy decisions, but as a political commentator with a large platform and someone who fancies himself an intelligent person, Maher could’ve found a way to sneak in the policies he is championing and make people laugh all at once. He used to be able to do that.
This trend continues on for about the first half of the special, with low-hanging-fruit jabs at Trump and his enablers. After we move past this, he transitions into the realm of “back in my day” jokes, which were admittedly funnier than I expected. He also gave his take on the #MeToo movement, saying “I hope women know that there are a lot of men who are very happy for you, that this reckoning finally came about and that your lives will always be better for it.”
Other topics brought to the table were political correctness on college campuses, people lacking a sense of humor, or being “fragile” as Maher framed it, etc. He did have some words of wisdom for the Democrats heading into future elections; he urged them to stop focusing quite so much on identity politics and come up with a solid economic message to give their base something to vote for instead of just an opponent to vote against.
It’s not that there weren’t some legitimate laughs here and there during the special, but overall, it came across as one of Maher’s more safe and almost lazy routines. It could be that he’s just stuck in his ways at this point in his career; as the saying goes, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Comedy is changing, along with everything else as we evolve as a society, at a faster pace than ever before. But for someone who used to be considered a cutting edge character on the left, it certainly seems like he’s dulled with age.
Rating: 6 out of 10
