I Hate Bill Maher

Once upon a time, Bill Maher was an "actor/comedian", as opposed to "breaker of new ways to think about stories/comedian", and his first starring role was 1985's Sara, which also stars Geena Davis and Alfre Woodard (which is insane, by the way.) Writer Ella Dawson returns to talk about the show generally, Bill Maher's performance specifically, and then hypothesize what a world where this show was a hit would have looked like.

New year, new Maher (but not actually). Season 2 of Real Time with Bill Maher has begun, at least as far as this podcast is concerned, and I was joined by comedian and journalist Francesca Fiorentini. She gives us some insight on doing panels not unlike the ones they do on Real Time, and then we recap an incomplete Real Time that was incomplete due to my incompetence! Honestly, it feels like we're getting off lucky because Al Sharpton and Ron Silver spent A LOT of time just yelling at each other.

Listen, I'm very sorry to any listeners who are infuriated and/or disappointed by this episode, but like, I gotta be honest with this thing. This week, comedian Adam Christie joins me to give an insider's look into the practical reality of writing a weekly topical late night comedy show, and is obstinate with me in the way that only people who've been friends since they were teenagers can be obstinate with one another. But perhaps that feeling is just my own displeasure at having to admit something I never thought I would. A truly shocking episode of... pod... casting. Oh, and also, please rate and review the podcast on whatever service you personally do that kind of thing on. I'd appreciate it.

Watch out ladies, it's... some incredibly misogynist television that we watched! Kath Barbadoro joined the show to watch Real Time season one, episode nineteen with me, and after I found out she was teaching a stand-up comedy class I was annoying about it and really made at her pick at some of the jokes in this episode. In my defense, they were FUCKIN' BAD. Anyway, it still ended up not being not such a bad time in comparison to some past watches, so make of that what you will.