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Bill Maher

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Bill Maher

William "Bill" Maher, Jr., (born January 20, 1956; last name pronounced "mar") is an American comedian, actor, writer and producer. He is most well-known for his television show Politically Incorrect and is currently the host the HBO talk show Real Time with Bill Maher. He is known for his liberal and libertarian views.

Early life and career

Maher was born in New York City and grew up in River Vale, New Jersey. He graduated from Pascack Hills High School in Montvale. Maher is the product of a "mixed" marriage (Jewish mother, Roman Catholic father), and in his early stand-up routine, he said that he would bring a lawyer to confession: "Forgive me, Father, for I have sinned... I think you know Mr. Cohen..." He received his Bachelor of Arts in English from Cornell University in 1978.

Maher has a substantial career as a stand-up comedian and still occasionally tours. He was host of the New York City comedy club Catch a Rising Star in 1979. Thanks to Steve Allen, he began appearing on Johnny Carson and David Letterman's shows in 1982.

He has appeared in several films, usually in a comical role. His feature film debut was in D.C. Cab (1983), and he has also appeared in Cannibal Women in the Avocado Jungle of Death (1988) and Pizza Man (1991). He has also appeared in a number of guest roles on television shows, including Newhart, Murder, She Wrote, Roseanne (as a boudoir photographer), and Married... with Children.

Media

Talk show host

Maher is most notable as the former host of Politically Incorrect, which aired on the Comedy Central television network and later ABC. Maher is also currently the host of Real Time with Bill Maher on HBO.

ABC decided not to renew Maher's contract for Politically Incorrect in 2002 after he made a controversial on-air remark, in which he, along with guest Dinesh D'Souza, objected to the President and others calling the September 11 terrorists cowardly:

We have been the cowards lobbing cruise missiles from 2,000 miles away. That's cowardly. Staying in the airplane when it hits the building, say what you want about it, it's not cowardly.

— Bill Maher, Politically Incorrect (2001)

During the era of the Vietnam War, the alleged cowardice of American "carpet bombing" from high above a target was a common theme among anti-war protestors. However, in the context of the sensitive aftermath of the attacks, such a remark was deemed too controversial for some financial supporters. Although some pundits, including conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh [1], supported Maher, pointing out the distinction between physical and moral cowardice, companies including FedEx and Sears Roebuck pulled their advertisements from the show, costing the show more than it returned. The show was subsequently cancelled on June 16, 2002. On June 22, 2002, six days after the cancellation of Politically Incorrect, Maher received the President's Award (for "championing free speech") from the Los Angeles Press Club.

Another controversial reaction to Maher's comment came from Ari Fleischer, who was the Press Secretary of the George W. Bush administration at the time. Fleischer responded to a reporter's question about Maher's firing by saying that people "need to watch what they say". Many people believed Fleischer was implying that free speech was no longer relevant in America.

Maher's comment about the cowardice of terrorists followed another controversial comment he made on Politically Incorrect where he compared dogs to mentally handicapped children:

But I've often said that if I had — I have two dogs — if I had two retarded children, I'd be a hero. And yet the dogs, which are pretty much the same thing. What? They're sweet. They're loving. They're kind, but they don't mentally advance at all ... Dogs are like retarded children.

— Bill Maher, Politically Incorrect (2002)

ABC was likely still dealing with the fallout from this statement when it decided not to renew Maher's contract.

In 2003, Maher became the host of Real Time with Bill Maher on the HBO cable television network, a debate show somewhat similar to Politically Incorrect, but with a narrower selection of guests.

Since May 2005 he's been a contributing blogger at The Huffington Post.

Press coverage

In 1997, during filming of an episode of the game show Pictionary, Erik Estrada accidentally punched Maher in the face in a moment of exuberance, knocking him out cold briefly.

According to court documents obtained by The Smoking Gun, in November 2004 Maher was sued for 9 million dollars by his ex-girlfriend, Nancy Johnson a.k.a. "Coco Johnsen", for palimony. Johnson claims that Maher did not fulfill promises made to her and that he physically and verbally abused her. [2] Maher publicly refuted her allegations on Larry King Live on November 23, 2004. His lawyer responded to the lawsuit with a claim that Maher is a "confirmed bachelor" and never promised to marry or support Johnsen and that California law doesn't allow for the palimony suit brought by Ms. Johnsen. On May 2, 2005, a superior court judge dismissed the lawsuit.

In late May 2005, Alabama Congressman Spencer Bachus sent a letter to Time Warner's board of directors requesting Real Time be cancelled due to remarks Maher made about low military recruiting numbers on the May 13, 2005, episode which Bachus felt were demeaning to the military and in bad taste. Maher's comment was "More people joined the Michael Jackson fan club. We've done picked all the low-lying Lynndie England fruit, and now we need warm bodies." Maher responded by reiterating his support for the troops and asking why the Congressman criticized him instead of actually doing something about the problem. [3]

Worldview

Political views

Maher describes himself as a libertarian and celebrates libertarian figures such as Larry Elder and P.J. O'Rourke. He favors partial privatization of social security, ending corporate welfare, and legalizing drugs, gambling, prostitution, and pornography. He supported Bob Dole in the 1996 U.S. presidential election. He has expressed disdain for many of the liberal positions regarding hate crime, sexual harassment, etc. as being "things that make women nod". However, Maher does support other stances which are in direct opposition to libertarian ideology and/or associated with liberalism, including government regulation of corporations, foreign aid, public schooling, a ban on homeschooling, campaign finance reform (which he has since repudiated, saying "OK, we tried it, it didn't work"), environmentalism, affirmative action, minimum wage laws, gun control, income redistribution through higher taxation and government funding for abortion. He supported Ralph Nader in the 2000 U.S. presidential election.

Maher publicly supports PETA, a controversial animal rights organization, and has expressed his distaste for the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries in general, on the grounds that they make their money out of curing people who are made sick by consuming the unhealthy food that society urges upon the public. On the August 11, 2005, episode of Larry King Live, Bill Maher announced he is not a vegetarian and eats meat rarely. He claimed he is still a board member of PETA and supports animal rights.

Prior to the 2004 U.S. presidential election he became very forthright in his opposition to the reelection of George W. Bush and his support for John Kerry as the best candidate to defeat Bush, rather than the candidate most in agreement with Maher's views, going so far as to publicly kneel on his show, with director Michael Moore, and beg Ralph Nader to drop out of the race. As a result, he has often been called a liberal. Maher often says that the word "liberal" has been unfairly demonized, and during the elections he criticized Kerry for being ashamed of the word. Maher himself seems comfortable with being called a liberal, though he is sometimes called a "libertine socialist" by political commentators such as Jonah Goldberg. Maher also supports the death penalty (though most liberals don't) and abortion and euthanasia (though most conservatives don't), often stating his position semi-humorously as "I am pro-death". In expanding on this statement, he reveals his concern that the size of the human population has already led to significant damage to the earth's ecology, so that he is in general in favor of anything that would tend to reduce the size of said population.

He was originally opposed to the war in Iraq, but has become less skeptical of it since the Iraqi election of 2005. He continues to criticize the administration for using bad intelligence leading up to the war, and for what he perceives as mis-management of the war.

Maher responded to the claims that liberals are "out of touch" with conservative morality and the idea that this led to George W. Bush's re-election and the success of the Republican Party in the 2004 general election by saying "Stop saying that blue state people are out of touch with the morals and values of the red states. I'm not out of touch with them, I just don't share them."

Religious views

Maher is opposed to organized religion. He has described religion as a neurological disorder that spreads guilt and hatred among people while offering nothing in return. In two separate appearances on Real Time, atheist comedian George Carlin and Maher alleged that organized religion is a cause of many of society's problems, and that the practices of organized religion are mired with hypocrisy. Maher credited Carlin's views as inspiration for him to speak out against organized religion.

Maher has said many times that religion works under the guise of morality, but that its tenets generally have nothing to do with morality; that religious prohibitions are being confused with moral law. In Maher's view, just because a religion prohibits the consumption of pork or decries homosexuality, that does not mean that consuming pork or being homosexual are immoral acts. Instead, Maher argues that an immoral person is one who harms others; an activity which harms another individual such as murder or rape would be an immoral act. This is also a traditional libertarian position.

Maher opposes religious monuments such as The Ten Commandments being placed in or near court houses, saying that this would violate the separation of church and state. He has countered the assertion of conservative Christians who claim that American law is based on the Ten Commandments by saying that of the ten, only two (the prohibitions on murder and theft) apply to American law. The other commandments, he argues, such as honoring no god before the Judeo-Christian God, keeping the Sabbath holy, or honoring thy mother and thy father, are not American laws at all. In answer to the suggestion that a divine moral authority is necessary, he suggests "Couldn't we just get together and agree on the few basic [Commandments] that are laws? Like 'Don't take my stuff, and I won't kill you'?"

Maher has stated on several appearances of Larry King Live that he does, indeed, believe in God, but that organized religion is nothing more than tradition and superstition. He asserts that organized religion provides answers to questions that "cannot possibly be answered". Questions such as "Where do I go when I die?" or "Is there a heaven?", he says, are impossible to answer. By claiming to have the answers, Maher argues, organized religion is dishonest and it "stops people from thinking".

On Maher's most recent appearance on Larry King Live he said he was an agnostic, implying that he may be an agnostic deist.

Credits

Bibliography

  • Does Anybody Have a Problem With That? Politically Incorrect's Greatest Hits, 1996 (ISBN 0679456279)
  • Does Anybody Have a Problem with That? The Best of Politically Incorrect, 1997 (ISBN 0345412818)
  • True Story : A Novel, 2002 (ISBN 0743242513)
  • When You Ride Alone You Ride With Bin Laden: What the Government Should Be Telling Us to Help Fight the War on Terrorism, 2003 (ISBN 1893224902)
  • Keep the Statue of Liberty Closed: The New Rules, 2004 (ISBN 1932407472)
  • New Rules: Polite Musings from a Timid Observer, 2005 (ISBN 1594862958)

Filmography

Television

Special appearances

  • MADtv (2005) .... himself
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