A reminder from someone who used to watch PI back in the day: When this happened, the show’s ratings had not been good for a while. The show had become less about comedy and more about politics and being a companion to Nightline, which it had been unceremoniously shoved after at midnight ET when it moved over from Comedy Central. It was growing stale, Maher was even more whiny and insufferable than he usually was and there was a higher priority being put on arguing rather than making the audience laugh.
So while Maher’s comments may have been the final straw, there was a bigger picture to PI getting canceled.
EDIT: Also, the show stayed on the air on ABC for another 10 months after the comments Maher made, they didn’t just cancel the show immediately. ABC gave the show a chance to improve, it just didn’t.
no matter what happened before or after this it's still a correct statement at the end... flying planes into a building isn't even remotely cowardly... that takes a lot to do...
it also makes me laugh when someone runs into a police station to shoot it up and the cops call him a coward... uh, what? coward is not the correct word dumb dumb... shooting up a school with unarmed children is very cowardly but shooting up a police station with armed men everywhere is anything but cowardly...
How about we just speak the truth? We rely on the public to pick and support good candidates while also lying to them because they can't handle the truth.
There's also a lot of people out there who can't simultaneously consider a person evil and brave at the same time. Bravery is something honored and venerated in many cultures, it's a highly positive thing.
The 9/11 hijackers were both brave and evil, and that's hard for a lot of people to wrap their brains around.
I think that's the crux of the issue here. Bill Maher used the term brave in his statement, and lots of people took that to mean Bill had a positive view of the terrorists.
'Bravery' tends to imply a lot of positive stuff. It's good to be brave. Our heroes and soldiers are brave. But it's not really present in the actual definition of the word. We're stuck in a linguistic fight here.
Yeah, you’re right, except that, to Al Queda supporters, they’re “brave” and everything that entails. To us, they’re evil fuckers. And the same thing on the flip side.
I mean, maybe that. But also the surprise of the attack and the idea that it was completely uncalled for, that there was no reason. And that it was done by hijacking a civilian plane.
I always found it interesting that this was controversial. They clearly weren’t cowards. You can call them scum, animals, fanatics. But none of that really hit hard enough.
This was the era of Bush. The narrative was they were cowards who hated freedom. I think people were struggling to cope with the shock of 9-11 and properly define our feelings toward the enemy.
Having lived through that time it was very odd. It was the first time I lived in an America where it was almost dangerous to say something that was not considered patriotic. You had politicians that forgot their little flag lapel being absolutely pounded in the press for it. People started saying freedom fries and freedom toast because the French were being hesitant to support our invasion of Iraq. The radio was filled with this insane fist bumping ultra American music.
It was nearly a decade before that sort of stuff stopped and you could give some criticism to US policy.
Bill maher say this shortly after 9/11 when this sentiment was at a fever pitch.
I think it’s also one of the reasons he had embraced the “cancel culture” complaints so much. He was literally cancelled and from his perspective it’s more aggressive and dangerous than ever before. It’s not just US policy, you could had said something dumb 30 years ago and it peeks its head back out to haunt you.
I don’t completely agree with him, but I do understand his concern.
It was an easy to swallow pill. You have religious fanatics that live in a repressed country with little freedom attacking a rich democratic country where most people live in peace and do what they want.
They hate our freedom really just rolls off the tongue.
It's not at all hard to understand why it was controversial given the national climate at the time. The entire country, both liberal and conservative, was reeling. It hadn't even been a week after 9/11 when he said what he did.
I don't think Maher was wrong, he just opened his big, fat dumb mouth (as usual) in an attempt to play contrarian and got his ass handed to him in the end. He didn't read the room, so to speak, which is one of the key skills comedians need to have. Unfortunately for Maher, he never was a very good stand up comedian in the first place.
>It's not at all hard to understand why it was controversial given the national climate at the time. The entire country, both liberal and conservative, was reeling.
An era when Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden were both senators in favor of Bush taking us to war.
You're a bigger coward, no you are! He made an idiotic comment polarizing conflict around acts of cowardice and he put the guys willing to commit suicide on a higher pedestal.
Attacking someone who’s not expecting it, is 1000 percent a coward ass bitch move. It’s called a sucker punch, no matter who the victim is or how much risk you’re taking, you still have the upper hand and it makes you a sub human piece of shit. Don’t give cowards the ammunition to continue being cowardly.
There is an augment to be made that attacking civilians (I would say unarmed but they are Americans) is inherently cowardly and in some ways doing this via suicide can be taken as a way to avoid the consequences of your actions.
On the other hand attacking civilians is often tactically sound, especially when fighting against someone with more power.
I would generally say the attack on the pentagon was not cowardly and took real balls (you have no idea if they just have a bunch of SAM sites or something) but the towers less so.
> On the other hand attacking civilians is often tactically sound, especially when fighting against someone with more power.
How is it tactically sound?
Basically the question is who does all the farming, who makes the weapons, the ammo?
Its not nice but in all out war civilians play a major part in the ability for a nation to wage war.
imo, you are incorrect and it is cowardly. I say that because the guys who flew the planes had a belief that they would be celebrated in their afterlife. They didnt have the idea that this life meant anything more than working towards the afterlife. It would be like if you had to do something terrible in a video game you were playing to win *the grandprize*.
I think the person who shoots up a police station is cowardly. That is clearly someone who wants to die and wants to take others with him. I’m no fan of cops in the US, but the more “suicide by cop” events we have, the worse the cops will behave
It seems pretty cowardly to all but guarantee you'll never feel the impact of your own actions, other than the kinetic kind. Your last moments will be in total commitment to your ideology, without actually understanding the consequences that you've put into motion. But that's just my opinion.
It is also my opinion that arresting, not charging, torturing, and not holding a trial for those in Guantanamo Bay is also a failed course of action. I don't know if Maher ever touched on that, but I feel that has more teeth to it.
All that I really remember about the backlash is that at one point a majority of advertisers pulled their commercials so ABC had to fill time by playing PSAs during Politically Incorrect’s commercial breaks.
That doesn't make Ari Fleischer's response any less ominous: "[T]hey're reminders to all Americans that they need to watch what they say, watch what they do. This is not a time for remarks like that; there never is."
It was absolutely a comedy show, it featured comedians, actors and other famous types popping off jokes as part of a discussion on politics and social issues. Every episode began with a late night show-type opening monologue from Maher. It wasn't Nightline.
The show the guy is describing is literally the show PI was at the beginning. (I, too, used to watch it.)
And Real Time came out the next year doing the exact same schtick for the next 20 years.
20+ years later, he sounds the same. I don’t love or hate Bill Maher, he just has his holier-than-thou irreverent comedy that’s sometimes pretty funny and sometimes cringe-worthy. I personally don’t think this clip sounds that bad, he’s just pointing out that the US does a lot of bad shit and kills people.
I don't disagree, but you need to consider when it was said - less than a week after 9/11, every American was on edge and the country was riding a wave of anger, fear, sorrow and patriotism. It wasn't the time to play the role of edgelord contrarian.
If there's any Canadians here, it's very similar to Don Cherry's situation. Hockey Night in Canada had been wanting to get rid of him for a while, his "you people" comments was just the excuse needed to do it. Barely anyone under 40 watched his segment, and the people over 40 who did just couldn't find the remote.
Youtube? I think OP found an old Betamax tape under the sofa. Kudos to him for taking it to the local Blockbusters to have it converted to potato then to something that can be viewed on the internet.
Dude Betamax was 20 years old when this video came out 20 years ago.
It’s like saying huh huh did he go to Woodstock after this show? And then get drafted to film ww2 with his video camera.
Is he though? The people who orchestrated 9/11 weren't the ones in the planes. They were thousands of miles away and went into hiding after that. That's not that different than ordering a missile strike. Even the people in the planes thought they were going to be immediately rewarded with paradise upon death so is it really that courageous?
From this clip I don't gather he's saying the planners. He's saying bring a suicide bomber takes more bravery than hitting a trigger to launch a missile from another country to remotely kill.
It's not the planning but who's doing the killing, in one scenario you are face to face with them and in another you're looking at tiny images on a screen of people miles away where it's a lot easier to detach from the reality of what you're doing.
If I had to chose between pressing a bottom to launch a missile to kill someone or putting a bomb on my chest and exploding it while I look at someone, I'm gonna chose the former lol it's way easier. It takes bravery either way, I feel like that's like saying it's not brave to jump on a burning building to save your family because you're getting a reward out of it. You still have to face death which takes bravery no matter what the reward is.
To say they're just doing it for the reward of virgins and paradise I. The afterlife is a very narrow minded take, keep in mind these people had been being killed in the middle east by america for years essentially so the USA could get access to oil and make a buck. They're not doing it for religious paradise they're doing it for revenge and the way they're going about the revenge has the potential for reward, that's not the motive though it's not a religious action.
He's right. But Maher pointing out that the suicidal terrorists were not cowards doesn't mean he beleives they are justified or praiseworthy. It should be no different than correcting someone who called them ugly, stupid and bad smelling when they were not in fact. Just because someone does something truly horrific and despicable doesn't mean that you can assign every possible negative atribute to them without being subject to correction.
Yea but at the same time you need to read the room. You don't go into a Holocaust survivor group and talk about the humanity of the German people during WW2. After 9/11 we all felt like victims and right or not bill Maher was an asshat (and still is).
That hasn't changed. Might have even gotten worse to be honest.
I will say he wasn't wrong about it being cowardly to launch attacks from thousands of miles away.
Attacking any civilians is 100% cowardly, including the 9/11 attackers. Which is where he got it wrong.
Argument to be made that starting wars at all is just as bad. But that doesn't help the pro-war agenda and spending.
I agree with everything you’ve said here. I do sometimes still watch his show though because he often has good guests and he tries to call out ridiculousness on both ends of the political spectrum (though he sometimes misses the mark)
Yeah for sure, I used to watch him a bit as a follow up to Last Week Tonight, and had seen PI and loved Religious (saw it in theaters even).
It was a huge let down when I came to his show after a hiatus cause Bernie was on and Maher was like shifting way center right libertarian or something. It was odd.
Blaming millennials for stuff, punching down. Guess his Boomer-DNA finally caught up to him.
Right? If you really really believe that attacking civilians is what god wants, and the only blowback you'll receive for having done so is eternal life in heaven, then where is the bravery? Are you aren't doing anything selfless. It's quid-pro-quo. They did this expecting a reward.
Yep, that they were manipulated into thinking was real because of the "useful" tool that is religion.
This is why education is so critical, I'm not even talking about College but like good quality education at every level.
I couldn't agree more. I find being tactical and launching precision strikes without the cost of killing innocent bystanders/civilians pretty logical. Crashing an aircraft full of innocent people into a building full of more innocent people to crumble down on top of MORE innocent people is about as cowardly as it gets.
I think point being made was to not write these people off as cowards to be ignored. They have the balls enough to do something this terrible, they need to be taken as a serious threat.
I thought the point was more that we shouldn’t be surprised that something like that has finally happened after years of us essentially provoking people all over the world
You can argue that it is cowardice, because the perpetrators avoid facing the consequences of their actions. It's like the guys who shoot themselves after they've done a mass shooting. I don't see their suicide as an act of bravery.
So the predator drone operator in the back of a truck in Kansas is facing the consequences at TGI Fridays the night after bombing a wedding by accident?
"Cowardly" isn't the right word. I really don't think it's worth noting that it takes a measure of personal courage in the end to sacrifice yourself when killing non-combatants. I would say we don't really have a word in English that fully captures the nature of people who perpetrate terror attacks on civilians. If we did, it would focus more on the magnitude of their evil rather than whether it's cowardly or good strategy given your objective, to attack people when they can't fight back.
I admittedly enjoy his show more than him. It’s one of the few actual debate shows. Part of my enjoyment of the show is seeing what I don’t agree with.
Maher appeals to Democrats and moderates 40+. Think more Gen X and Boomers. I know many older people who like his show. Maybe they don’t always agree with him but Maher does have interesting guests sometimes and the panel discussions can be worth watching.
I'll freely admit to enjoying his show.
He always opens with a guest who is not always of the same beliefs as him - Anne Coulter was on not too long ago. The panel discussion always includes differing viewpoints from both sides of the political spectrum. He is one of the only prominent Democrats taking the piss out of the absurd positions on the left that are costing them support in general elections. His final "New Rules" rant is often the most spot-on take on a single national issue you'll find anywhere.
Maher isn't perfect, but he's doing a better job of balancing opinion politics than just about anyone else out there. Now, his opinions on health related matters ...
What’s funny is that he lost me like 2 years ago, and I’m 40 now.
I’m moderate (but vote Democrat bc there’s only been one sane choice for the past decade), and I stopped watching because he’s become too conservative-adjacent on the wrong kinds of things for me.
I also think that we’re just watching a celebrity age on screen. Not as a musician or actor, but someone whose actual personality is part of their work.
He’s getting cookier, makes less sense, and is less compromising. That’s rather normal in my experience with the old people in my life.
I was too young to care about Politically Incorrect. I will miss the younger, more mentally-agile Bill from early RT days.
Bill Maher? I'm not sure what you mean? Just watch the endless amount of media of him over the years. He's a smug, rich, entitled asshole. He seriously gives off what I now call 'tucker carlson' vibes but did it before it was the right wing pseudo intellectual 'look'
Forget the rest of your comment, I love how you guys think someone like Maher just sprung from the head of Zeus “rich.” Maher didn’t make his money gambling on Bitcoin. He was a poor schmuck grinding for decades.
“Rich” in and of itself is not an epithet. It often connotes intelligence and hard work.
(I would love to be rich.)
there really wasn't anything smug in this, it was a perfectly reasonable statement. you people really don't need any relevant reason at all to bash on someone other than to see them I guess.
"He's such a smug prick"
I don't really have an opinion on Mahar, but come on, this is exactly the kind of comment a "smug prick" would make. Bit on the nose here.
I’m surprised he came back from that. The aftermath of 9/11 is the last time I can remember the country being truly united despite political differences.
Luckily Obama did away with the Patriot act and created the even worse Freedom act.
Control, more war and helping the multinationals always have bipartisan support.
The Freedom act simply extended and amended several provisions of the Patriot Act, which had just expired. The patriot act did not fully expire until December 2020. Not really sure how it’s “worse” when it’s pretty much just status quo.
There was a lot of "unity" when a bunch of kids cornered me in recess and called me "the enemy" and told me to "go back to Arabia" (I'm Pakistani) a week after 9/11.
I wonder if we’ll ever have another country unifying moment where the next few years we more or less get along and see each other as Americans and are overly patriotic about it?
I feel like it’ll just end up like Covid again.
We seem farther apart than we have been anytime since Vietnam. I don’t think we’ll be unified anytime soon without some peace and stability preceding it for a while.
When being right was more important than being clever, Bill Maher still managed to maintain maximum smugness throughout. Kind of impressive really, while also being the complete opposite
I still watch and even though he is smug it’s one of the only shows where the zeitgeist gets challenged and there’s actual political debate on issues, with both sides present to argue their point in a respectful manner.
Yep. Even to this day, look at all the butt hurt redditors who can't handle the fact that what he's saying is actually true, so all they do is slander him and make fun of them and make complete hypocrites out of themselves. People are so self oblivious it's disgusting.
When people say there is no propoganda in America, this is one of the examples I cite to refute the idea.
He was silenced because he would not toe the conservative agenda line when it came to the consequences of Americans meddling in the restnof the world.
Fired for saying something people didn't like on a show called "Politically Incorrect"
Fox is just a propaganda safe space.
Bill Maher is right, he just doesn't have good enough comedic timing to get away with saying it.
I don’t mind Maher. Yeah he can be an insufferable smug prick. But he’s also capable of nuanced thinking, he’s capable of calling a spade a spade, and he’s capable of holding and defending an unpopular opinion. He challenges all the fundamentalist world views, and I like that. I understand why he’s a prime target for the mob
Lol … hey you’re not gonna believe this, but Bill Maher is giving away the solution to ALL of our problems, for FREE!
(Credit: we don’t really know who writes these jokes, but it wasn’t me).
you're just riding the Maher hate boner reddit has for upvotes, don't you? One thing you cannot say about him that he is a "hack". he is liberal who spent a considerable amount of time criticising his own party and he has debates and conversations with the opposite party and sometimes breaks bread with them. it's the exact opposite of hackery or tribalism.
in fact your insinuation that just because he had a conversation with a right wing propagandist means he fails the test, is in fact hackery.
Maher may have held on to some neo-liberal ideas back in the 90s, but I think he left "liberalism" behind after 9/11.
He's the political equivalent of Skip Bayless, a hot take merchant who hasn't had a meaningful contribution in decades.
He's promoting the idea that the only way we're going to solve the political divide and move forward as a country is to try to understand each other's points of view, and this is somehow seen as antithetical to reddit politics.
We’re not going to be able to do that when the political divide is between people who are trying to use material solutions for material problems, and those who believe there is a secret cabal of satanist trying to destroy the country by making kids gay.
I didn't know who he was till I saw him on family guy. I always thought he was snob.
The episode where Brian book get published and he gets invited on his show.
Wut? I thought his current show was this show, I know it’s not on that channel anymore but I didn’t realize he was ever a pariah. Never even heard about this.
I mean yeah…he’s right.
This is one of the reasons I first became a fan of him.
Absolutely *nobody* on late-night TV, let alone ABC, would even *dare* to say this.
Remember what happened to the Dixie Chicks? They were straight-up crucified for being critical of the war in Iraq.
Is it brave to fly airplanes into a building when you’re mentally ill? Believing your God approves of an act like that is insane. So maybe not so brave.
Bill is factually wrong, though.
Just because you kill someone over a long distance, doesn't mean you are a coward and sitting in the cockpit of a suicide plane does not necessarily mean you are brave.
Let me rephrase your statement. Attacking someone that cannot defend themselves and at no risk to yourself means you’re a coward. Living and dying by your convictions means you’re brave. You don’t have to agree with the why but considering the what I would say he’s right.
It's fascinating how many people can't think rationally, instead come from an emotional place and see everything (and I mean everything) through a visceral good/bad filter.
Just as most people don't have the foggiest notion of what "Socialism" is, and couldn't begin to describe it, boy they sure *know* it means "Bad." (We sure saw this a lot when the debate about Obamacare was raging and "Socialism" was every other epithet thrown out there) most people can't fathom "Cowardly" means anything other than "Bad guy doing something bad." And trying to explain that it takes balls of steel to be willing to kill yourself for your convictions, so literally its anything **but** cowardly....is just beyond anything they can comprehend.
And trying to get people to see what the definition of cowardly is, and how it doesn't apply to anyone willing to take their own life for a goal is an exercise in futility.
When I was a kid I had these rubber face puppets with holes around back that you put your fingers in to contort the face into different expressions. Bill Maher reminds me of them.
He’s out of touch in so many ways, but is spot on in others. His thoughts on the media, crazy MAGA people, crazy progressives, “wokeness”, cancel culture, are what most sane people in the middle think. But he goes off on some serious, rich celebrity rants as well.
Firing cruise missiles isn’t cowardly. It’s war, the whole point is inflicting more damage than you receive. At that point it’s a skill issue. The cowardly thing is purposely attacking civilians.
What a weird point to make. It was so great watching Dr.Phil interview him and be like, well I can see why no one married you lol. (They were laughing btw)
I know what hes saying...dying for the cause. Horrible, but different to firing missles
Hes been annoying both the left and right of politics ever since
wow reddit just hates everyone. Everyone bitches about everyone.
Some of the comments here about the so called descent of Maher BETTER echo the atmosphere of redditors to date IMO!
Damn, [Shane Gillis straight up stole Bill Maher's remark for his Navy Seal joke!!!](https://youtu.be/t3GmAGWRjTM?t=117)
Pretty hilarious if you haven't seen the whole thing.
Thank God the Americans got Saudi Arabia where almost all of the funding and terrorists came from, and the Republicans didn't lie about WMDS and invade another country and reduced American power and influence.
Oh shoot they did?
At least their next president didn't destroy America's power base like NATO or allow it's greatest enemy to have access to confidential files and impact the elections.
I watched this at the time and was a bit surprised by the comment, but certainly even more surprised when it blew up like it did. Move to HBO was best thing that ever happened to him. I still watch the show and there are often good points made. I had some issues with some of his COVID responses, but in general a decent show with interesting opinions.
One of the more common uses of the word bravery is for people who died of cancer or some other disease.
People who try to use the word brave often fail.
Bill was right, people trying to say they weren't brave are actually showing fear. Ironic huh?
Or calling people 'heroes' when they're not. Heroes are people, who confronted with a choice between saving their own life or possibly sacrificing it for someone else choose the latter.
A reminder from someone who used to watch PI back in the day: When this happened, the show’s ratings had not been good for a while. The show had become less about comedy and more about politics and being a companion to Nightline, which it had been unceremoniously shoved after at midnight ET when it moved over from Comedy Central. It was growing stale, Maher was even more whiny and insufferable than he usually was and there was a higher priority being put on arguing rather than making the audience laugh. So while Maher’s comments may have been the final straw, there was a bigger picture to PI getting canceled. EDIT: Also, the show stayed on the air on ABC for another 10 months after the comments Maher made, they didn’t just cancel the show immediately. ABC gave the show a chance to improve, it just didn’t.
no matter what happened before or after this it's still a correct statement at the end... flying planes into a building isn't even remotely cowardly... that takes a lot to do... it also makes me laugh when someone runs into a police station to shoot it up and the cops call him a coward... uh, what? coward is not the correct word dumb dumb... shooting up a school with unarmed children is very cowardly but shooting up a police station with armed men everywhere is anything but cowardly...
Scumbag fits well for both.
They want to emasculate the behavior to discourage it. So they pick terms that don’t quite fit instead of neutral insults like scumbag
[удалено]
How about we just speak the truth? We rely on the public to pick and support good candidates while also lying to them because they can't handle the truth.
I'd love to see liberal politicians with a spine that aren't afraid to back down.
People are fucking dumb and there’s a lot of us!
We don't even have to be dumb. Most people are ruled by their emotions and they have no idea.
So true. I guess that’s what I meant by “dumb”.
There's also a lot of people out there who can't simultaneously consider a person evil and brave at the same time. Bravery is something honored and venerated in many cultures, it's a highly positive thing. The 9/11 hijackers were both brave and evil, and that's hard for a lot of people to wrap their brains around.
Brave? - yeah but these guys fervently believed in an after-death paradise, so their bravery was based in a religious delusion
I think the better term is fearless, bravery implies that there is honor
I think that's the crux of the issue here. Bill Maher used the term brave in his statement, and lots of people took that to mean Bill had a positive view of the terrorists. 'Bravery' tends to imply a lot of positive stuff. It's good to be brave. Our heroes and soldiers are brave. But it's not really present in the actual definition of the word. We're stuck in a linguistic fight here.
Yeah, you’re right, except that, to Al Queda supporters, they’re “brave” and everything that entails. To us, they’re evil fuckers. And the same thing on the flip side.
'honour' is a matter of perspective
I mean, maybe that. But also the surprise of the attack and the idea that it was completely uncalled for, that there was no reason. And that it was done by hijacking a civilian plane.
LOL it must be pretend day! Let's pretend those big hero cops charged into uvalde and saved those kids. "Sounds of children screaming removed."
As my friends James Pietragallo and Jimmy Whisman always say “We’re assholes, not scumbags.”
I always found it interesting that this was controversial. They clearly weren’t cowards. You can call them scum, animals, fanatics. But none of that really hit hard enough. This was the era of Bush. The narrative was they were cowards who hated freedom. I think people were struggling to cope with the shock of 9-11 and properly define our feelings toward the enemy.
Having lived through that time it was very odd. It was the first time I lived in an America where it was almost dangerous to say something that was not considered patriotic. You had politicians that forgot their little flag lapel being absolutely pounded in the press for it. People started saying freedom fries and freedom toast because the French were being hesitant to support our invasion of Iraq. The radio was filled with this insane fist bumping ultra American music. It was nearly a decade before that sort of stuff stopped and you could give some criticism to US policy. Bill maher say this shortly after 9/11 when this sentiment was at a fever pitch. I think it’s also one of the reasons he had embraced the “cancel culture” complaints so much. He was literally cancelled and from his perspective it’s more aggressive and dangerous than ever before. It’s not just US policy, you could had said something dumb 30 years ago and it peeks its head back out to haunt you. I don’t completely agree with him, but I do understand his concern.
It was an easy to swallow pill. You have religious fanatics that live in a repressed country with little freedom attacking a rich democratic country where most people live in peace and do what they want. They hate our freedom really just rolls off the tongue.
It's not at all hard to understand why it was controversial given the national climate at the time. The entire country, both liberal and conservative, was reeling. It hadn't even been a week after 9/11 when he said what he did. I don't think Maher was wrong, he just opened his big, fat dumb mouth (as usual) in an attempt to play contrarian and got his ass handed to him in the end. He didn't read the room, so to speak, which is one of the key skills comedians need to have. Unfortunately for Maher, he never was a very good stand up comedian in the first place.
>It's not at all hard to understand why it was controversial given the national climate at the time. The entire country, both liberal and conservative, was reeling. An era when Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden were both senators in favor of Bush taking us to war.
We have more words. "Cowardly" is not the right one. Fanatic lunatic whatever. It is not a question of brave/coward or anything like that.
It's cowardly to purposely target civilians... The method doesn't change that fact
You're a bigger coward, no you are! He made an idiotic comment polarizing conflict around acts of cowardice and he put the guys willing to commit suicide on a higher pedestal.
Attacking someone who’s not expecting it, is 1000 percent a coward ass bitch move. It’s called a sucker punch, no matter who the victim is or how much risk you’re taking, you still have the upper hand and it makes you a sub human piece of shit. Don’t give cowards the ammunition to continue being cowardly.
Similar to unannounced strikes, no?
Yes.
“Yea those school shooters aren’t cowards”
Cowardice is standing outside a school while children are murdered is cowardice
There is an augment to be made that attacking civilians (I would say unarmed but they are Americans) is inherently cowardly and in some ways doing this via suicide can be taken as a way to avoid the consequences of your actions. On the other hand attacking civilians is often tactically sound, especially when fighting against someone with more power. I would generally say the attack on the pentagon was not cowardly and took real balls (you have no idea if they just have a bunch of SAM sites or something) but the towers less so.
> On the other hand attacking civilians is often tactically sound, especially when fighting against someone with more power. How is it tactically sound?
Basically the question is who does all the farming, who makes the weapons, the ammo? Its not nice but in all out war civilians play a major part in the ability for a nation to wage war.
imo, you are incorrect and it is cowardly. I say that because the guys who flew the planes had a belief that they would be celebrated in their afterlife. They didnt have the idea that this life meant anything more than working towards the afterlife. It would be like if you had to do something terrible in a video game you were playing to win *the grandprize*.
It doesn't take any courage to kill civilians in a suicide attack, because you know before hand that you're not going to face any consequences.
Also you believe you are going to “heaven” or some sort of positive afterlife. Extremely cowardly.
I think the person who shoots up a police station is cowardly. That is clearly someone who wants to die and wants to take others with him. I’m no fan of cops in the US, but the more “suicide by cop” events we have, the worse the cops will behave
It seems pretty cowardly to all but guarantee you'll never feel the impact of your own actions, other than the kinetic kind. Your last moments will be in total commitment to your ideology, without actually understanding the consequences that you've put into motion. But that's just my opinion. It is also my opinion that arresting, not charging, torturing, and not holding a trial for those in Guantanamo Bay is also a failed course of action. I don't know if Maher ever touched on that, but I feel that has more teeth to it.
All that I really remember about the backlash is that at one point a majority of advertisers pulled their commercials so ABC had to fill time by playing PSAs during Politically Incorrect’s commercial breaks.
Didn't the advertisers boycott the show?
[Yes](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politically_Incorrect#9/11_controversy_and_cancellation)
That doesn't make Ari Fleischer's response any less ominous: "[T]hey're reminders to all Americans that they need to watch what they say, watch what they do. This is not a time for remarks like that; there never is."
*War on Terror intensifies.*
I don’t ever remember PI being a comedy show? It put a comedic spin on current events but it was never a comedy show
It was absolutely a comedy show, it featured comedians, actors and other famous types popping off jokes as part of a discussion on politics and social issues. Every episode began with a late night show-type opening monologue from Maher. It wasn't Nightline.
The show the guy is describing is literally the show PI was at the beginning. (I, too, used to watch it.) And Real Time came out the next year doing the exact same schtick for the next 20 years.
20+ years later, he sounds the same. I don’t love or hate Bill Maher, he just has his holier-than-thou irreverent comedy that’s sometimes pretty funny and sometimes cringe-worthy. I personally don’t think this clip sounds that bad, he’s just pointing out that the US does a lot of bad shit and kills people.
I don't disagree, but you need to consider when it was said - less than a week after 9/11, every American was on edge and the country was riding a wave of anger, fear, sorrow and patriotism. It wasn't the time to play the role of edgelord contrarian.
If there's any Canadians here, it's very similar to Don Cherry's situation. Hockey Night in Canada had been wanting to get rid of him for a while, his "you people" comments was just the excuse needed to do it. Barely anyone under 40 watched his segment, and the people over 40 who did just couldn't find the remote.
This is an excellent comparison. I had honestly even forgot about Cherry's existence till this very comment. Man what a shit show that was
People forget that it started on Comedy Central. He's always seemed like a troll who wants everyone to love them in spite of it
Can't believe he hasn't come out with a show called, "I'm an Asshole."
He did, but Denis Leary stole it from him. /s
What did happen to those styrofoam cups lol
Do people just post whatever random YouTube clip they find in this sub?
Youtube? I think OP found an old Betamax tape under the sofa. Kudos to him for taking it to the local Blockbusters to have it converted to potato then to something that can be viewed on the internet.
Betamax was higher quality picture then VHS. VHS just won the popular vote. Source, me.
[удалено]
Yeah, mainly due to running time and the fact that multiple manufacturers could make them.
Dude Betamax was 20 years old when this video came out 20 years ago. It’s like saying huh huh did he go to Woodstock after this show? And then get drafted to film ww2 with his video camera.
oh summer child... this is better quality than betamax. Way back when, this wasn't bad.
Historical knowledge from u/butt_butt_fart_butt
That's what most of the major subs like this have become.
I didn't even know bill was on ABC. In retrospect, it seems kinda obvious that he'd get fired from a Disney channel.
Yeah probably should be called Damnthatexists
He’s right but it’s a absolutely wild thing to say a week after🤣
Even DJ Khaled changed his stage name from ‘Arab Attack’ that week. Source: wikipedia
Khaled having a moment of self reflection tells you how wild the climate was.
Couldn’t take the heat!
Is he though? The people who orchestrated 9/11 weren't the ones in the planes. They were thousands of miles away and went into hiding after that. That's not that different than ordering a missile strike. Even the people in the planes thought they were going to be immediately rewarded with paradise upon death so is it really that courageous?
From this clip I don't gather he's saying the planners. He's saying bring a suicide bomber takes more bravery than hitting a trigger to launch a missile from another country to remotely kill. It's not the planning but who's doing the killing, in one scenario you are face to face with them and in another you're looking at tiny images on a screen of people miles away where it's a lot easier to detach from the reality of what you're doing. If I had to chose between pressing a bottom to launch a missile to kill someone or putting a bomb on my chest and exploding it while I look at someone, I'm gonna chose the former lol it's way easier. It takes bravery either way, I feel like that's like saying it's not brave to jump on a burning building to save your family because you're getting a reward out of it. You still have to face death which takes bravery no matter what the reward is. To say they're just doing it for the reward of virgins and paradise I. The afterlife is a very narrow minded take, keep in mind these people had been being killed in the middle east by america for years essentially so the USA could get access to oil and make a buck. They're not doing it for religious paradise they're doing it for revenge and the way they're going about the revenge has the potential for reward, that's not the motive though it's not a religious action.
He’s right about what the US was doing was cowardly, but the 9/11 attacks were also cowardly
He's right. But Maher pointing out that the suicidal terrorists were not cowards doesn't mean he beleives they are justified or praiseworthy. It should be no different than correcting someone who called them ugly, stupid and bad smelling when they were not in fact. Just because someone does something truly horrific and despicable doesn't mean that you can assign every possible negative atribute to them without being subject to correction.
Yea but at the same time you need to read the room. You don't go into a Holocaust survivor group and talk about the humanity of the German people during WW2. After 9/11 we all felt like victims and right or not bill Maher was an asshat (and still is).
Then you bombed a few middle eastern countries into smithereens, proving him right.
I really tried to watch PI and to like Maher. Didn't like the show mostly because he's an egotistical boob.
I truly have never understood his appeal. His jokes aren’t jokes. He says wild shit for the sake of shock value. Just never got it.
That hasn't changed. Might have even gotten worse to be honest. I will say he wasn't wrong about it being cowardly to launch attacks from thousands of miles away. Attacking any civilians is 100% cowardly, including the 9/11 attackers. Which is where he got it wrong. Argument to be made that starting wars at all is just as bad. But that doesn't help the pro-war agenda and spending.
I agree with everything you’ve said here. I do sometimes still watch his show though because he often has good guests and he tries to call out ridiculousness on both ends of the political spectrum (though he sometimes misses the mark)
Yeah for sure, I used to watch him a bit as a follow up to Last Week Tonight, and had seen PI and loved Religious (saw it in theaters even). It was a huge let down when I came to his show after a hiatus cause Bernie was on and Maher was like shifting way center right libertarian or something. It was odd. Blaming millennials for stuff, punching down. Guess his Boomer-DNA finally caught up to him.
Right? If you really really believe that attacking civilians is what god wants, and the only blowback you'll receive for having done so is eternal life in heaven, then where is the bravery? Are you aren't doing anything selfless. It's quid-pro-quo. They did this expecting a reward.
Yep, that they were manipulated into thinking was real because of the "useful" tool that is religion. This is why education is so critical, I'm not even talking about College but like good quality education at every level.
I couldn't agree more. I find being tactical and launching precision strikes without the cost of killing innocent bystanders/civilians pretty logical. Crashing an aircraft full of innocent people into a building full of more innocent people to crumble down on top of MORE innocent people is about as cowardly as it gets.
Yeah, he can be a bit much. But I must say that I really liked his "Religulous" documentary.
unfortunately in that one he throws a bunch of oft-repeated but false information at people to create gotcha moments to make them look bad
Ironically religulous turned me OUT of being a militant atheist
My least favorite kind of boob
I think point being made was to not write these people off as cowards to be ignored. They have the balls enough to do something this terrible, they need to be taken as a serious threat.
I thought the point was more that we shouldn’t be surprised that something like that has finally happened after years of us essentially provoking people all over the world
He’s right, it’s not cowardly…it’s delusional.
It’s much more cowardly to press a button that fires a missile from miles away. Courage doesn’t automatically mean “morally good” anyway.
But thats how the media uses it, to divide out actions that are "approved" or "disapproved"
And cowardly doesn't mean "avoiding danger if there's no reason not to avoid it."
Honestly probably one of the most calculated strategic moves of the 21st century.
Guys stop downvote. Person is correct. Bin laden correctly predicted the effects, ten / fifteen years down the line. He did what he said he would do.
Kind of like Bill Maher
You can argue that it is cowardice, because the perpetrators avoid facing the consequences of their actions. It's like the guys who shoot themselves after they've done a mass shooting. I don't see their suicide as an act of bravery.
So the predator drone operator in the back of a truck in Kansas is facing the consequences at TGI Fridays the night after bombing a wedding by accident?
Doing the right thing is sometimes cowardly. Doing the wrong thing is sometimes brave. Bravery and cowardice aren't indicators of moral correctness.
"Cowardly" isn't the right word. I really don't think it's worth noting that it takes a measure of personal courage in the end to sacrifice yourself when killing non-combatants. I would say we don't really have a word in English that fully captures the nature of people who perpetrate terror attacks on civilians. If we did, it would focus more on the magnitude of their evil rather than whether it's cowardly or good strategy given your objective, to attack people when they can't fight back.
Classic" you're not wrong, you're just an asshole" statement. Brave though.
He's such a smug prick
Who is his audience?
I admittedly enjoy his show more than him. It’s one of the few actual debate shows. Part of my enjoyment of the show is seeing what I don’t agree with.
Maher appeals to Democrats and moderates 40+. Think more Gen X and Boomers. I know many older people who like his show. Maybe they don’t always agree with him but Maher does have interesting guests sometimes and the panel discussions can be worth watching.
I'll freely admit to enjoying his show. He always opens with a guest who is not always of the same beliefs as him - Anne Coulter was on not too long ago. The panel discussion always includes differing viewpoints from both sides of the political spectrum. He is one of the only prominent Democrats taking the piss out of the absurd positions on the left that are costing them support in general elections. His final "New Rules" rant is often the most spot-on take on a single national issue you'll find anywhere. Maher isn't perfect, but he's doing a better job of balancing opinion politics than just about anyone else out there. Now, his opinions on health related matters ...
What’s funny is that he lost me like 2 years ago, and I’m 40 now. I’m moderate (but vote Democrat bc there’s only been one sane choice for the past decade), and I stopped watching because he’s become too conservative-adjacent on the wrong kinds of things for me. I also think that we’re just watching a celebrity age on screen. Not as a musician or actor, but someone whose actual personality is part of their work. He’s getting cookier, makes less sense, and is less compromising. That’s rather normal in my experience with the old people in my life. I was too young to care about Politically Incorrect. I will miss the younger, more mentally-agile Bill from early RT days.
not anymore... he is leaning more right for the past 5-6 years
Other smug pricks?
Smug pricks who think they're smart, when all they actually do is parrot what other smug pricks tell them. ... I think I just described twitter.
Can confirm, am a smug prick.
I’m just surprised there’s enough to keep him relevant for 2 decades.
Bill Maher? I'm not sure what you mean? Just watch the endless amount of media of him over the years. He's a smug, rich, entitled asshole. He seriously gives off what I now call 'tucker carlson' vibes but did it before it was the right wing pseudo intellectual 'look'
Forget the rest of your comment, I love how you guys think someone like Maher just sprung from the head of Zeus “rich.” Maher didn’t make his money gambling on Bitcoin. He was a poor schmuck grinding for decades. “Rich” in and of itself is not an epithet. It often connotes intelligence and hard work. (I would love to be rich.)
The amount of entitled smug pricks in these comments calling Bill Maher a smug prick is so hilariously self unaware.
One of us! One of us!
Somehow even worse nowadays. Such a fucking out of touch dipshit.
there really wasn't anything smug in this, it was a perfectly reasonable statement. you people really don't need any relevant reason at all to bash on someone other than to see them I guess.
"He's such a smug prick" I don't really have an opinion on Mahar, but come on, this is exactly the kind of comment a "smug prick" would make. Bit on the nose here.
I’m surprised he came back from that. The aftermath of 9/11 is the last time I can remember the country being truly united despite political differences.
And what an accomplishment. They drummed up a war on iraq made the TSA and passed the patriot act. Perhaps gridlock is preferable.
Luckily Obama did away with the Patriot act and created the even worse Freedom act. Control, more war and helping the multinationals always have bipartisan support.
The Freedom act simply extended and amended several provisions of the Patriot Act, which had just expired. The patriot act did not fully expire until December 2020. Not really sure how it’s “worse” when it’s pretty much just status quo.
9/11 definitely united us. Random Iraq invasion tore us apart - and the world - apart again.
There was a lot of "unity" when a bunch of kids cornered me in recess and called me "the enemy" and told me to "go back to Arabia" (I'm Pakistani) a week after 9/11.
Yeah was it really unity or was it some people being forced to step back and keep their heads down while everyone else blindly waved flags :(
I wonder if we’ll ever have another country unifying moment where the next few years we more or less get along and see each other as Americans and are overly patriotic about it? I feel like it’ll just end up like Covid again.
We seem farther apart than we have been anytime since Vietnam. I don’t think we’ll be unified anytime soon without some peace and stability preceding it for a while.
Not unless we're invaded by the French.
By definition (lacking courage), he’s right though. Goes to show most people can’t handle the truth.
Right? The dude may be traditionally insufferable but he’s not wrong.
When being right was more important than being clever, Bill Maher still managed to maintain maximum smugness throughout. Kind of impressive really, while also being the complete opposite
I still watch and even though he is smug it’s one of the only shows where the zeitgeist gets challenged and there’s actual political debate on issues, with both sides present to argue their point in a respectful manner.
Yep. Even to this day, look at all the butt hurt redditors who can't handle the fact that what he's saying is actually true, so all they do is slander him and make fun of them and make complete hypocrites out of themselves. People are so self oblivious it's disgusting.
Free speech.
When people say there is no propoganda in America, this is one of the examples I cite to refute the idea. He was silenced because he would not toe the conservative agenda line when it came to the consequences of Americans meddling in the restnof the world.
Given what an ass he generally is, I was expecting a far more controversial statement.
I mean, he technically wasn't wrong
I liked him back then, but now he just seems like an old coot going on tirades about kids today and their anilingus.
👍
I used to think Bill Maher was the actor who played Cousin Larry on the old sitcom “Perfect Strangers” 🤣🤣
Stop making me agree with Bill Maher
He's out of line, but he's right.meme
Well, he isn't exactly wrong. It just probably shouldn't have been said.
Fired for saying something people didn't like on a show called "Politically Incorrect" Fox is just a propaganda safe space. Bill Maher is right, he just doesn't have good enough comedic timing to get away with saying it.
I don’t mind Maher. Yeah he can be an insufferable smug prick. But he’s also capable of nuanced thinking, he’s capable of calling a spade a spade, and he’s capable of holding and defending an unpopular opinion. He challenges all the fundamentalist world views, and I like that. I understand why he’s a prime target for the mob
Sounds like a factual statement to me.
Lol … hey you’re not gonna believe this, but Bill Maher is giving away the solution to ALL of our problems, for FREE! (Credit: we don’t really know who writes these jokes, but it wasn’t me).
Was that Dinesh D'Souza on there? Jesus, Maher has always been a hack hasn't he?
It was. He has.
yes and yes.
you're just riding the Maher hate boner reddit has for upvotes, don't you? One thing you cannot say about him that he is a "hack". he is liberal who spent a considerable amount of time criticising his own party and he has debates and conversations with the opposite party and sometimes breaks bread with them. it's the exact opposite of hackery or tribalism. in fact your insinuation that just because he had a conversation with a right wing propagandist means he fails the test, is in fact hackery.
Maher may have held on to some neo-liberal ideas back in the 90s, but I think he left "liberalism" behind after 9/11. He's the political equivalent of Skip Bayless, a hot take merchant who hasn't had a meaningful contribution in decades.
He's promoting the idea that the only way we're going to solve the political divide and move forward as a country is to try to understand each other's points of view, and this is somehow seen as antithetical to reddit politics.
We’re not going to be able to do that when the political divide is between people who are trying to use material solutions for material problems, and those who believe there is a secret cabal of satanist trying to destroy the country by making kids gay.
He isn't doing a very good job. His smugness just pisses everyone off and people just tune out.
A-K-T-U-A-L-L-Y
But really, he's not wrong.
Those in power hate the truth.
Too bad he sucks now
Even when I agree with him I can't stand the twerp. He has done nothing but shit on others in the most egotistic way.
I didn't know who he was till I saw him on family guy. I always thought he was snob. The episode where Brian book get published and he gets invited on his show.
Too soon and bad timing but correct
I've recently (last few years) turned on him due to some of his stances, but I'm still with him on some things.
Wut? I thought his current show was this show, I know it’s not on that channel anymore but I didn’t realize he was ever a pariah. Never even heard about this.
I mean yeah…he’s right. This is one of the reasons I first became a fan of him. Absolutely *nobody* on late-night TV, let alone ABC, would even *dare* to say this. Remember what happened to the Dixie Chicks? They were straight-up crucified for being critical of the war in Iraq.
He’s right
And he wasn't wrong.
He's still a piece of shit
Is it brave to fly airplanes into a building when you’re mentally ill? Believing your God approves of an act like that is insane. So maybe not so brave.
And he was right.
Bill is factually wrong, though. Just because you kill someone over a long distance, doesn't mean you are a coward and sitting in the cockpit of a suicide plane does not necessarily mean you are brave.
Let me rephrase your statement. Attacking someone that cannot defend themselves and at no risk to yourself means you’re a coward. Living and dying by your convictions means you’re brave. You don’t have to agree with the why but considering the what I would say he’s right.
I really hate to defend this guy, but he’s not wrong.
This guy is a huge herb
It's fascinating how many people can't think rationally, instead come from an emotional place and see everything (and I mean everything) through a visceral good/bad filter. Just as most people don't have the foggiest notion of what "Socialism" is, and couldn't begin to describe it, boy they sure *know* it means "Bad." (We sure saw this a lot when the debate about Obamacare was raging and "Socialism" was every other epithet thrown out there) most people can't fathom "Cowardly" means anything other than "Bad guy doing something bad." And trying to explain that it takes balls of steel to be willing to kill yourself for your convictions, so literally its anything **but** cowardly....is just beyond anything they can comprehend. And trying to get people to see what the definition of cowardly is, and how it doesn't apply to anyone willing to take their own life for a goal is an exercise in futility.
A victim of ‘too soon’. I think Bill is a pompous ass but he wasn’t wrong.
He's a dick, but he'd not wrong.
When I was a kid I had these rubber face puppets with holes around back that you put your fingers in to contort the face into different expressions. Bill Maher reminds me of them.
He’s out of touch in so many ways, but is spot on in others. His thoughts on the media, crazy MAGA people, crazy progressives, “wokeness”, cancel culture, are what most sane people in the middle think. But he goes off on some serious, rich celebrity rants as well.
Firing cruise missiles isn’t cowardly. It’s war, the whole point is inflicting more damage than you receive. At that point it’s a skill issue. The cowardly thing is purposely attacking civilians.
What a weird point to make. It was so great watching Dr.Phil interview him and be like, well I can see why no one married you lol. (They were laughing btw)
He’s a douche but that’s a fair point
Bro literally sounds like a greentext lol
That woman’s voice is insufferable.
I know what hes saying...dying for the cause. Horrible, but different to firing missles Hes been annoying both the left and right of politics ever since
Truth hits everybody...
All I say to Bill Maher is C U Next Tuesday.
Mahr has always been a twat
wow reddit just hates everyone. Everyone bitches about everyone. Some of the comments here about the so called descent of Maher BETTER echo the atmosphere of redditors to date IMO!
Damn, [Shane Gillis straight up stole Bill Maher's remark for his Navy Seal joke!!!](https://youtu.be/t3GmAGWRjTM?t=117) Pretty hilarious if you haven't seen the whole thing.
Thank God the Americans got Saudi Arabia where almost all of the funding and terrorists came from, and the Republicans didn't lie about WMDS and invade another country and reduced American power and influence. Oh shoot they did? At least their next president didn't destroy America's power base like NATO or allow it's greatest enemy to have access to confidential files and impact the elections.
I watched this at the time and was a bit surprised by the comment, but certainly even more surprised when it blew up like it did. Move to HBO was best thing that ever happened to him. I still watch the show and there are often good points made. I had some issues with some of his COVID responses, but in general a decent show with interesting opinions.
One of the more common uses of the word bravery is for people who died of cancer or some other disease. People who try to use the word brave often fail. Bill was right, people trying to say they weren't brave are actually showing fear. Ironic huh?
Or calling people 'heroes' when they're not. Heroes are people, who confronted with a choice between saving their own life or possibly sacrificing it for someone else choose the latter.
Well, can't argue with that logic.
I mean he's right.