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Related: About this forumHoneycombe8
(37,648 posts)and make quips & jokes off the cuff, ALWAYS make a mistake, sooner or later. Just like anyone else would.
applegrove
(118,759 posts)DK504
(3,847 posts)which she needed to do, but Maher keeps HIS job.
No hypocrisy here.
Honeycombe8
(37,648 posts)Griffin wasn't telling a quick joke off the cuff. Hers was a planned photo-op with a photographer. Care was taken to stage it, while discussing it, and then photograph it. She had plenty of time to reconsider, and decided that that was for sure what she wanted to do.
She has a job working for a CNN, a NEWS organization that is under fire from the administration for being far left and anti-Trump, with allegations of creating false news for such an agenda. CNN can't keep her on, even if it wanted to.
Griffin did cross a line, after consideration of it. She is an edgy comedian, so I get that she was okay w/going that far. But it was too far, considering it was about the office of the Presidency, and considering that we live in a time of beheadings and assassinations (although she says that wasn't her intent).
Maher was making a quick joke off the cuff. His job is to make quick comebacks and go for the laugh. To do that, you have to be extreme sometimes. He made a quick comeback, and it was a bad one. He also was making a comeback to a reference that struck him as hearkening back to the slavery days. It wasn't a modern reference. It also wasn't about blood or beheadings or anything, either.
He didn't get fired because it was an off the cuff joke that went over the edge, and was unintentional and not planned. He also wasn't fired because he works for HBO, an ENTERTAINMENT organization.
BTW, Maher was fired the last time he went too far. Remember? That was a statement that wasn't off the cuff. It was a STATEMENT (not a joke), and it was planned ahead of time and thought out. And he meant it. (IMO, he shouldn't have been fired for that. It was just his opinion on something.)
rpannier
(24,333 posts)Bill and Jerry Seinfeld I found nauseating. Jerry went on about how he won't do university campuses because they're too PC and Bill agreed with them. It was closer to a whine fest.
Translation for them; The free market is speaking. If the free market (which Bill and Jerry support) find them to not be funny, then they either need to change their routine or get brushed aside.
That's true of all entertainers.
If there is a large enough public that finds them funny, then they do well. If the public doesn't, then they're gone.
Ask any musician, performer, actor, director, etc that has become yesterday's news
amuse bouche
(3,657 posts)To all the #whiny little bitches...BooHoo
videohead5
(2,181 posts)bettyellen
(47,209 posts)Scrape the bottom of the barrel, it doesn't make Maher look any better.
yuiyoshida
(41,836 posts)Howard Stern.
bettyellen
(47,209 posts)videohead5
(2,181 posts)Maher is a racist maybe stupid but not a racist.
bettyellen
(47,209 posts)I don't hold him in high esteem. His TV show wasn't a good venue for n-jokes.
Honeycombe8
(37,648 posts)I've watched for years, decades. He's not sexist. He gives many women plumb spots on his shows over the years, to get into deep political and ideological discussions. He always treats them as equals.
He's single and does have a view about attractive women, just as I have a view about attractive men.
His view of radical Islam is different from some on the far left. That does not make him Islamaphobic or the far left overly naive about the religion. There is a difference of opinion, is all.
His show is funny as hell, and he's one of the quickest wits, and a really smart man. Most fast-talking comedians are very intelligent (like Al Franken). He takes no prisoners in stating what's what and what he thinks. Very funny guy. Very funny show.
The show he had before this one was funny, too. He's an asset to the left.
bettyellen
(47,209 posts)Islamaphobic that's okay. But I've seen him live and he's a pig. I don't care if it's an act or joking or how many of you all enjoy it- he is what he is. Doesn't matter if he donates or dates black women or makes you laugh. None of that changes the things he says.
Honeycombe8
(37,648 posts)He's not sexist. He's a little preoccupied with some women's appearance because he's a bachelor who plays the field. But he mainly cares about what women are about substantively, the same as he cares mainly what men are about substantively. His shows presents an opportunity for women of substance to discuss important political matters of the day. Women don't get the chance to do that nearly as often as men. He welcomes them on his show. He has lots of female friends and particularly likes female comedians. He LIKES women as people. He is definitely not sexist. He's just the opposite.
He thinks the religion of Islam is bad, generally speaking. That does not make him an Islamophobe. He is an atheist and thinks ALL religions are bad...just that Islam is worse in that followers tend to follow the violent references in the Koran and that it calls to commit Jihad against non-believers, AND that followers of Islam are SEXIST and treat women as chattel or second class citizens.
Odd that you think he's sexist, when sexism is one of his beefs against the religion of Islam.
bettyellen
(47,209 posts)In the age of Trump - just not funny anymore. He's like Tosh with a few extra brain cells- meh, I think we need fresher voices. Loads of talent out there. no big loss or big deal if he continues on. He lost a load of his "never apologize" cred so he's looking like a hypocrite. At least he can't lecture liberals about that anymore.
miyazaki
(2,248 posts)ImpeachTheGOP
(89 posts)Adam had it even more right than Howard which is a rare thing indeed. I think Howard wanted to kick Bill just a little bit when he was down because of their "feud" that's been going on for awhile.
Guy Whitey Corngood
(26,501 posts)mountain grammy
(26,644 posts)Maher makes me groan sometimes, but I've watched him for years because I think he's funny and, usually, dead right. He gets it, and he's a strong advocate for legal weed, an issue dear to my heart.
paulkienitz
(1,296 posts)and I don't think Maher was particularly wrong to use the word. It wasn't a racist joke, it was a racial edge on a self-deprecating joke about something else.
In fact, I think certain people like to focus on the words used rather than the behaviors because it allows them to pretend that racism is something rare and distant from their own lives. Because only a few people get caught blurting out the N word, they get to treat racism as something that doesn't exist for long stretches of time, and only occasionally pops up as a relic from the distant past, rather than acknowledging its pervasive presence in less noticeable forms.
bettyellen
(47,209 posts)Weed because it's been pretty shitty the last couple of years, and also Islamaphobia and sexism. Rare in your experience maybe. Lucky you.
paulkienitz
(1,296 posts)bettyellen
(47,209 posts)And an uptick in hate crimes doesn't matter? Becasue you "doubt" "most of the people" talking about it have experienced it ALSO? You think EVERYONE should be subjected to it becasue you think some of them haven't suffered enough? Seriously?
You want things to get worse before people are allowed to speak up? You think people who speak up are the problem? Just stop.
paulkienitz
(1,296 posts)I was talking about the process of people distancing themselves from realizing how pervasive racism is. I think part of that process can sometimes be to shun people who say the N word out loud, while refusing to look at the question of whether its use actually showed racism or not. This allows them to pretend that racism is rare, because saying the word in public is rare.
bettyellen
(47,209 posts)Holding someone who regularly denigrates women, Islamics and throws around the n word is not a paragon of liberal virtues. He is not. Dating black women and writing checks does not make him so.
A political show is a different venue than a night club, it matters. It's a different era with Trump in office and this SJW bashing is stale and down right dangerous at this time. I don't get what part of a broad coalition people defending him do not understand.
paulkienitz
(1,296 posts)Plenty of others have not.
bettyellen
(47,209 posts)Honestly- that's gaslighting crap exactly like RWers use when saying stupid shit like people are playing the race card.
Insults like implying people are dishonest when they disagree with you are worthless. Learn to be an ally.
If you're part of a coalition you're going to have to learn to deal with it. If you're not, you're useless anyway.
paulkienitz
(1,296 posts)And I'm done talking to you.
Sen. Walter Sobchak
(8,692 posts)I didn't think it was funny, but I made the connection to Malcolm X immediately, as did everyone else in the room.
LOL Lib
(1,462 posts)It's really cute actually. Even better knowing that Maher will survive despite all the teeth gnashing. I'm fully prepared for this post to be alerted on.
Eliot Rosewater
(31,116 posts)A. Maher is an ass
B. Maher and no other white person should ever say the word, period
C. Language policing comedians is a bad idea for many reasons
So
A. Maher can apologize and he will still be an ass
B. Maher can never say the word again and shouldnt
C. We need to default to the position that the language isnt the problem, the intent is
yuiyoshida
(41,836 posts)Eliot Rosewater
(31,116 posts)I am against shushing comedians at all but I strongly will tell them no N word and no F word unless they are part of the group.
yuiyoshida
(41,836 posts)well, its gone now.