Late Night television is a hit-or-miss entertainment, depending on the writers, the content and most importantly, who’s behind the desk. One of the worst late-night shows is “Real Time with Bill Maher.” This show feels like the embodiment of the ‘old man yells at cloud’ meme. He really likes to complain about millennials and Gen Z in the most hypocritical way, and it feels like the embodiment of an old person on Facebook complaining.
The first instance that I want to talk about is him talking about Twitch, the streaming website. Maher says, “Maybe I get Twitch, but I just think people watching other people play video games is a waste of f—— time.” I don’t really watch a lot of Twitch anymore as the content doesn’t really appeal to me, but I still understand that Twitch isn’t just watching other people play video games. A lot of people watch for the personality of the streamer, they like the person playing the game, so they choose to watch that person play the game rather than caring about the game itself.
Twitch is also not just video games. There are people like Hasan Piker who talks about politics, and pretty much does a live talk show for hours every day where he talks about things going on in the world of politics, so saying Twitch is just people watching other people play video games is a very naive take.
This next segment is much more recent and has to do with the Gabby Petito murder. If you don’t know, Gabby Petito was murdered by her fiancé, while traveling across the country in a van. Rather than talking about how terrible it is that Petito was murdered, and how sad the situation was, Maher decides to use this to try to bash the younger generations for not working and doing things they are passionate about, like traveling the country.
In this clip Maher also says, “How extensive is this movement of young hipsters rejecting the dreary working life of us normies to instead explore the country in a van.” There are so many things wrong with this statement. The first is that the cultural movement of young people not making work their number one priority, is actually a good thing. The second, is that he says “us normies” trying to relate to the working class. Maher is a multi-millionaire, who partially owns the New York Mets. Nothing about Bill Maher is “normie.”
Maher also talks more about how young people don’t want to be doctors or teachers and says, “you figured out a way to monetize f—— off.” This is exactly what Bill Maher is doing. He doesn’t see the irony of bashing kids for wanting to become internet celebrities, while being a celebrity himself. Coming back to the Twitch clip, it’s clear Maher doesn’t understand the internet, and sees that this the new entertainment industry. He doesn’t realize that kids becoming famous on YouTube or Tik Tok is the same thing he did in the 80s, it’s just a different platform.
Bill Maher likes to talk about things he doesn’t know anything about and has a lot of clips that don’t age well, and that is bound to happen when you are in the public eye for a long time like Maher has been. However, the segment about young people being lazy was from just under two months ago. Also, I think it is important to reiterate how Maher took a tragic story of someone’s murder, and complained about how lazy this generation was, and practically made fun of someone who was murdered. I don’t know why people still watch Bill Maher, and I really don’t know how he still has a show.
Nick
Without the support of parents and a job, traveling around the US in a van is just homelessness.
Wib
I do not agree with you, you are wrong!
Leslie Burke-Hall
What was just said sounded like a critique of Trump. Bill Maher brings a different perspective. Do not watch if you disagree.
Robb
You couldn’t be more wrong. If you watched more, you might learn a thing or two about writing opinion pieces without sounding exactly like the stereotypical gen Z that Maher makes fun of occasionally in his editorial segments.
William
Mark, lets be clear in the messaging. Bill "attacks" all generations, and calls anyone when they deserve it. Also, he is a comedian, and I know plenty of millenials and Z's that watch Bill Maher. You opinion is layered with a false narrative.
J.D.
Bill relates to those older than 35… I’m sorry if that offends you and that you’d like us to to just go away.
Sen
Huhn. I'm 54, and I don't relate to him. I stopped when he started bullying teenagers. He's NOT the voice of his generation. He only thinks he is.
Loren Talbott
I'm 58 and I agree with you 100%. He's going down the Dennis Miller road. Get rich, get tons if accolades start talking more about sports crap, lose touch with his base and then become compleatly irrelevant.
Lorent
I'm also 58 and I used to love Maher and Dennis Miller. But you are right both started talking sports and supermodels and then descended into Right wing stupidity. One particular item of Maher's disdain is comic books. While Maher started talking about moronic sports crap he also began dissing comic books. As a child I consistantly scored in the 90s percentages on vocabulary... it was due to my reading lots of comic books. While comics and music and other arts can by shallow and unoriginal at times, they can expand our view of the world through different perspectives and ideas. Sports add nothing of any type of intellectual value. They actually suck important resources away from MUCH more important and valuable pursuits that actually make this a better world. For example, most schools glorify the football and basketball teams but practically ignore the chess, debate and theater clubs the school may have. It's disgusting. In any event, Bill Maher has ceased adding anything of value to the National Conversation.
Daniel
Young people not making work a priority is a good thing. Well thanks for making Bill Mahers point for him.
Nathaniel
Exactly old loser talking just cause he's old
Jim May
I’ve become an “unfan” as well, though some of his opinion pieces are insightful. My first regret was that he attacks children and young people even though he has no life experience with them. I’ve worked 50 years in schools and know how wrong he is .