I Hate Bill Maher

Real Time is taking a little break this week, and since I am recovering from some family coming to visit I figured I would do the same by settling into the warm bath water of an old school Real Time episode. But how soothing is it REALLY? Answer: not so much. Andrew Sullivan is here! Also Ben Affleck, who will one day go on to become a Real Time legend. Plus, Bill Maher is lower energy than I remembered, and also treats a guest on the show about as badly as a talk show host could while not being in the same location as them.

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Here are some clips from the first few Patreon episodes of 2026, including:

The Psychology Zone feat Eoin Higgins (Andrew Sullivan on Club Random)
Reverse Oppression Academy feat Chris James (Bert Kreischer on Club Random)
This & That 2.0 (Junk Drawer Episode)
Netflix Presents: A Ricky Gervais Comedy Special: Rich Cunt feat John Hastings

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I HOPE YOU LIKE HEARING THE PHRASE "TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME"!!!! Anyway, Rax King joined me this week to reacquaint herself with Bill Maher after over a decade away from occasionally watching him. Does she think he's gotten better with time? I mean I'm not even going to pretend like she does; she's immediately struck by how diminished she is. But he's not the only thing that's diminished: so is this fucking two person panel, as evidenced by the fact that this week the panel has, I cannot stress this enough, zero chemistry. But the highlight of the episode is his near histrionic response to Trump insulting him one time on the computer. Will we get his full response, or will we inexplicably have to wait two weeks? Well, you'll have to listen to find out (he says he'll do it in two weeks.)

Also, if you hear distant laughing in the background my wife's friend Emma was over and she was probably laughing at something the baby was doing. It was NOT about the podcast, TRUST ME.

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Wow, this show sucks! This episode's coming to you late because guest Taylor Lorenz, who was previously booked to do the show next month, saw who the interview guest was and said "I hate this man and must talk about it" (paraphrasing.) And we did! She is the rare guest who truly has as little familiarity with Bill Maher as possible, and also late night just in general, so it was FASCINATING to watch someone discover it via the worst possible example of it. We talk about the interview for a while, the boring panel for not as long (though I still found one guest INFURIATING) and then we heard a deeply confusing final New Rule that will make you say "not homophobic enough" JUST KIDDING!

If there are weird typos in this I wrote it on my phone while feeding a baby so gimme a freakin break!

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UPDATE: I forgot to put in an audio clip towards the end of the episode, that's been corrected.

The new season continues to trudge on, and this week writer Parker Molloy joins the show for a third straight week of Bill Maher conducted Epstein files talk! She's a great guest, but listen; some weeks writing this description is harder than others, because it's just like, yeah, this guy sucks ass and this show is bad. I think we do a pretty good job of making fun of it, but if you've listened to the show before, you know that. Are there any surprises or anything to tease? Here's the thing: this week, there is. The final minute of the final New Rule does such a shock one eighty quality-wise that we were both truly stunned by it. You'll be shock, I swear to God...

I haven't mentioned the show's stings being the work of Empty Heaven in a while, but their going viral for wholesome wife guy shit reminded me that I should. Check them out here.

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