bill mahers talk show-related stories
Posted Jul 28th 2009 1:33PM by Danny Gallagher
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Late Night, Awards, Emmys, Reality-Free
All this talk of
Emmy snubs has overshadowed the biggest snub, numerically speaking:
Real Time host and
professional Ann Coulter wrangler Bill Maher.
The man has been
nominated a staggering 21 times for his late night talk shows and stand-up comedy specials and never won a single award, as many as soap star Suan Lucci's 21 (although she finally did snag one).
That number will probably keep growing since his show faces some stiff competition for a little gold statue. And despite my (and your) personal approvals and disagreements with the man's various opinions and philosophies, it's time he got something for his work.
Oh boy, I can already hear the fast and furious fingers of fury from the peanut gallery typing out angry, fiery, spittle flinging comments as I write this. Before you take up the torches and the pitchforks, hear me out.
Continue reading Bill Maher is the new Susan Lucci
Posted Jun 16th 2009 2:01PM by Danny Gallagher
Filed under: Late Night, OpEd, Celebrities, Reality-Free
A lot of dissecting and exploratory surgery has been done on the jokes that David Letterman made about the Palin family. Even after
Dave apologized and
Palin accepted, people still want to perform a comedy autopsy to figure out what Dave's intent was and why Palin was so vocal in her reaction to it.
The problem is it's an unnecessary surgery and it fails to attack the root of the problem while the real cancer spreads like a California wildfire. E.B. White once said about such procedures that, "
Analyzing humor is like dissecting a frog. Few people are interested and the frog dies of it." The only reason this frog hasn't died is because someone wants to keep it alive and no one has dared to touch the heart.
This is the side I will debate in the never-ending Letterman vs. Palin "Joke-gate" controversy while our very own John Scott Lewinski will offer a rebuttal later in the day that a public figure's children should always be off-limits.
Continue reading Point/Counterpoint: Letterman's joke about the Palins was just that
Posted May 6th 2009 2:03PM by Danny Gallagher
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Other Reality Shows, Reality-Free
Bill Maher recently brought up the tour-de-frump that is the Susan Boyle phenomenon on his HBO
Real Time show, along with an interesting observation on her runaway success.
Now I'm not a regular watcher of these flashy
Gong Show remakes like
American Idol,
America's Got Talent or
America's Got Nothing Better To Do Than Watch This Crap, so maybe my opinion doesn't count in the court of reality show watchers. It seems to me that every few years or so, a phenomenon will bust out of one of these shows for reasons other than their ability to do whatever it is they do on these shows. These shows feed on humiliation like great white schadenfreude sharks.
Enter Mrs. Boyle, the "lovely Scottish troll with the voice of an angel," as Maher put it. But Maher feels her success is due to the unconscious guilt everyone secretly feels from watching these bottom-feeding talent shows.
Continue reading Bill Maher goes all Simon Cowell on the Susan Boyle phenomenon
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