MikahC

A few more articles...

ABC News - Bill Maher to remain on air after outrage over racial slur

With friends like this... Why speak to your friend directly (and privately) about the issue when you could hold a rally and use him for target practice to get the masses fired up and make yourself slightly less irrelevant?

Variety - Al Franken Cancels Bill Maher Appearance, Calling N-Word Joke ‘Inappropriate and Offensive’

These two go back so far. I can still remember the Politics Makes Strange Bedfellows skit on the old Politically Incorrect with Al Franken and Arianna Huffington (back when she was a conservative). But I can't blame a politician too much for abandoning a friend. His constituents likely wouldn't understand subtlety too much and it'd be used against him next election if not sooner. I just hope he called and talked to Bill offline.

The Hollywood Reporter - Has Bill Maher Become Too Toxic for His Guests?

The Hollywood Reporter - Bill Maher Has Said the N-Word on TV Before

Variety - Bill Maher Lines Up Michael Eric Dyson to Replace Al Franken in Wake of N-Word Scandal

Well, at least he'll have 1 of the 2 people I wanted him to have on to discuss it. I wouldn't choose Ice Cube for that particular panel, but he was already scheduled. Hopefully Dyson can strike an appropriate balance and not just pile on.

TerryW

If this show goes away I'm done with people.

Bill Needle

Poor Maher probably thought being "one of the good ones" would matter in a time like this. Little did he understand the overwhelming might and remorseless nature of the Grievance Industrial Complex.

mcnabb

The show won't go away, but comedy will continue to be watered down to the point where everything will be perceived as offensive.

I have no problem with anyone who is offended by Maher's remarks, as I would tell them not to watch him anymore.

I love all offensive humor. I go back to Eddie Murphy 'Raw' and he does a whole bit about a Stereotypical Italian guy walking out of a Rocky Movie and talking shit to everyone while grabbing his nuts every 5 seconds. As an Italian-American I always find this bit hilarious whenever it comes on Cable. Get over it people, comedy is not for the feint-hearted!

Josh-da-man

It would hypocritical for HBO to drop Maher over this when they picked him up after ABC shitcanned him for referring to the military as "cowardly" at the height of 9/11 hysteria.

cultshock

If it goes away I'm done with HBO.

It would totally suck if all comedy was bland and inoffensive.



I was thinking the same thing.

MikahC

TMZ posted a very old clip from Politically Incorrect...

TMZ - Bill reflects on N-word usage

Throwing Copper

So is there going to be a show on Friday night? This should be interesting if there is.

mwbmis

Yes. Ice Cube was already booked so that should be interesting. Al Franken was originally booked, but he dropped out for obvious reasons. Michael Eric Dyson, the Georgetown professor and frequent guest, will be on instead.

DVD Josh

I hate Bill Maher and think he's a walking piece of shit. His smugness and superiority complex is beyond tired. He is also far, far, less intelligent than he thinks he is.

That said, while he should have never used the word, I'm concerned about burning someone at the stake over something like this. If he comes out and apologies sincerely, that should be the end of it. If we don't give people an opportunity to do the right thing, there is no incentive to stop them from doing the wrong ones.

Crocker Jarmen

That was a great show. The panel discussions were terrific, everyone was really engaged, no dead spots.

After Dyson's cheerleading, Maher must have thought he was out of the woods, so it was hilarious watching him shut down when Ice Cube brought the discussion back up. Bill looked really unhappy during that segment

I'm probably in the minority of people who likes Maher, but I took issue with his insistence that he "wasn't making excuses" when TWICE he said "the guy said something weird" as being what precipitated his "house ******" joke.

The guy did not say anything weird. Bill said something about visiting Nebraska, and the guy responded with a joke about putting Bill to work in the fields. That joke makes sense. Bill is a TV personality, in the arts industry, a millionaire. It's probably been a long time since he's done farm labour (if ever). The contrast of the Bill we see on TV and the image of him working in a field works as humour. At least it makes sense.

Bill is the one who said something weird, by taking this very mild joshing and jumping to slave times.

brayzie

I just watched the 8 minute clip with Ice Cube. I thought he made a good point about some people feeling too "familiar." It seemed Maher felt like he dealt with it enough and was uncomfortable talking about it, but I thought stuff like that was the point of "Real Talk." I agree with what they said about it being a teachable moment.


Nah, I can see that he felt it was weird. I saw the clip and thought it was a little out of left field at first. I can see how Maher would think of slaves working the field, especially if he's from the city, as when I heard that comment, I think of Mexicans working in the fields. He probably thought he'd make a funny, edgy comment, considering the format, but that's why these types of formats aren't always the best for discussing serious issues.


"If it brought back pain..."

I hate those "If's" in apologies, but I didn't watch the whole segment with Dyson, so I'm probably nitpicking.

I didn't want his show taken off the air but I think he did the right thing by discussing it in on his show. However, he has his friend doing the hard questioning...but whatever.

TheBigDave

JTH182

It's lemonade... Read the sign!

mcnabb

I watched the whole show and I thought Dyson handled Maher better then Ice Cube did.

What annoys me about people like Ice Cube is when he said it's 'our word' now as the irony is they are keeping it alive. If all Rappers and Comics stopped saying the N word, does anyone believe Maher would even entertained the idea of that joke?

My point is I'm Italian-American and there are 3 slangs against us: Ginny, WOP, GreaseBall, yet you don't hear those terms used by ANY comic these days cause those terms have been put to bed.

Now if guys like Ray Romano went out there and said my 'My Ginny' the same as Black comics say 'My *****' then I guarantee that word would still be used in 2017.

Ice Cube needs to be educated that many Blacks want that term to RIP. Richard Pryor stopped using it in 1981 and does a whole standup about it. What's interesting is people in the audience thought he was joking the whole standup. If idiots like Ice Cube want to keep it alive then you're going to have people like Bill Maher throw it in their act every now and then.

JimRochester

I'm on the conservative side and I think this whole thing was muchado about nothing. I actually like Maher and find him entertaining even when I disagree. He didn't call anyone a n*gg*r. He made reference to a historical fact or term. There was such a thing as house n..s and field n...s. These days the term can be used by someone referring to themselves when they feel put upon, used, or abused.

McNabb is right. If you don't want the word used, don't use it.

mcnabb

A perfect example is a term my grandparents generation used to refer to blacks: Colored's or Negroes. Nobody uses those words anymore because nobody says them in 2017 so they are archaic. If guys like Ice Cube still threw around those words in 2017, then Bill Maher may have used it instead. If Ice Cube says on the show last night that NOBODY show use the N word, then everyone will agree just like the words Negroes and Colored's.

Greg MacGuffin

You guys are so white. Do you really think white people would stop using the n-word if hip-hop artists stopped using it?

Crocker Jarmen

Racists saying the word to dehumanize black people? Of course not.

But Ice Cube was talking about white people who "think they got a pass", because they have a black girlfriend, because they are part of the hip hop community, who emulate those using the word "nigg-a" as a show of solidarity.
Of course those people would stop saying it.

mcnabb

Nobody is talking about 'in the privacy of your home' as it's more about in public.

slop101

Here's a LONG, profile on Maher from Esquire this week (it ran after his comment, but before last night's show), and they nail it.

"Maher knows exactly what he's doing"

Some of his ideas are just gross.

And he doesn't give a fuck if he offended anyone, just as long as it doesn't lose him ratings.

rw2516

It's possible to virtually erase a word from the culture if people stopped using it. There was a discussion on CNN about how many younger people have never heard the word "****" and have no idea what it means.

I see the word was censored. A slur aimed at jews that begins with k.

JimRochester

Well part of any host's job is to poke the bear a bit. I have no problem with it but I do agree that many of his ideas are gross. What I like about Maher is he won't stick to Democrat talking points. He has taken liberals to task on many things where he thinks the thinking is wrong and isn't ashamed of it. He is very critical of the PC way the previous administration was reticent to describe radical Muslim extremists to name one area.

Red Dog

Not a fan of Maher, he's right and wrong about equally. but I always say what's the intent of your language.

creekdipper

You make a lot of great points, but would like to add one note of clarification.

The two terms cited above actually are used in public with some frequency. The NAACP stands for "National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and the UNCF stands for "United Negro College Fund." While it's customary to just use the initials in the first case, tv fund-raising spots usually say "Donate to the United Negro College Fund." (As for the first, it would seem easy to simply change to NAABP, substituting black for "colored." Same for the other; just change to UBCF.


Another note here, McNabb, and it actually seems to make a difference. I've always seen the word above spelled "guinea" but never knew why. When I googled it, several links explained the connection. Here's one: https://www.quora.com/Why-is-the-wor...lian-Americans

I learned that the origin of the slur was using the Guinea Coast of Africa to imply that "swarthy-skinned" Italians were not white but closer to black folks.

Thus, the term is doubly offensive to two groups: Italians and Africans since the latter group is being used as a derogatory standard of comparison.

Also, "Ginny" would usually be pronounced "Jenny" with a "soft g." It's an actual shortened version or nickname for "Virginia."

Again, not meaning to be critical, just helpful. I actually had to puzzle out the term since I was reading it as "jenny" and had to rack my brain to figure out ethnic slurs toward Italians. As you say, you don't hear them very often these days.

I agree that the n-word would be used less as a slur if it were discontinued as a term of familiarity. There are a lot of derogatory terms that used to be commonly-used that aren't heard very much these days.