Bill Maher is a comedian clearly inspired by George the Great, but obviously has smoked the right amount of weed to stay edgy without becoming jaded. A recovering-Catholic agnostic negrophiliac budhead with keen social insights, ballsy wit and omni-honest: Maher’s make up. There’s a lot of satirical media comedy on the air waves now – the many sprouts of the Onion. His Real Time is the weekly Daily Show that makes no pretense to being silly, as it winds up from the hip uppercut politics in the nuts.

Real Time with Bill Maher is HBO’s offering of political journalism, with a shovel-load of humor. It is to the Daily Show what Chris Rock’s show was to Chappelle Show. Why? It goes there, sets up a tent, unfolds a lawn chair, roasts popular egos over the fire and camps for the weekend. Friday’s show started with a fake ad for the Gov. Palin endorsed “Mommy and Me” home pregnancy test, which comes in a 24-pack for the convenience you need when prayer is your chief method of birth control. You’re wiping away tears before the opening credits even roll.

After his opening monologue we dive into politics with an interview, followed by the panel discussion. A new feature is the Real Time reporter segment where hip young journalists go on location for the issues. Included are Rolling Stone’s Matt “News Dude” Taibbi, gay paragon Dan Savage and mochalicious right winger Amy Holmes. There’s usually some comedy beat around here, helpful for diffusing the mammoth tensions that can build between shouting matches on naive liberals and war criminal conservatives, more talk and then ending with his patented New Rules and final thought. Full show, not yet. You can then log onto HBO.com to watch and/or submit questions to the panel in the Overtime segment. A live commercial-free hour and change with satire and real issues and audience interaction, you can’t beat that with a bamboo cane – unlike McCain’s ass . (Too soon?)

The show’s faults make it really real. Actual topic experts routinely trounce Maher’s opinions, and this doesn’t get cut out. Maher will squirm a bit then drop a self-deprecating one liner, or go on a vegan tirade on rare occasions – since he has the last word with the new rules anyway. Most times though the show can get bogged down in vicious debate between guests, the host, reporters, the super left LA audience – but really that’s what you’re asking for. I want to see a rhetorical shark tank with political seal pups dropped in, so I can’t complain much when I get bloody chum splashed in my face. I was considering ditching the political content from the blog – FUCK THAT!

“We’re not privileged like you, oh wise and funny Dominus. HBO rates aren’t in our budget.” *sob* *whimper*

They got back episodes on Youtube, bitch! Tons of them. Why? I dunno. My understanding of copyright laws is “Don’t get caught.”
… Actually, that’s my attitude to most laws.

Popularity: unranked [?]