Biography
Early life and career
Maher was born in New York City and grew up in River Vale, New Jersey. He graduated from Pascack Hills High School in Montvale, New Jersey. Maher is the product of a "mixed" marriage (Jewish mother, Roman Catholic father) and in his early stand-up routine, he said that he would bring a lawyer to confession: "Forgive me, Father, for I have sinned... I think you know Mr. Cohen..." He received his Bachelor of Arts in English from Cornell University in 1978.
Maher has a substantial career as a stand-up comedian and still occasionally tours. He was host of the New York City comedy club Catch a Rising Star in 1979. Thanks to Steve Allen, he began appearing on Johnny Carson and David Letterman's shows in 1982.
He has appeared in several films, usually in a comical role. His feature film debut was in D.C. Cab (1983), and he has also appeared in Cannibal Women in the Avocado Jungle of Death (1988) and Pizza Man (1991). He has also appeared in a number of guest roles on television shows, including Newhart, Murder, She Wrote, Roseanne (as a boudoir photographer), and Married... with Children.
Media
Talk show host
Maher is most notable as the former host of Politically Incorrect, which aired on the Comedy Central television network and later ABC. Maher is also currently the host of Real Time with Bill Maher on HBO.
ABC decided not to renew Maher's contract for Politically Incorrect in 2002 after he made a controversial on-air remark, in which he, along with guest political commentator Dinesh D'Souza, objected to president George W. Bush and others calling the September 11 terrorists cowardly:
"We have been the cowards lobbing cruise missiles from 2,000 miles away. That's cowardly. Staying in the airplane when it hits the building, say what you want about it, it's not cowardly."
— Bill Maher, Politically Incorrect (2001)
During the era of the Vietnam War, the alleged cowardice of American "carpet bombing" from high above a target was a common theme among anti-war protestors. However, in the context of the sensitive aftermath of the attacks, such a remark was deemed too controversial for some financial supporters. Although some pundits, including conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh, supported Maher, pointing out the distinction between physical and moral cowardice, companies including FedEx and Sears Roebuck pulled their advertisements from the show, costing the show more than it returned. The show was subsequently cancelled on June 16, 2002. On June 22, 2002, six days after the cancellation of Politically Incorrect, Maher received the President's Award (for "championing free speech") from the Los Angeles Press Club.
Another controversial reaction to Maher's comment came from Ari Fleischer, who was the Press Secretary of the George W. Bush administration at the time. Fleischer responded to a reporter's question about Maher's comments by saying that people "need to watch what they say." Many people believed Fleischer was implying that freedom of speech might have to be limited in America in response to the September 11 terrorist attacks.
Maher's comment about the cowardice of terrorists followed another controversial comment he made on Politically Incorrect earlier that year where he compared dogs to mentally handicapped children:
"But I've often said that if I had — I have two dogs — if I had two retarded children, I'd be a hero. And yet the dogs, which are pretty much the same thing. What? They're sweet. They're loving. They're kind, but they don't mentally advance at all ... Dogs are like retarded children."
— Bill Maher, Politically Incorrect (2001)
ABC was likely still dealing with the fallout from this statement when it decided not to renew Maher's contract.
In 2003, Maher became the host of Real Time with Bill Maher on the HBO cable television network, a debate show somewhat similar to Politically Incorrect, but with a narrower selection of guests. Maher told Terry Gross (on NPR's Fresh Air) in 2004 that he enjoys having more serious and well-informed guests on his current program, as opposed to the random celebrities that fleshed out his roundtable discussions on Politically Incorrect.
Since May 2005 he's been a contributing blogger at The Huffington Post.
On January 13, 2006 Maher hosted Larry King Live on CNN.
Press coverage
In 1997, during filming of an episode of the game show Pictionary, Erik Estrada accidentally punched Maher in the face in a moment of exuberance, knocking him out cold briefly.
In November 2004 Maher was sued for 9 million dollars by his ex-girlfriend, Nancy Johnson a.k.a. Coco Johnsen, for palimony. Johnson claims that Maher did not fulfill promises made to her and that he physically and verbally abused her. Maher publicly refuted her allegations on Larry King Live on November 23, 2004. His lawyer responded to the lawsuit with a claim that Maher is a "confirmed bachelor" and never promised to marry or support Johnsen and that California law doesn't allow for the palimony suit brought by Ms. Johnsen. On May 2, 2005, a superior court judge dismissed the lawsuit.
In late May 2005, Alabama Congressman Spencer Bachus sent a letter to Time Warner's board of directors requesting Real Time be cancelled due to remarks Maher made about low military recruiting numbers on the May 13, 2005, episode which Bachus felt were demeaning to the military and in bad taste. Maher's comment was "More people joined the Michael Jackson fan club. We've done picked all the low-lying Lynndie England fruit, and now we need warm bodies." Maher responded by reiterating his support for the troops and asking why the Congressman criticized him instead of actually doing something about the problem.
Worldview
Political views
Maher describes himself as a libertarian and celebrates libertarian figures such as Larry Elder and P.J. O'Rourke. He favors partial privatization of social security, ending corporate welfare, legalizing drugs, gambling, prostitution, pornography. He supported Bob Dole in the 1996 U.S. presidential election on the basis that Dole was a war hero. [1] He has expressed disdain for many of the liberal positions regarding hate crime, sexual harassment, etc. as being "things that make women nod." (In general, his views on women and sex tend to be iconoclastic and potentially offensive.) However, Maher does support many Social Democrat stances which are in direct opposition to libertarian ideology and/or associated with modern liberalism, including government regulation of corporations, restrictions on corporate entrepreneurship, foreign aid, an internationalist foreign policy, public schooling, a ban on homeschooling, campaign finance restrictions, radical environmentalism, affirmative action, minimum wage laws, gun control, income redistribution through higher taxation and government funding for abortion. He supported Ralph Nader in the 2000 U.S. presidential election.
Maher publicly supports PETA, a controversial animal rights organization, and has expressed his distaste for the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries in general, on the grounds that they make their money out of curing people who are made sick by consuming the unhealthy food that society urges upon the public. He has expressed skepticism that vaccines are responsible for helping to eliminate many diseases. On the August 11, 2005, episode of Larry King Live, Bill Maher announced he is not a vegetarian but eats meat rarely. He claimed he is still a board member of PETA and supports animal rights.
Prior to the 2004 U.S. presidential election he became very forthright in his opposition to the reelection of George W. Bush and his support for John Kerry as the best candidate to defeat Bush, rather than the candidate most in agreement with Maher's views, going so far as to publicly kneel on his show, with director Michael Moore, and beg Ralph Nader to drop out of the race. As a result, he is generally considered a liberal. Maher often says that the word "liberal" has been unfairly demonized, and during the elections he criticized Kerry for being ashamed of the word. Maher himself seems comfortable with being called a liberal, though he is sometimes called a "libertine socialist" by a few political commentators such as Jonah Goldberg. Maher also supports the death penalty (though most liberals don't) and abortion and euthanasia (though most conservatives don't), often stating his position humorously as "I am pro-death". In expanding on this statement, he reveals his belief that the size of the human population has led to damage to the earth's ecology, so that he is in general in favor of anything that would tend to reduce the size of said population.
He was originally opposed to the war in Iraq, but briefly became less skeptical of it after the Iraqi election of 2005. Maher now views the Iraq War as a failure and has even suggested on the February 24, 2006 episode of Real Time that Iraq was better off under Saddam Hussein and that the U.S. cannot control the sectarian violence like Saddam Hussein did. Maher has seemed sympathetic, even at times in defense, of the Bush Administration's use of WMD as a justification for the war noting that arguments based on its possible long-term transformational effect on the region likely wouldn't have gotten the authorization & support that it did, but he also states that the supposed Saddam ties to Al Qaeda was a more dangerous lie than the WMD justification. The result of the invasion of Iraq, in his view, has increased the threat of terrorism. He has also stated his concerns about the possibility of a future civil war in Iraq, or about the possibility that Iraq is already involved in the early stages of a civil war.
Maher responded to the claims that liberals are "out of touch" with conservative morality and the idea that this led to George W. Bush's re-election and the success of the Republican Party in the 2004 general election by saying "Stop saying that blue state people are out of touch with the morals and values of the red states. I'm not out of touch with them, I just don't share them."
Maher is also opposed to what he views as the backward political culture of the American South: "There is a lot that goes on in the South that I don't think is very progressive, and I don't think that's denigrating the South to call them out on that. And I think it's terrible that in this country you have to...try to attract that sort of Southern--excuse me, very often redneck way of thinking. John Kerry with his goose hunting outfit, OK? I think hunting is stupid. I think Civil War reenactments are stupid. If that's denigrating, I'm sorry. That's my opinion."
Also, he said, "I know this is about 140 years late, but to the Southern states, I would say upon further consideration, you can go."
Religious views ("Insanity by consensus")
Maher is opposed to organized religion. He has described religion as a neurological disorder that spreads guilt and hatred among people while offering nothing in return. In two separate appearances on Real Time, atheist comedian George Carlin and Maher alleged that organized religion is a cause of many of society's problems, and that the practices of organized religion are mired with hypocrisy. Maher credited Carlin's views as inspiration for him to speak out against organized religion.
Maher has said many times that religion works under the guise of morality, but that its tenets generally have nothing to do with morality; that religious prohibitions are being confused with moral law. In Maher's view, just because a religion prohibits the consumption of pork or decries homosexuality, that does not mean that consuming pork or being homosexual are immoral acts. Instead, Maher argues that an immoral person is one who harms others; an activity which harms another individual such as murder or rape would be an immoral act. This is also a traditional libertarian position.
Maher opposes religious monuments such as The Ten Commandments being placed in or near court houses, saying that this would violate the separation of church and state. He has countered the assertion of conservative Christians who claim that American law is based on the Ten Commandments by saying that of the ten, only two (the prohibitions on murder and theft) apply to American law. The other commandments, he argues, such as honoring no god before the Judeo-Christian God, keeping the Sabbath holy, or honoring thy mother and thy father, are not American laws at all. In answer to the suggestion that a divine moral authority is necessary, he suggests "Couldn't we just get together and agree on the few basic [Commandments] that are laws? Like 'I won't slaughter you, and don't take my shit.'"
Maher has stated on both "Politically Incorrect" and "Real Time", and on several appearances of Larry King Live that he does, indeed, believe in God, but that organized religion is nothing more than tradition and superstition. He asserts that organized religion provides answers to questions that "cannot possibly be answered". Questions such as "Where do I go when I die?" or "Is there a heaven?", he says, are impossible to answer. By claiming to have the answers, Maher argues, organized religion is dishonest and it "stops people from thinking".
During Maher's appearance on Larry King Live on August 11, 2005, he said he was an agnostic who nevertheless is still quite open to the idea that God exists. The following exchange also occurred on that program:
CALLER: "Hi. Well, my question is, the Lord spoke to me approximately three years ago, and if the Lord spoke to you [Maher], I was wondering if you'd become a believer."
MAHER: "No, I'd check into Bellevue, which is what you should do..."
Maher then explained that certainty in one's religious belief is absurd, using the example of Scientology: ..."You [a Scientologist], like all religious people, have a neurological disorder. And the only reason why people think it's sane is because so many other people believe the same thing. It's insanity by consensus."
Credits
Bibliography
Does Anybody Have a Problem With That? Politically Incorrect's Greatest Hits, 1996
Does Anybody Have a Problem with That? The Best of Politically Incorrect, 1997
True Story : A Novel, 2002
When You Ride Alone You Ride With Bin Laden: What the Government Should Be Telling Us to Help Fight the War on Terrorism, 2003
Keep the Statue of Liberty Closed: The New Rules, 2004
New Rules: Polite Musings from a Timid Observer, 2005
Filmography
The Aristocrats (2005) .... Himself
Tomcats (2001) (uncredited) .... Carlos
Bimbo Movie Bash (1997)
Don't Quit Your Day Job (1996) .... Comic's Table
Say What? (1992) .... Host
Pizza Man (1991) .... Elmo Bunn
Cannibal Women in the Avocado Jungle of Death (1989) ...
(aka Jungle Heat or Piranha Women in the Avocado Jungle of Death) .... Jim
Out of Time (1988) .... Maxwell Taylor
House II: The Second Story (1987) .... John
Ratboy (1986) .... Party Guest
Club Med (1986) .... Rick
Rags to Riches (1986) (aka Foley and the Girls From St. Mags) .... Freddie
D.C. Cab (1983) (aka Street Fleet) .... Bill
Television
I'm Swiss (2005) (HBO) .... Himself
Bill Maher: Victory Begins at Home (2003) (HBO) .... Himself
Real Time with Bill Maher (HBO) (2003–Present) .... Host
Bill Maher: Be More Cynical (2000) (HBO) .... Himself
Politically Incorrect (Comedy Central and ABC) (1994–2002) .... Host
Charlie Hoover (1991) .... Elliot
The Midnight Hour (1990) .... Host
Hard Knocks (1987)
Sara (1985) .... Marty Lang
Special appearances
MADtv (2005) .... himself
