First of all, I forgot my windscreens, so sorry if that sort of noise makes you nuts. Second, long time friend Caitlin Ackerman joined me as we took a look at Real Time season 2, episode 4. I think mostly what happened is that it made her feel really old, and then by the end of the episode she is fully over it. And who could blame her!

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Okay, so I had two possible episode descriptions in mind for this, and here's the first one:

This week, I see if Bill Maher is capable of reckoning with the fact that he got the election spectacularly wrong by watching the first Real Time episode post 2024 election, which is season 22, episode 34. I'm not going to spoil anything that happens here, except that I got so mad while recording this that my normally unnoticeable hernia started really bothering me. I'm very deflated by the end, whoops!

Here's the second description I had in mind:

"I sent Uncle Mac’s thumb-buster and badge over to the Rangers. Put up in a museum. Your daddy ever tell you how Uncle Mac come to his reward? Gunned down on his own porch over in Hudspeth County. Seven or eight of ’em come up to here. Wantin’ this and wantin’ that. Uncle Mac went back in the house and got the shotgun, they was way ahead of him. Shot him in the doorway. Aunt Ella came out and tried to stop the bleedin’. Uncle Mac all the while tryin’ to get that shotgun. They just sat there on their horses watchin’ him die. After a while, one of ’em says somethin in Injun and they all turned and left out. Well, Uncle Mac knew the score even if Aunt Ella didn’t. Shot through the left lung. And that was that. As they say."

"When did he die?"

"1909."

"No, I mean was it right away or in the night or when was it?"

"I believe it’s that night. She buried him the next mornin’. Diggin’ in that hard old caliche. What you got ain’t nothin new. This country is hard on people. You can’t stop what’s comin’. Ain’t all waitin’ on you. That’s vanity."

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Comedian/all the related attributes of doing comedy Steve Hernandez joined the show to talk about Real Time season 2, episode 3, literally one day before the 2024 presidential election, which barely even comes up. Steve talks about his love of blowhards, realizing qualities he once thought were good might actually be not as good, and then finally an episode of Real Time that, if I'm being honest, I really struggled to get through. Sean Astin makes no sense, Larry Miller is... fuck, man. I can't handle him. The most surprising thing about the whole thing was the revelation that Patty Duke is Sean Astin's mom, which I didn't even actually hear until I was pulling clips for the edit.

Go to the Chatterbox

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Comedian/long time friend Jane Harrison joined the show talk about Real Time season 2, episode 2. I know this episode is very late, but I have several excuses, all of which vary in quality. What's important is that this episode features the single best panelist the show has had so far, and also God damned David Frum. Fuckin' Canadians, man... This one is a little less focused than normal, right down to multiple people complaining about what an asshole my cat is. Oh, and at one point Jane goes "who's that, he's cute" and she was referring to Tyler Glasnow, not the batting coach like I thought she meant, which in retrospect should've been obvious to me.

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Once upon a time, Bill Maher was an "actor/comedian", as opposed to "breaker of new ways to think about stories/comedian", and his first starring role was 1985's Sara, which also stars Geena Davis and Alfre Woodard (which is insane, by the way.) Writer Ella Dawson returns to talk about the show generally, Bill Maher's performance specifically, and then hypothesize what a world where this show was a hit would have looked like.

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This is a preview of a bonus episode. For the full thing, and to support the show, go here.

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New year, new Maher (but not actually). Season 2 of Real Time with Bill Maher has begun, at least as far as this podcast is concerned, and I was joined by comedian and journalist Francesca Fiorentini. She gives us some insight on doing panels not unlike the ones they do on Real Time, and then we recap an incomplete Real Time that was incomplete due to my incompetence! Honestly, it feels like we're getting off lucky because Al Sharpton and Ron Silver spent A LOT of time just yelling at each other.

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Listen, I'm very sorry to any listeners who are infuriated and/or disappointed by this episode, but like, I gotta be honest with this thing. This week, comedian Adam Christie joins me to give an insider's look into the practical reality of writing a weekly topical late night comedy show, and is obstinate with me in the way that only people who've been friends since they were teenagers can be obstinate with one another. But perhaps that feeling is just my own displeasure at having to admit something I never thought I would. A truly shocking episode of... pod... casting. Oh, and also, please rate and review the podcast on whatever service you personally do that kind of thing on. I'd appreciate it.

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Watch out ladies, it's... some incredibly misogynist television that we watched! Kath Barbadoro joined the show to watch Real Time season one, episode nineteen with me, and after I found out she was teaching a stand-up comedy class I was annoying about it and really made at her pick at some of the jokes in this episode. In my defense, they were FUCKIN' BAD. Anyway, it still ended up not being not such a bad time in comparison to some past watches, so make of that what you will.

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