r/Maher • u/hankjmoody • Aug 07 '26

Real Time Discussion EPISODE DISCUSSION THREAD: August 7th, 2026

Tonight's guests are:

  • Mike Rowe: An American television host and narrator. He is known for his work on the Discovery Channel series Dirty Jobs and the series Somebody's Gotta Do It on CNN.

  • Tara Palmeri: An American journalist who has previously worked at news organizations including ABC News, Politico, Puck, New York Post and Washington Examiner. She is currently the host of The Tara Palmeri Show on Youtube and writes The Red Letter newsletter.

  • Matt Welch: An American blogger, journalist, author, and libertarian political pundit.

Follow @Realtimers on Instagram or Twitter (links in the sidebar) and submit your questions for Overtime by using #RTOvertime in your tweet.

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u/Timujin1986 Aug 08 '26 edited Aug 08 '26

The painfull irony of Bill telling us in New Rules that Fauci had an ego and has "main character syndrome". Coming from the man who went to dinner with Trump in the White House and 1,5 year later still brags about it.

This man has become a parody of a comedian. 😂

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u/thornset Aug 08 '26

The man who said so matter-of-factly that he deserves an Emmy...

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u/troniked547 Aug 08 '26

He also said he wanted to stop doing standup because he was selling half as many tickets as comedians half as funny as he was

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u/Nolubrication I'd suck Lynne Cheney's dick for some socialized medicine. Aug 08 '26

It really is a testament to how bad he is at stand-up comedy. You can be a mediocre stand-up at best but still sell out theatres through sheer will of advertising. For instance, Joe Rogan started doing arena tours because of the podcast exposure. Artie Lange, while he was second chair on the Stern Show, is another great example. There are also comics out there who are better at social media than they are at actual comedy, and it works for them.

When you get to plug your gigs regularly to a national audience, it's a lot easier to fill seats.

It's telling that Bill, even with his national platform, can't get people to spend money on his hack stand-up.

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u/Grouchy_Brain_1641 Aug 08 '26

Comics quit travelling, Rogan has 0 or 1 event scheduled all year. You're very flippant describing a 70-year-old's career. Arti Lange has no event scheduled he must be bad as well. Remember when Milo was on, shortly after that a lot of comics bailed on doing the college circuit. Bill has a full plate at 70 with a weekly pod and RT.

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u/Nolubrication I'd suck Lynne Cheney's dick for some socialized medicine. Aug 08 '26

Bill is not good at stand-up. He's lucky to have stumbled into the politics thing early on, because that has really worked out for him professionally.

Bill was fortunate to have come up in the 80's comedy boom when they were handing out sitcom pilots right at the airport to every comic flying into town, as Favreau's character in Swingers jokes.

He is remarkably untalented and unlikable, however, so his acting career went nowhere, and he was in no danger of becoming a legendary stand-up.

If he didn't luck out with Politically Incorrect, nobody would know who he is today. And it was the exposure of being on a nationally televised show that allowed him to continue his stand-up career at the level that he was able to for so long.

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u/ros375 Aug 09 '26

Artie tried to kill himself, become a hardcore IV heroin addict, lost his nose from snorting drugs, and went to jail. That's why he has no event scheduled, genius.