Wednesday, October 5, 2022

No Bill, Wokeness ISN'T Why You Haven't Won An Emmy: (Sigh) Bill Maher Forces Me To Write Another Comment About him

 

 

            I have gone a fair amount of heat the over the last several months about much I dwell on Bill Maher, his unfunny comedy, how he’s always had conservative values despite claiming he was progressive, how he is a misogynist, how he has more conservative guests than he does liberals, etc. There’s more I could have said about him as time has gone by – I had a piece comparing him to H.L. Mencken that wasn’t flattering to either of it – but I took the hint of my readers, and I ignored him.

            But sometimes when a guy throws you a fat pitch, you just have to swing it. And that is what happened when Chris Cuomo (who you’d think would know better by now) interviewed Bill Maher on his new show a few days ago.

            In his typical smarmy fashion Cuomo said Maher “crushes Trevor Noah and John Oliver in the ratings.” Well, Noah’s on every day and Maher’s once a week so that’s not a fair comparison Chris, but why kick a guy when he’s down. “But Noah and Oliver always win the Emmys.” (Noah has never won an Emmy; you’re thinking of Jon Stewart, a man who Maher has only mocked, but fine keep digging your own grave.) “Why do you think that is?”

            Maher in his humble fashion says: “I tell the truth to my audience. The Emmys are too woke.”

            Wow, Bill. I mean seriously. That’s the first thing I think of when I think of the Emmys. An organization that only gave its first Best Actress in a Drama series six years ago and has only recently enjoyed its second Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy award in its history. An organization that has never given an Emmy to an Asian American and barely has a track record with Latinos. An organization that earned the hashtag #EmmysSoWhite last year. An organization, for the record that has never nominated a female run show in the same category you have gotten nominated in seventeen consecutive years. Tell Samantha Bee, Chelsea Handler and Desus and Mero just how woke the Emmys are with a straight face.

            I know that Hollywood is woke. They’ve told us in every awards show how woke they are even though the people who vote in them look a lot more like you then the people they want to reach out to. I know you never look at a movie except to complain how big budget or depressing they are, but award shows for Film and Television have a really bad track record when it comes to nominating minorities. I realize you don’t pay attention to the Golden Globes because they wouldn’t nominate you for anything, so I guess you missed the fact that they weren’t aired on NBC this year because of the racial makeup of their membership.   Seriously when I think about an organization with a long history of recognizing minorities, particularly series created and run by women, African Americans, LGBTQ+ or anybody who doesn’t like you, my thoughts immediately go to the Emmys. And when I think of diversity of choices, my first thought goes to an organization Julia-Louis Dreyfus six consecutive Emmys. She was on your network, Bill, you should remember that! I may care about who they nominate far more than you do, but I am not blind to their flaw.

            But you’re a little right about why you’ve never won an Emmy. It’s not because you tell the truth, though, everyone else in the category does this, with subtlety and in ways you never have. It’s not because the Emmys have the repetitive habit of recognizing the same shows over and over again, and you had the misfortune of competing against Jon Stewart for a decade. (Though again, he was funnier than you, not to mention humbler, nicer and actually being an advocate for things.) And yes, you have you used racial slurs on your show which you won’t apologize for, have had said bad things about being vaccinated, and argue that anybody who complains who doesn’t like you is ‘whining’. But that’s still not the reason you haven’t won. No, you have never won an Emmy and never will for reasons that have to do with how the Emmys have always given awards and who they give awards to.

            Now, maybe you are legitimately not the kind of person who wants to kiss ass or do anything to advocate for your own series. Hell, maybe you think that your shows should win only on its own merits (though I’ve watched you long enough to know you’re not that naïve.) But honestly, I don’t think that’s why you do it. I think if you actually won an Emmy, you wouldn’t be able to swallow your pride for thirty seconds speech and be humble. I think you’ve spent so much time in your own bubble, only hearing your audience laugh at your stale jokes, doing the same schtick for thirty years that you can’t accept – or legitimately understand – what makes your material inferior to Stephen Colbert’s or John Oliver’s – people who have had to work their way up the ladder to get where they are where as you, as I have explained, are a legacy comedian. And for the record, you work for HBO. You know as well as anyone that once you get nominated for an Emmy in a certain category, you stay there forever.  There has to be a radical improvement in talent – or your show has to really drop in quality – for the nominations to stop coming.  ER  was on the air for fifteen years, but after eight they stopped nominating it for Best Drama. Law and Order was on the air for twenty years. They stopped nominating it after eleven. You’ve been on the air for nineteen years. Take the hint.

            So no, the Emmys are not nominating you anymore because you are too much of a truth-teller. They are not nominating you because they think other Late-Night Comedy Series are better. That they nominated you for so long over Seth Meyers and Samantha Bee is actually a far greater travesty but as we know very well, you’re only in this for you. So go ahead,  sulk in your tent like Amy Poehler and Jimmy Kimmel. Oh wait, they don’t sulk when its time for awards shows. They host them. Something that you would never demean yourself to do even if it might help you win an Emmy.

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