So I'm watching the Bill Maher show and starting to doze off as Sheila Jackson Lee spouts some sort of moronic socialist nonsense, and all of a sudden I'm jarred alert as the show gets sucked into a bizarre alternate reality by a loud shouting voice from the audience. I have no idea what the guy was shouting, but all of a sudden Bill Maher is charging into the audience, calling for security and they've got the guy surrounded and are dragging him from the hall.
At this point it all becomes clear - thanks to my DVR at 1/15th speed - because I can read the sign he's attempting to hold up and it says "Expose the 9/11 Coverup." After he's hustled out spraying flyers in his wake, Maher attempts to get things back on track to be interrupted first by a woman shouting "What about Building 7, Bill?" and then by a man shouting "Tell us what happened to building 7, Bill" and some other incomprehensible business about the government blowing up the towers. Well, they're dragged out in turn, and the discussion got back on track after a few sarcastic comments and Maher pointing out that of all the groups he's offended the only ones regularly protesting outside his studio are the 9/11 'Truthers'.
We have to thank the miracle of live television which made this spectacle possible. Live cameras make Maher's show a target of opportunity for desperate conspiracy nuts who are so sure no one is listening to them - with good reason - that they think shouting slogans at random guests on a live cable TV show is a smart way to get taken seriously. What they don't seem to get is that people who have serious political agendas and ideas which don't require them to wear tinfoil hats are going to be invited to be on the stage at the Bill Maher show. They're not going to be protesting in the street out front or shouting disruptive slogans from the audience.
Maher's not exactly discriminating. He's an equal opportunity exploiter and he's more than willing to have just about any silly position aired on his show, even if only to rip a guest to shreds with nihilistic sarcasm. The fact that Maher won't even give them as much consideration as he gives to radical vegans, activist homophobes or creationists, must really irk them. There's nothing more frustrating when you're sure you have a direct line to the one, absolute truth than to have someone with a media platform think you're such a joke that he just ignores you. Thus, Maher must be attacked, disrupted, silenced until he has the courtesy to listen and give them the respect they think they deserve.
.jpg?t=20120527181101)
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Lapdog
Bill Maher invaded?
Nalle you've been fooled again.
It was all part of the script.
The audience loved it.
And the ratings went way up.
2 - Dave Nalle
I think you've confused Bill Maher with Jerry Springer. Watch the footage. He's genuinely pissed off and ready to attack the guy - and Maher is definitely not a good enough actor to fake it.
Dave
3 - Dave Nalle
For anyone who missed the show, Youtube comes through as usual.
Dave
4 - Lapdog
Maher's acting was good enough to fool you.
He's easily as good as Bush and you sure got sucked in by that chump.
5 - Lapdog
Nalle's comment overlapped mine in #3 for some reason.
6 - Donald Gibson
I was watching the show live as well and I could sense how pissed off Maher was.
However, I've met Maher before. He's about 5'7", if that. Maybe 130 lbs.
As pissed off as he was, I think he was really hoping that some bigger audience members would remove the guy before he ran over there.
-Donald
7 - Dave Nalle
I think he does have some sort of security force there. It looked like he was at least somewhat pissed at his security for both letting a guy in with an obvious protest sign and not getting the situation under control faster.
And yeah, Maher is short and seems a bit afflicted with short man's syndrome. Too bad he didn't have Danny Bonaduce as a guest. That would have been fun.
Dave
8 - Zedd
What I see in that clip is AMERICA. We have missed what is good about us. We grumble about the left and the right, the flip floppers and the evil doers but miss what makes us really fantastic. It's not that we are generous or smart or god-fearing or whatever else we falsely attribute to our "Americanness". It is that we are allowed to be totally wacko, to be wrong or contentious. Being able to say "I don't think so" is what makes this country great.
When I was a young child in the 70's, coming from an oppressive system, what gave my patriotic father glee were the quirky activities of streakers and highly inappropriate sometimes "cringe-some" protesters. He would exclaim with a gleeful laugh, "that is America". We would roll our eyes yet his resolve would bring one to ponder on what freedom is, and the challenge of finding ones own passions; I suppose that great pursuit that the founders wanted to nurture.
We live in a watered down society, where wit is allotted to certain people and creativity is patterned. The music is a poor regurgitation of past master pieces and comedy is not funny but the cries of repressed suburbanites or the . No passion exists in our society. We don't challenges ideas sufficiently. We simply label them. We don't challenge ourselves, we simply joint camps.
Maher was pissed because he was annoyed and disrupted, true, and rightfully so. However, one couldn't help but sense that he may have also been ticked off at the fact that he wasn't the most original, provocative, impassioned person in the room. Someone wasn't following the script and missed the memo that HE is supposed to be the irreverent one and everyone else gets to nod and join his camp or hate his liberal spin.
Just a thought.
VIVA Springboks!!!
Boks rule the world!!!!!
9 - Dave Nalle
All true, Zedd. The one thing you miss being that these guys weren't having fun and being disruptive just to be silly like streakers. They were petulantly creating a nuisance because they aren't getting enough attention for their cause, which at base is destructive and delusional. Huge difference.
Dave
10 - Zedd
Dave,
That is the beauty of it all, THEY HAD A PURPOSE.
While you may not believe them or buy their beef, THEY were in pursuit of their life's mission. It happened right before us all and is saved in perpetuity in You Tube. They weren't headed for the shooting squad. They were kindly escorted out simply to do it again somewhere else, maybe on that same night. That is fantastic!!
It wasn't P'Diddy churning out nothingness, taking up space in his diamonds and feeling creative (or whatever that moron's name is today). Heck at least Step and Fetch-it were funny (I digress).
It was real. It was men and women (that is huge in it self, thinking about history) who love their nation and believe that their government has lied to them and needs to be brought to account.
God Bless America!
11 - Zedd
OH
VIVA Springboks!!!
Boks rule the world!!!!!
12 - alessandro
Good on Maher that he flat said he didn't think Bush was behind 9/11.
13 - Lapdog
alessandro, has anyone who makes a living from their own show on US television ever said that they think the Bush administration was behind 9/11? Are they still on the air?
If so could you name them and provide a link?
14 - Clavos
Nah.
People "who make[s] a living from their own show on US television" are too intelligent to believe that crap.
15 - RJ
Interesting point, Dave. I believe these 9/11 Troofers are pretty much batshit insane, myself. I wouldn't put anything past them, including a terror attack on innocent civilians, in an effort to highlight their claims that the 9/11 terrorist attack was a "false flag" operation. That sort of twisted reasoning doesn't make much sense to us, but a lot of these folks walked away from logic and reason a LO-O-ONG time ago...
16 - RJ
I was watching the show live as well and I could sense how pissed off Maher was.
However, I've met Maher before. He's about 5'7", if that. Maybe 130 lbs.
As pissed off as he was, I think he was really hoping that some bigger audience members would remove the guy before he ran over there.
Well, yeah. Maher demanded that security come to the rescue BEFORE he ever "ran to the rescue" ... so that part was for show, certainly ...
17 - Dr Dreadful
Been watching the rugby, have you, Zedd?
:-p
18 - Lapdog
alessandro, we have one answer to #13 from the peanut gallery but I'd still like to read your own view.
19 - Zedd
Condolences Doc!!
teehe he he...
"We are champions my friend"!!
VIVA Springboks!!
20 - STM
I, for one, was so disappointed that the Poms lost, I jumped up and down for about half an hour, shouting: "Get that up yers, you Pommy bastards".
21 - alessandro
Lapdog, all I was commenting on was that at least a host like him - who has been highly critical of Bush - challenged the notion. You never know these days. Though I never thought him to be that way.
So not sure if you're reading too much into what I said. I may have unwittingly written in a way that allowed you to interpret what you did so my apologies. But I will say #14 is a good answer.
Didn't South Africa win in rugby?
22 - Dr Dreadful
I'm guessing that Zedd's new default internet signature is:
"We are the Champions, my friend -
Viva Springboks!"
In much the same way that Moonraven's is:
"[personal attack deleted]"
;-)
23 - Dave Nalle
alessandro, has anyone who makes a living from their own show on US television ever said that they think the Bush administration was behind 9/11? Are they still on the air?
Lou Dobbs has come awfully close to saying it and he's on the air or on cable anyway. It's about the only thing he hasn't come straight out and accused the Bush administration of, and he has called for a new investigation. If he had more balls he'd probably say it.
And of course, Alex Jones does have a syndicated radio show carried on major stations and he absolutely HAS accused Bush of it and much worse. And he's still on the air.
dave
24 - Lapdog
alessandro, IMO #14 is a stupid answer.
People who values their careers in US broadcasting are smart enough to steer clear of any Bush crimes against humanity topics.
25 - Dave Nalle
I believe these 9/11 Troofers are pretty much batshit insane, myself. I wouldn't put anything past them, including a terror attack on innocent civilians, in an effort to highlight their claims that the 9/11 terrorist attack was a "false flag" operation. That sort of twisted reasoning doesn't make much sense to us, but a lot of these folks walked away from logic and reason a LO-O-ONG time ago...
If I felt like doing the work involved, I'm pretty sure I could draw an awful lot of parallels between the 9/11 Truthers and McVeigh and some of the other major domestic terrorists. They're very much of the same paranoid mindset and in fact, I think that McVeigh was essentially part of the same anti-government subculture. 9/11 seems to have galvanized them into activism, but I guarantee a small number of the people involved are on the brink of doing much nastier and more dangerous. All it would take is the right provocation.
Dave