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Over the years, HBO's long running Real Time With Bill Maher has gotten into a bit of a routine - a 5 minute monologue off the top, followed by a single guest, followed by another two pundits on a panel going back and forth over issues of the day. Many times, the guests have books to plug and come on the show to do just that.
Which brings us to what promises to be a surreal Friday, when Maher appears for the first time as a guest on his own show. He's recently written a book and has been flogging it relentlessly week after week. But this time, he's going to be in the hot seat and it's who's conducting that interview that may have to be seen to be believed.
It's Martin Short in his Jiminy Glick character, grilling Maher (and likely insulting him through much of the back-and-forth) as he plugs his book in a very different setting. I'm looking forward to seeing how this bizarre confrontation goes.
By the way, in case you didn't know, you don't need to subscribe to HBO to see Real Time. It's now being rerun every Saturday night at 8 PM on CNN, (unless there's breaking news) although I'm not quite sure how they deal with all the profanity!
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I never watched Maher until this past year, I don't have much interest in US politics , but I do actually look forward to watching his show now. Cripes, I really must be getting old. I have my PR already programmed.
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With Jiminy on this will be a must to watch. I watch Mahar a bit and find his viewpoints interesting. He seems to be critical of both the right and left equally which I have no problem with. He does occassionally comes across as a little arrogant but his points are usually valid.
The only issue I have with his show would be the studio audience. Why do they need to applaud after every joke in the monologue and during his wrap up? Other shows do this as well, but for whatever reason it is more pronounced on Maher's show. Even if the joke isn't funny, the studio audience applaudes. Maybe they are prompted but it is overdone.
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They are indeed prompted.
Every TV show recorded in front of a live audience gives instructions to the audience members beforehand.
What you also don't see are the illuminated signs above the audience heads that light up with cues for when to applaud, laugh, boo etc.
But there are also spontaneous reactions.
The idea is it is meant to be entertaining for the TV viewer so they aren't watching a show where the audience sits quietly or only gives a smattering of applause, or even worse, just sits silent.
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If you watch the show regularly, you'll see that Maher often prompts the applause. Last week, he came out with a line that he thought would be popular with the audience and there was zero reaction. He stared at them and said "Really? Nothing?" And of course, they clapped after that.
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Here's what it might look like, although this one is very old.
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Why did he do this?
I never thought that Jiminy Glick was very funny, as opposed to Martin Short's much better lampoon of Brock Linehan, meant to be Toronto's Brian Linehan.
This routine is just out of touch with modern humour, kind of like it Maher had himself interviewed by Rich Little imitating Johnny Carson.
I'm not exactly a young guy but even I see this is sort of "dad humour."
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coming up Short
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Here's the interview, the humour could make one feel a bit gl-icky.
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newsguy1 wrote:
Why did he do this?
I never thought that Jiminy Glick was very funny, as opposed to Martin Short's much better lampoon of Brock Linehan, meant to be Toronto's Brian Linehan.
This routine is just out of touch with modern humour, kind of like it Maher had himself interviewed by Rich Little imitating Johnny Carson.
I'm not exactly a young guy but even I see this is sort of "dad humour."
well said
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Typical Jiminy Glick, cutting the guest and Hollywood down to size. I always liked the way that he usually answers his own questions and doesn't let the guest respond. I thought it was funny. Out of touch with modern humour?? Please..Jiminy's style is timeless..
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I thought it was great and it made me laugh - even though I was never a fan of the Glick character. They say if you can make a professional comedian laugh you've done something. Short did just that, IMHO. And I loved Maher's reference to "most of the cast of SCTV" being talented.