The Kind-Hearted Smart Aleck

Just last week I defended Bill Maher's old joke about Donald Trump being the offspring of a human and an orangutan. As is often the case with Maher, though, I'm quickly following up that defense with a critique. On his most recent episode of Real Time , Maher said this: "I feel like the bottom has to fall out at some point, and by the way, I'm hoping for it because I think one way you get rid of Trump is a crashing economy. So please, bring on the recession, Sorry if that hurts people but it's either root for a recession, or lose your democracy." While Maher has said some cringe-worthy things in the past, he's typically smarter than this. I typically hear such fallacies being uttered by those in the right-wing media. What he's guilty of here is the false dilemma, where he presents a situation as having only two options when there are more. Former President George W. Bush often said, "You're either with us or against us!" No, actuall...

There's been a great deal of controversy and debate in recent weeks over comedians' jokes and comments: What constitutes as going too far, what's the proper form of punishment, and whether or not there's consistency to the conversies and punishments. It all started when Roseanne Barr posted several disturbing tweets, the worst of which read, "muslim brotherhood & planet of the apes had a baby=vj." VJ stands for Valerie Jarrett, an African-American who worked under then President Obama. ABC has since cancelled her show, Roseanne . Samantha Bee, host of the late-night TBS political satire series, Full Frontal , not long after, said this on her show: "Ivanka Trump, who works at the White House, chose to post the second most oblivious tweet we've seen this week. You know, Ivanka, that's a beautiful photo of you and your child, but let me just say, one mother to another, do something about your dad's immigration practices, you feckless c*nt...

I have a love-hate relationship with HBO personality and fellow progressive Bill Maher. While I tend to agree with his viewpoints approximately 80% of the time, my opinions run in stark contrast to his the other 20%. Even when I do agree with him on a subject, there's a good chance he'll go so overboard with a rant, it'll make me cringe as a result. Having said all that, I definitely agree with what he said regarding Hollywood's evolution of wokeness in Friday's episode of Real Time . Apparently, Molly Ringwald of the John Hughes teen classic, Breakfast Club , has recently said, in hindsight, she finds that film and others like it to be troubling in the age of the #MeToo movement. Maher responded by saying, "Stop being surprised every time you watch an old movie or TV show and find some of the ideas in it are - old." He added, "It's nuts to blame someone for not being 'woke' 30 years before 'woke' became a thing. I remember the...

What is this, Offensive Joke Month? First, Late Show host Stephen Colbert came under fire for calling Vladimir Putin Donald Trump's "c*ck holster." Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte made a rape joke, saying if his troops raped women during his martial law, he'd cover for them. Comedian Kathy Griffin did a photoshoot which featured a picture of her holding a bloodied doll head resembling President Trump. Then just last night, Real Time  host Bill Maher engaged in the following back-and-forth with Nebraska Senator Ben Sasse: Sasse: "We'd love to have you work in the fields with us." Maher: "Work in the fields? Senator, I am a house n***a (-er?)." As I've always said, when looking at the level of offensiveness of a joke, I try to analyze both the context and the intent. With Stephen Colbert's joke, the CBS late-night show host was ironically poking fun of two anti-LGBT politicians whom seem to have a serious bromance with one ano...

I now think that Donald Trump is much more than just sexy, which is kind of a given. The term "brilliant" simply doesn't do the man any justice. The man who was voted as having the sexiest rat-hair in the world - in a private poll where he was the only participant - is suing Bill Maher for $5 million. During an appearance by Maher on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno , he stated that if Trump could prove he's not the "spawn of his mother having sex with an orangutan," he'd donate $5 million to the charity of Trump's choice. This was in response to Trump offering to donate $5 million to charity if President Obama would release his college and passport records. Trump sent Maher information allegedly proving he was not born via his mother and an orangutan doing the horizontal mambo. When asked about the comedian's orangutan remark, Trump said, "I don't think he was joking. He said it with venom. That was venom. That wasn't a joke.....