Talk:Bill Maher

"Don't like the Christian" quote

For those who are deleting the quote I added: the quote is valid. I wrote the source, if you want you can check it out on YouTube. I thinks this quote is relevant, many people call him a bigot. With this quote he is denouncing other peoples hipocrisy. 193.145.150.39 03:03, 15 June 2008 (UTC)

Though the quote may resemble what Maher said, it has been removed twice because the transcription seems to be obviously flawed. Please provide a specific YouTube link, to the clip you mention so that the quotation can to some degree be verified or corrected. There are thousands of "Bill Maher‎" clips on YouTube and I am not that interested in sorting through all of them in an attempt to verify or correct this particular comment. ~ Kalki 03:29, 15 June 2008 (UTC)

Also, if you're going to talk about a quote, you should either provide a link to an edit that shows the quote in question, like this, or cite the quote here so that people reading this page understand what's being discussed. Here's the quote in question (spelling and grammar as cited):

• I love Jesus, I just dont like the Christian who dont believe on what he said.

Since Maher is a fluent speaker of standard English, and the transcription includes both poor grammar and misspellings (one cannot misspell something they say), we've treated this as an implausible quote, despite the source. It is of course possible that Maher used the quoted words ungrammatically for effect. (Heck, it's even possible he goofed and actually spoke ungrammatically without realizing it.) But extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence; thus Kalki's request for a specific YouTube link. A professionally published transcription that cites this statement would be even better, although those are usually harder to find. ~ Jeff Q (talk) 03:50, 15 June 2008 (UTC)

I did take the time to do some searching on Youtube with "Bill Maher" and "Jesus" as keywords, and I did find two statements that are similar to what might have been the source for this, (though he slurs a word in the second one, and has a somewhat different follow up in the first). I suspect it is a statement he has expressed in slightly different ways many times:

• Jesus is great — is there a better role model? No. It's religion, its the people who get in between — the bureaucracy, you know. ... It's the way people abuse Jesus. Was there ever a greater victim of name dropping?
  • Be More Cynical (2000) - YouTube clip "Bill Maher on Jesus"

• Jesus, as a philosopher is wonderful. There's no greater role model, in my view, than Jesus Christ. It's just a shame that most of the people who follow him and call themselves Christians act nothing like him.
  • Interviewed on The O'Reilly Factor (26 September 2006) - YouTube clip "Fox's O'Reilly: Bill Maher Looks Bigoted Not John Rocker?"

The second statement is closer to the quote as it was rendered, but I don't plan to do anymore searching for the quote at this time. ~ Kalki 04:19, 15 June 2008 (UTC)

OK. The date was the as an indication of when the quote was said. Here it is the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KvIkeg_YCw . Between second 18 and 22. Maybe the quote is like this * I love Jesus, I just dont like the Christians who dont believe in what he said. English is not my mother language and inthe video were many people talking at the same time. The singular on christians was just a typo. Saludos!Ordago 19:57, 15 June 2008 (UTC)

Thank you, Ordago. You got it right this time, except for the lack of apostrophes in the contractions:

• I love Jesus; I just don't like the Christians who don't believe in what he said.

Maher actually starts speaking at 0:00:17 from what I saw and heard. It's unfortunate we can't use the YouTube clip as a secondary source — it's an obvious copyright violation by someone who calls himself "MoKELoC" even though he registered as "REALTIMEwBMs123", and I think it's safe to assume that neither Maher nor any of his Real Time production staff (nor HBO for that matter) would represent themselves so, or post their entire show in large segments on YouTube without some official statement. I'd prefer to see a timecode (from the actual show, not this clip) or at least a segment description added to the source originally provided, but in this corrected form, the quote is both sourced and plausible, removing likely future objections even without an easy-to-check source. (I'm not sure this qualifies as the best of Maher's wit — I tend to favor more pithy statements — but I'm sure many would find it worth including here.) ~ Jeff Q (talk) 20:49, 15 June 2008 (UTC)

Muahahaha! Sorry, I found an irrefutable and legit source: http://www.billmaher.com/?page_id=145 , Correct quote: MAHER: "I love Jesus. I just don’t like the Christians who don’t believe in what he says.". He has said similar things in other occasions. I in I´m Swiss or in Victory Begins at home can be found something like "he[Jesus] his a good role model". I know this quote is not witty, but reflects an opinion. I thisk this quoe helps to dismiss the idea that Maker hates JC. Can I add again the quote? Saludos! Ordago 23:00, 16 June 2008 (UTC)

I've just added the above quote, as a variant of the earlier statement found (from the show in 2000), and with the other variant from the interview in 2006 mentioned right behind it. ~ Kalki 23:19, 16 June 2008 (UTC)

Wiki Balance

I have been perusing Wikipedia today, looking for examples of the degradation of modern political speech. That led me to this article and that on Ann Coulter. I am not a fan of either. But, I do find it interesting that the Wiki article on Coulter has a "quotes about" section that has more than a dozen quotes -- all negative. This article has one "quote about" Maher -- and it's positive. Since the rhetoric of both is inflammatory and extreme, maybe a little more research in pursuit of equal treatment might be called for. Ruedetocqueville (talk) 20:18, 28 April 2012 (UTC)

If you can reliably source any suitable quotes, they can be included. It wouldn't be ideal for the "quotes about" sections to give overwhelmingly negative characterizations of either figure (although as a moderate I'm fairly disgusted by both of them), try and balance it out in each article instead of across them. --Tryst (talk) 20:33, 28 April 2012 (UTC)

Unsourced

• All stereotypes are true.
  • Politically Incorrect, unidentified episode

• The people who are to blame are the Democrats for not having the Ralph Nader platform. Ralph Nader is right. I would welcome the Democratic Party co-opting Ralph Nader instead of blaming Ralph Nader. Ralph Nader's big issue is that America, our democracy, is being slowly strangled by the influence of corporations and lobbyists and money in politics. And that is the root of all our problems. Nothing in this country ever gets done without somebody getting paid off. Everybody talks about how everything changed after 9/11. No, nothing really changed after 9/11. We don't really have adequate protection of the homeland because it's still a matter of pork-barrel politics.

• Apparently Bob Dole's new election strategy is to find a Republican policy so stupid, even Clinton won't copy it.

• [Bush] has now convinced himself that history will be kind to him. It's just us and the press who don't get it. He's the van Gogh of presidents, you know, not appreciated in this lifetime.

• Clinton left the White House with all the class of an XFL halftime show.

• Everything that used to be a sin is now a disease.

• George Bush says, 'Gore's book needs a lot of explaining.' Of course, Bush says that about every book.

• I don't dislike children, I just don't particularly want to be around with them a lot. Problem is, neither do their parents.

• I have a high state of resentment for the conformity in this country. If you're not married and having children, it's like your life is empty or you're a communist meanie.

• If I had any interest in wooden sex with strings attached, I'd get married.
  • about puppets having sex in the film Team America: World Police

• Kids. They're not easy. But there has to be some penalty for sex.

• Maybe every other American movie shouldn't be based on a comic book. Other countries will think Americans live in an infantile fantasy land where reality is whatever we say it is and every problem can be solved with violence.

• New rule: 'Kidiots' Leave the children behind. At least until they learn something. A new study has shown that half of American high schools agree that newspapers should only be able to publish government-approved material. Almost one out of five said people should not be allowed to voice unpopular opinions… This is the first generation after September 11th, who discovered news during a 'watch what you say' administration… George W. Bush once asked, 'is our children learning.' No, they isn't. A better question would be, 'is our teachers teaching?'

• Some local Indian tribes are so upset, they're scalping tickets.
  • referring to the 1995 opening of Disney's movie Pocahontas

• Suicide is man's way of telling God, 'You can't fire me — I quit.'

• The cable TV sex channels don't expand our horizons, don't make us better people and don't come in clearly enough.

• The House okayed the gasoline tax cut, which will increase the deficit, line the pockets of the oil companies, and hurt the environment; Dole said that if there was just some way this could interfere with people's sex lives, it would be perfect legislation.

• The jury could get the case as early as next week, but the defense says they just want to introduce one last-minute load of crap.
  • referring to the O. J. Simpson trial

• The real axis of evil is the genius of our marketing combined with the stupidity of our people.

• They're talking about banning cigarette smoking now in any place that's used by ten or more people in a week, which, I guess, means that Madonna can't even smoke in bed.

• Things aren't right. If a burglar breaks into your home and you shoot him, he can sue you. For what, restraint of trade?

• This is a ridiculous heat wave we're in right now, and to contribute, Newt Gingrich said that for the entire month of June, he will stop blowing hot air.

• We have the Bill of Rights. What we need is a Bill of Responsibilities.

• Women cannot complain about men anymore until they start getting better taste in them.

• Don't become so tolerant that you tolerate intolerance.

• He's a hard dog to keep on the porch. (Speaking about Bill Clinton)

• Minimum Wage is actually lower than it was in 1968. That's the same year George W. Bush graduated from Yale, and that is unforgivable, and the wage thing is bad too.

• This week, an ailing American bald eagle was found to be dying from mercury poisoning. Republicans immediately tried to blame it on the eagle's lifestyle choices. But it's worth noting that also this week, the White House threatened to veto limits on mercury pollution. Now, pure evil would be if George Bush sat around the White House saying, "Let's poison eagles!" And even I don't believe George Bush would do that. Cheney would do that. And even he is not pure evil. Dick Cheney doesn't hate poor children and caribou. They're just in the way.

Don't vote

Bill, I don't vote, why should I? Give me some one to vote for and I would. Thanks...

Maher was just inteviewed CNN

fyi: Maher was just inteviewed CNN minutes ago. Ottawahitech (talk) 19:41, 5 November 2023 (UTC)