Posted in: HBO, Opinion, TV, TV | Tagged: Bill Maher, dave chappelle, Joe Rogan, opinion, Real Time

Bill Maher Can't Even Get His Own COVID "Facts" Right in Interview

Published Fri, 21 Jan 2022 15:13:13 -0600

Sometimes, Bill Maher just makes it so, so easy. Just to get everyone up to speed, Maher's about to get his ego stroked when the 20th season of his HBO show Real Time with Bill Maher kicks off. So to be given the rose petals thrown at his feet that we're pretty certain he feels he deserves, Maher took part in an interview with Deadline Hollywood that was… wow. If you're looking for a kilo of some pure, uncut, privileged white man-child ego then look no further than this little chest-beating, self-aggrandizing tirade. Let me put it this way. If Joe Rogan thinks he's some kind of Google-educated "doctor" when it comes to COVID-19 then Maher thinks he's some kind of "COVID messiah" with the "righteous path" to wellness for people like him who can afford it (so start handing out millions of late-night contracts, HBO- working on my monologue already).

But being an anti-vaxxer (and by the end of that interview, I would love to hear him try to say he's not) isn't good enough for Maher. Oh, no. An ego like that always needs to be the smartest person in the room 24/7 wherever it goes. So was I surprised when Maher said this about Dr. Anthony Fauci and other medical experts: "They don't know a lot about anything"? Of course not! Because Maher (like I've said in the past about Rogan and comedian Dave Chappelle) has an ego that cannot concede that there are those smarter than him. It happens when an ego is fed so often that it begins to think that it knows everything about everything.

"Don't believe those doctors! Believe the stand-up comic/failed B-movie actor/talk show host, instead!"

Which by itself is a sad, pathetic attitude to have when you're in a position where your words influence millions. But the part where Maher makes it so, so easy that I mentioned before?

The dude f***ed up two important COVID-related facts… in his own interview!

And we're not talking about some trumped-up, crackpot theory about drinking Drano or cookin' horse meds like crystal meth. The dude quoted two CDC reports so painfully wrong that DH had to fact-check him as "Editor's Notes" before the interview went live. Seriously. Take a look:

MAHER: "Right. I mean, 78%, this is just the CDC fact, 78% of the people who died or went to the hospital were obese. Now, I'm not saying they deserved to die. Don't twist my words, please. I'm just saying that is a lifestyle, you know? So, the fact that America, the medical establishment, never even attempted to get people to live a healthier lifestyle as a response to this pandemic is a giant scandal to me."

CDC MARCH 2021 REPORT: "Among 148,494 adults who received a Covid-19 diagnosis during an emergency department or inpatient visit at 238 U.S. hospitals during March–December 2020, 28.3% had overweight and 50.8% had obesity."

MAHER (On His Distrust of the Medical Establishment): "Medical error is still the third leading cause of death in America and that's just based on what we know now and what we know in the future will certainly make that number rise."

CDC DECEMBER 2021 REPORT: As the rankings of leading causes of deaths go by the end of 2020, COVID-19 is ranked third, (behind heart disease and cancer), followed by "unintentional injuries" (car accidents, poisoning, falls, etc.), stroke, chronic lower respiratory diseases, Alzheimer disease, diabetes, influenza, and pneumonia.

My advice to Maher? Leave the heavy-lifting, fact-based, intellectual stuff to the folks putting in the "real time" over at Real Time to make the show happen and just enjoy being better than all of us. Because it seems like when you go off script, people can get hurt thinking you know what you're talking about. Because based on what we're seeing above? It doesn't seem like you do.

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