SkimIt
The Soup's Joel McHale, Pulitzer-Prize winning historian Jon Meachem and the Vice-Chairwoman of the Democratic Party Donna Brazile join Bill and his other guests to discuss everything from the State of the Union to the state of the Catholic church - and why maybe Hillary or Oprah should be the next to wear the shoes of the fisherman.
Real Time with Bill Maher airs on HBO Fridays at 10:00 pm ET.
"What's next for Pope Benedict? What's he going to do, go on Dancing With the Stars?"
The resignation of Pope Benedict effective February 28 provided Bill with a great deal of material both in his opening monologue and later in the show. This included jokes about the Pope moving to a retirement apartment in a convent ("Believe me, he's not interested in the nuns") and to the question of where he's going to put all of his fabulous robes and shoes.
"George ain't white," says Robert Zimmerman of his Brother
"George ain't white and he'll never be white," Robert Zimmerman, the brother of accused Trayvon Martin killer George Zimmerman, told Bill in an interview at the start of the show. Appearing on the one-year anniversary of the incident in Florida in which his brother followed, fought and then fatally shot young, black Trayvon in his neighborhood, Robert Zimmerman acknowledged that "racism is complicated," and that he and his brother are not white, as they have been portrayed in the media, but "Americans" of "Afro-Peruvian lineage" on their mother's side. (Their father is of German ancestry.) Bill was sympathetic to Robert's position, but noted that his brother was carrying a concealed weapon and that "without the guns involved wouldn't this just be about a man who lost a fight?"
"I just don't think Democracy is working?" Bill tells his panel
Although "91 percent of those that watched had a positive reaction" to President Obama's State of the Union address this week, Bill griped to his panel, "all of this stuff is not getting through because the minority is still blocking it."
Pulitzer-Prize winning historian Jon Meachem, author of Thomas Jefferson and the Art of Power, agreed in part with Bill that Democracy is not working properly today. Meachem says that if he wants to get things done President Obama has "basically got to go over the Congress. That is the Jefferson, Jackson, Lincoln, FDR, Reagan model." Democratic Party Vice-Chairwoman Donna Brazile lamented that many Republicans seem "afraid" to be seen talking to let alone working with the President, while Jamie Weinstein, senior editor of the conservative Republican Daily Caller said this was because the President "demonized millionaires and billionaires."
Reality TV "A Virus" Admits The Soup's Joel McHale
Hailing The Soup's Joel McHale as "an expert on TV and culture," Bill enticed the star of Community to comment on the proliferation of reality shows. McHale acknowledged that television networks have gone to reality programs because they are so profitable, and that while there are a few good shows most are just part of a "virus" that has infected television. "The fact that there is a show about animal hoarding" supports that fact, as are a host of shows viewers watch only so they can say "Thank God, that's not me."
New Rules and Parting Shots (Literally): The Dirty Harry and David Catalog for Gun Lovers
"Guns and love were in the air this week," said Bill, and to mark that he and his staff had come up with a new twist on the popular Harry and David catalog. Among the offerings in this "Dirty Harry and David Catalog for Gun Lovers" are the "St. Valentine's Day Massacre Basket," the "Smith and Wesson Citrus Sampler" and the "Glocktoberfest Basket." His favorite, however, is the "Pistol Farm Sampler - guns and cheese; everything a Cracker could possibly want."
Bill rushed through a truncated version of his usual New Rules segment to allow time for an additional comment on the future of the Papacy, but not before joking how under the banner of "Hair Club for Groan," "Rand Paul must either admit he's wearing a toupee or explain why pubic hair is growing out of his head."
Although raised Catholic Bill is now an avowed atheist and has no love for that or any other organized religion. Among his many jabs at the church, the Vatican and Pope Benedict, who retires this month, is this one on who he thinks should takeover - and he is only half kidding: "This church needs a woman pope. Hillary Clinton just finished up her stint as secretary of state. Maybe Pope Hillary could clean up the church. If there's anyone who can handle a guy who can't keep his hands to himself, it's her. And if Hillary won’t do it, POprah? Jesus turned water into wine where she whines about retaining water."
Best Lines
"There's no better audience than a day after Valentine's audience. The women have new jewelry and the men just got laid." – Bill
"He looked like a mime stuck in a box, like the cover of Band on the Run." – Bill
"They won't even have a Merlot or a Nicorette with this President." – Donna Brazile
