The backlash hasn’t made Drew Barrymore rethink her decision to bring back The Drew Barrymore Show during the Writers Guild of America strike. But maybe Bill Maher doing the same thing with Real Time will.
Maher revealed on Wednesday that Real Time is coming back, “sans writers or writing.” He wrote on X, “It has been five months, and it is time to bring people back to work. The writers have important issues that I sympathize with, and hope they are addressed to their satisfaction, but they are not the only people with issues, problems, and concerns.” Maher admitted that the writers-less version of the HBO series “will not be as good as our normal show, full stop,” but “the heart of the show is an off-the-cuff panel discussion that aims to cut through the bullsh*t and predictable partisanship, and that will continue.”
It sounds like this version of Real Time will be pure, uncut Maher, who Norm MacDonald once memorably called “maybe the unfunniest person I’ve ever encountered.” That comes from a 2015 Hollywood Reporter interview with the late, great comedian, which was resurfaced by writer Sean O’Connor after Maher stopped talking about masturbation long enough to criticize the “kooky” demands of the striking writers. Here are his full comments on Maher:
“I find him completely unfunny. Like, maybe the unfunniest person I’ve ever encountered that’s called a comedian. I like his show because of the arguing back and forth, and he knows a lot about politics. But the worst is when he forces you to sit on the panel while he does his New Rules, which are just a bunch of jokes. And you have to sit there, a foot from the dude with a camera in your face. You’d think he would just excuse them, but no, you have to sit there and watch.”
God I miss Norm.
Norm MacDonald on Bill Maher. https://t.co/7CYmfqa2IM pic.twitter.com/LY6TgDxkIQ
— Sean O’Connor (@seanoconnz) September 7, 2023
(Via the Hollywood Reporter)