A Reminder That Humor Serves America the Best

For over the last century or so, Americans have been entertained (or annoyed) by the political humor of such notables as Mark Twain, Will Rogers, Lenny Bruce, and George Carlin. Carlin, of course, became edgier and more cynical as he became older.

 

There were others, for example, like Johnny Carson, Robin Williams, Richard Pryor, and a few others, but not like Carlin, et al.

But finally, we need to recognize that Bill Maher would be Carlin 2.0. He has been on TV, both with Politically Incorrect on ABC and Real Time on HBO. And has been successful.

He is an admitted, and unapologetic Democrat and Liberal, but not a looney, wacky leftist. He is a reasoned, humorous center-left, non-woke liberal, who has no tolerance for the extremists from either side of the political spectrum.

His friends include Kid Rock, who arranged the dinner meeting, Chris Cuomo and Joe Rogan. He has had conservative guests on his show, including Vivek Ramaswamy, Tulsi Gabbard, Byron Donalds and Ron DeSantis. He was as respectful and humorous with them, as he was with James Carville, Michael Moore and Pete Buttigieg.

So, on last night’s episode, he reported to his audience how his dinner at the White House with President Trump went.

He joked that his takeaways may cause “liberal sphincters” to tighten.

At the outset of HBO’s “Real Time with Bill Maher” on Friday, the eponymous host delivered a lengthy monologue about his meeting with the commander-in-chief that left him unexpectedly charmed.

“Everything I’ve not liked about him was, I swear to God, absent. At least on this night, with this guy,” Maher said, appearing somewhat shocked by his own conclusions.

“I never felt I had to walk on eggshells around him. And honestly, I voted for Clinton and Obama, but I would never feel comfortable talking to them the way I was able to talk with Donald Trump,” the talk show host said, adding, “Make of it what you will.”

Admitting that he went in with guns blazing, Maher described how he printed out a list of insults that Trump had hurled his way over the years, including barbs such as “sleaze-bag” and “low-life dummy”, to see if the President would autograph the digs.

Which Trump graciously did. He also received several MAGA hats but the President did not insist that he put one on.

To put a humorous spin on his visit, he said that while the President was gracious and kind, he would start a new list of insults for Trump to sign.

“A crazy person does not live in the White House. A person who plays a crazy person on TV a lot lives there. Which I know is f–ed up, it’s just not as f–ed up as I thought it was,” Maher said in summation.

Even Bill Maher admits you can’t fix the insanity and the stupid which exists on both the left and right.

But maybe, this recounting of his White House visit may go a long way to bring together the sane people on both sides of the political divide, yes?

Much like Twain, Rogers, Bruce and Carlin did.