Bill Maher didn’t bring up the specifics of this weekend’s Super Bowl much on the latest Real Time, but other elements of the game came up across the episode. This included the controversy over Bad Bunny’s halftime performance, prompting Maher to say, “This is how divided this country is: we can’t even have a halftime show we agree on” in his opening monologue.
A different musician turned up as Maher’s first guest: John Mellencamp, who is in the rare group of people who can gently rib Maher to his face. (“You used to be a comedian, right?” Mellancamp said.)
The conversation got interesting when it turned to aging. Maher recalled taking a photo with Mellancamp a decade ago, looking at it, and thinking, “Who are these two old fucks?” Maher then brought up his recent 70th birthday, saying, “Any time you’re 70 and the headline isn’t ‘He Succumbed To’…”
Mellencamp is set to go on the road for a greatest hits tour. Maher asked him what, specifically, that involved: “I just thought every song was a hit when I saw you.” Apparently, Mellencamp has 46 records that could be considered “hits,” and the total running time of the concerts will be around two and a half hours. He also shared his memories of the music industry, including that an early version of “Jack & Diane” featured an interracial relationship. (“Jack was Black.”)
Apparently Mellencamp’s upcoming tour isn’t his only onstage project in the near future; a musical featuring his songs, Small Town, is set to make its onstage debut later this year in Maine.
Maher asked him about what it meant to revisit lyrics that he’d written as a young man decades later — specifically, “Life goes on long after the thrill of living is gone.” “I’m not that smart,” Mellencamp replied — and went on to explain that he often had ideas for songs at inopportune times. “I don’t know what half the songs I’ve written are about,” he confessed — though that wasn’t a result of hard living.
“I haven’t done drugs since 1971,” he said.“Would you like to start?” Maher asked.After the interview ended, Mellencamp walked over to the panel to greet Chris Christie and Chrystia Freeland, both there to talk about the week in politics. Apparently, it was a first for Real Time.
Maher argued that Trump’s call to “nationalize elections” was the biggest story of the past week, but wanted to open with the Epstein files. He then pointed out that Christie wasn’t in the list. Christie recalled that his wife asked him, “How aren’t you in there?”
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Because the Big Game deserves better than a Bud LightMaher then returned to an observation he’s made before about Epstein: “If there’s a guy who has a lot of money and you don’t know where the money comes from? He’s a pimp.” He also admitted to being surprised at how brazen some of the comments made in the emails were. “The arrogance of not even trying to hide it in the emails — that’s what got me,” he said. And he also spoke about his frustration at some of the names cited in the emails who hold themselves as moral authorities elsewhere, including Noam Chomsky and Deepak Chopra.
Later in the panel segment, there was an interesting discussion of the U.S. and Canada’s relationships with Indigenous people. Having a former Deputy Prime Minister of the latter nation there, who could expand on government policies, made for a more in-depth exploration of the issue than expected.
Closing out the night, Maher returned to the Super Bowl for an exploration of how gambling has spread across the U.S. over the last century. He pointed out that he wasn’t in favor of banning it: “Gambling also ruins lives. Still: gotta be your choice.” Though it would have been interesting to hear what Christie thought, given his advocacy for sports betting and his work with DraftKings. (Though it’s of note that Christie recently spoke out against prediction markets.)
Maher reserved some scorn for the idea of riverboat gambling becoming legalized: “Gambling is a scourge of society, but when you do it on an old-timey boat with a steam paddle, it’s fine.” But he also got to a bigger issue, and one that struck a chilling note. “Is this what we’re doing now instead of having an actual economy?” he said.
Some other notable moments from this week’s episode:
- Am I seeing things, or has Maher been wearing a smart ring this season?
- Maher on celebrities denying their ties to Jeffrey Epstein: “It’s like Epstein Island is Hooters and the entire power structure of the world is saying, ‘Yeah, I was just there for the wings.’”
- Maher on Bridgerton-themed body wash: “They must get real about what people actually smelled like in 1813.”
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