This week, an event that its host noted only comes around once every seven years had its moment in the spotlight. Real Time With Bill Maher aired on Valentine’s Day, which gave Maher a reason to riff on people dating AI, the appeal of OnlyFans and — as always — the state of the world.
Up first this week was Kid Rock, arguably one of the highest-profile musicians currently supporting the Trump administration. Given that Maher had referred to the Trump administration’s penchant for “[dissecting] a frog with a hand grenade” in the episode, one might guess that things would get heated between the two — perhaps akin to the 2022 moment when Maher criticized David Mamet for something Mamet had written about the 2020 election.
While the two men did discuss politics for much of their conversation, their tone was relatively amicable. Still, Maher wasn’t exactly shy about why he didn’t much feel like seeing his guest in concert these days. “Once you became Bob Seger, all those albums — I fucking love ‘em,” Maher said. “But I don’t want to go to a Trump rally. I would love to see a concert of yours, but it’s also a Trump rally. Why does it have to be both?”
Kid Rock was there to promote a number of tours, as well as the forthcoming Kid Rock’s Rock N’ Roll Rodeo. (Maher asked his guest if this event involved “your music combined with torturing animals.”) Kid Rock also looked back on his own time performing at the Super Bowl halftime show in 2004, something that he noted was overshadowed by something else that happened that night.
Maher and Kid Rock’s conversation turned to Kendrick Lamar’s halftime set this year. Kid Rock argued that Colin Kapernick’s protests against police brutality were at the root of Lamar’s being asked to perform — he didn’t really expand on the logic of this — and seemed to appreciate the spirit with which Lamar delivered his set without necessarily being too fond of the actual music. Maher would return to Lamar’s performance (and feud with Drake) later in the episode, quipping that “Frank Sinatra made 1,400 records and not one was hating on Tony Bennett.”
Maher’s facial expression throughout much of his conversation with Kid Rock seemed skeptical. He also brought up President Trump’s penchant for suggesting he could run for a third term and asked his guest if he’d still support Trump if he did so.
“I haven’t heard that,” Kid Rock said.
Maher seemed unconvinced. “You haven’t heard that?” he replied. “He does it all the time.” Maher also seemed less than convinced by Kid Rock’s response: “He likes to joke.”
Kid Rock did close out the conversation by bringing up a less partisan subject: his frustration with the current system of concert ticket sales. “If [Ticketmaster] got broken up, I wouldn’t shed a tear,” he said — but also argued that the government needed to do more to enforce its existing laws against ticket profiteering. (How that might mesh with the administration’s ongoing attempts to lay off numerous federal workers was not a subject either man brought up.)
Former U.S. Representative Tim Ryan and writer Pamela Paul took to the stage for the night’s panel discussion. The Super Bowl came up here as well, with Maher bringing up Nike’s commercial spotlighting female athletes. He argued that it invoked a “zombie lie,” eventually returning to another pop culture moment that had drawn his ire in the past.
In other words, Maher brought up his Barbie take again. Very quickly: one of his criticisms of the film is that the Mattel corporate board is not, in real life, the all-male affair portrayed in the film. Given that the film also involves the ghost of Barbie creator Ruth Handler having an office at Mattel, I’m not sure anyone who watched Barbie thought, “Yes, clearly this is a realistic depiction of corporate life at Mattel blending documentary techniques and fiction in the style and manner of Nomadland.”
The episode’s panel closed with Maher, Ryan and Paul reacting to the Trump administration’s attempts to, essentially, deny the existence of transgender people. All three of them opposed the current administration’s rhetoric, but both Maher and Paul also doubled down on some of their past positions regarding trans issues, including Paul’s defense of J.K. Rowling.
That, in turn, led Ryan to pivot to his frustrations with the Democratic Party’s decisions regarding primaries and debates. This all concluded with a brief discussion of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and his place in the Democratic Party, something that’s been the subject of interesting discussions elsewhere — but which didn’t get much airtime here. Unfortunately, that was indicative of much of the episode, which hinted at memorable debates but instead revisited familiar ground.
The Real Super Bowl Winner? Kendrick Lamar’s Flared Jeans.
Spoiler alert: they’re Celine. And $1,300.Other notable moments from this week’s episode:
- Maher, introducing one of his guests: “The casually dressed Tim Ryan, now that he’s out of Congress.”
- Paul on recent moves from the Trump administration: “Pennies and plastic straws might be the two glimpses of light so far.”
- Maher, invoking the holiday: “Where are my bitter people?” (Based on the applause that followed, a lot of them were in the studio audience.)
- Real Time is off next week, returning on February 28.
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