Bill Maher made his first appearance on The Jay Leno Show.
Maher was frequently Leno's guest on The Tonight Show, so I expected the same old, same old. Maher was true to form, as offensive as ever; but Leno was different.
Leno no longer pretends to be politically neutral. He is out as a Leftist.
Video here.
Before Maher got into the vitriol, Maher did a few "New Rules," a segment he does on his HBO show, Real Time with Bill Maher.
I thought this one was actually kind of funny.
BILL MAHER: New Rule: Critics must stop saying that Jay Leno's new show is too much like his old one. What did they think the new show was gonna be? Jay and Kevin Eubanks move to a small fishing village and solve mysteries?
After that, they went right into health care.
I'm still not used to the interview set, two chairs without the desk. Leno looks so uncomfortable. He fidgets. It's distracting.
Anyway, on health care, Leno left no doubt where he stands.
Transcript
JAY LENO: Well, you know, it's like I keep hearing this talk about death panels. People use the word "death panel." But, you know, we've had death panels...
BILL MAHER: That's Sarah Palin. Wait a second...
LENO: Yes. True.
MAHER: Sarah Palin is the one who brought up death panel... And you know what, Sarah Palin? I got news for you, honey. If we were gonna get rid of useless people, you would be the first to know.
(Cheers, applause)
Can Maher ever speak without saying something derogatory about Sarah Palin?
LENO: But let me ask you something... We have had death panels for years. They're called insurance companies.
MAHER: Right. Exactly.
LENO: But everybody knows, everybody knows someone who was told your grandmother's not getting this kidney because it was too expensive, or you're not in this plan.
MAHER: Right.
LENO: So, I know the death panels is a phony... it, it, it's just wordplay. But people act like this hasn't existed. Insurance companies have been turning down people for years and years.
MAHER: I'm glad to hear you say that, Jay...
LENO: Yeah.
MAHER: ...the exemplar of Middle America, because I think, you know, a lot of people don't... a lot people are fighting health care who need health care. If you voted for a guy who wouldn't give you health care as opposed to one who would, you should have your head examined, except you can't afford to have your head examined because you don't have health care.
LENO: See, this is where... See, to me, President Obama...
MAHER: Who?
LENO: President Obama... I mean, a great communicator, a man who's able to communicate his ideas good enough to get elected, I don't understand why they can't explain what this is. I heard a guy, legitimately, on the news saying, 'I don't want the government touching my Medicare.' Well, what do you think Medicare is?
(Laughter)
But I don't think most Americans even understand this, and I don't know whether the president's not explaining it properly, like the one payer option... What is, what is the phrase?
MAHER: Single payer.
LENO: Single payer.
MAHER: Right. Horrible, horrible. Because people when they hear single payer they think that's me. I'm the single... It's the government.
LENO: Right.
MAHER: You know, what they should have said is 'Medicare for all.'
LENO: Right.
It was really strange for Leno to do so much of the talking. Usually, Maher is basically doing a monologue and Leno just laughs and nods and feeds him questions.
It seemed like Leno was bent on "educating" his audience.
I think Leno's suggestion that the American people don't understand what Obama's health care overhaul is about is an insult.
When seniors express concern about the Obama government messing with their Medicare, that doesn't mean they don't understand it's a government program.
Leno is the confused one.
I really don't care for the lib version of Leno.
MAHER: But the Democrats are horrible at that. That's to this day, they're not good. I mean, you mentioned death panel, they changed the phrase 'estate tax,' which is a great tax. I mean, you have to tax something. This is a tax on rich, dead people. These are the perfect people to tax.
(Laughter)
One, they don't have any need for money on account of that whole being dead thing.
(Laughter)
LENO: Right. But they're working on a plan to take it with you. I don't know if you know this stuff.
MAHER: Right. You know, what? There's going to be no incentive to croak? It's ridiculous. But, but you know, 'estate tax,' it effects like literally .2 percent of the people, people literally with estates, otherwise known as 'not you.' But the Republicans changed 'estate tax' to 'death tax.'
LENO: Right, so it sounds like...
MAHER: And people were like, 'Oh, death. That could happen to me.'
That's old material. I've heard Maher do his 'death tax' shtick before.
That class warfare stuff is crap.
Moreover, Dems are the masters at wordplay, not Republicans. Killing a baby is a 'choice.' People in the country ILLEGALLY are 'undocumented workers.' The list goes on and on.
LENO: Well, has President Obama been on TV too much lately? I mean, I...
MAHER: Well...
LENO: I saw him on Man vs. Wild just the other day. So, I think that's one too many.
MAHER: Yes, I mean, but he has to sell what he's selling. I mean, you know, this is the kind of country where you have to plug your stuff. I'm gonna plug some stuff here, right?
LENO: Right.
MAHER: I think, but yes, I think he's too concerned with being popular. That's, you know, I think presidents go through this in the first year of office. They want everybody to love them, and they have to learn the hard way not everybody can be into you. The Republicans are just not into you, dude.
LENO: It's like your dad. Your dad is not your friend. He's your dad.
MAHER: Exactly. And I see him do things that I know are not who Barack Obama really is. I don't think he's a guy who really eats that many hamburgers, but he's always trying to like show you he's a regular guy. He goes out to lunch with Joe Biden.
I must say this about George Bush: He had horrible ideas that hurt this country, like deregulation, and giving all the money to rich people, and preemptive war, but at least he didn't try to be popular. And that worked out pretty well.
(Laughter, applause)
LENO: Yeah, yeah.
MAHER: But he never felt the need to be seen having a hamburger. If he wanted a hamburger, he'd call up, he'd say, 'I'm the president. Get me a hamburger.' And the guy on the other end of the line would say, 'Sir, this is NORAD. Stop ordering burgers. It's the red phone." And he would hang up.
Again, old material.
George Bush is gone. That era is over. It's so boring when Maher and Leno keep yapping about Bush, so terribly unoriginal.
After the first part of the interview, Leno and Maher did the "Earn Your Plug" segment.
They read the actual e-mails of Mark Foley and Mark Sanford.
Maher said about Sanford's messages, "Those e-mails that he wrote, they gave women a boner."
Is that really appropriate on prime time TV?
Maher also stressed that the e-mails were from "Republicans, of course."
Video of "Earn your Plug."
Leno is not the exemplar of Middle America.
If he ever was, the prime time incarnation of Leno certainly is not.
No comments:
Post a Comment