Bill Maher

It's almost like Comedy Central is the Teflon Channel. Everyone is afraid to criticize anything on it for fear of not appearing hip.

 

I usually enjoy Maher. Colbert's style wore thin pretty quickly with me. I don't have a problem admitting both.

 

Can't say anything too bad about Maher, he's probably the most famous person from my home town.

On the plus side, he did spark the Bush Administration's "Watch what you say..." quote. He's not appointment TV, though.

I disagree that he and Colbert are comparable, except they both have a willingness to speak truth to power (one through satire, one through snark). Plus, there's an absurdist streak to Colbert's humor I enjoy.

 

You've intrigued me, shotty. Can you elaborate?

For the record, I'm sincere in my curiousity, and I like both Maher and Colbert, but don't see the connection you apparently do.

 

Well, I'm not necessarily talking politics, Zeke. I'm talking more about the smarminess, the delivery. They are the same type of comedian; both are pretty sure they're talking over our heads, and they like it. One might put Dennis Miller in the same group.

 

Except that Colbert is playing a character, a satirical mockery of the Bill O'Reillys of the world.

Maher is pretty straightforward. And doesn't use the esoteric references of Miller, although he cannot mask his contempt for certain conventional viewpoints.

I guess what I'm saying is, if Maher comes across as smarmy, I don't think that's his intention. With Colbert, it absolutely is.

 

I would submit, Zeke, that when one doesn't intend to come across as smarmy and still does, it means he's naturally smarmy. To me, that's even worse.

 

I don't necessarily disagree with that. We could debate how much of Maher and Miller's smarminess is schtick, but I think both likely come across as smarmy because both probably are a bit smarmy in real life.

Colbert is 100 percent playing a character. What he's like in real life, I have no idea, but there can be no doubt that his entire show is schtick.

That's the point I was making. While Bill Maher obviously plays a character named Bill Maher, he would say he's mostly being himself. Colbert is openly playing a character, and we have no idea if any of his personality enters in or not.

That's the beauty of Colbert's show. Where even Stewart will giggle and tell little asides in what we assume to be his actual persona, Colbert never breaks character. Which is, in and of itself, a tremendous feat.