History YMMV / RealTimeWithBillMaher

* TheScrappy: One of Bill's most frequent guests, economics writer Stephen Moore, is widely hated for being seen as a near-cartoonish conservative strawman. And yet he's one of Bill's closer friends. Funny how that works.

** Some liberals/left-wingers claim that he is unfair to them as well as Muslims. Others, however, say that his criticisms of these groups are valid and need to be said. A third camp says that he makes good points, but still focuses too much on these groups.

** In 2019, Bill discussed the differences between the parties, noting that, after a tumultuous election, Al Gore conceded for the good of the country, asking if Trump would do that. After the 2020 election, we learned the answer was a resounding ''no'', with Trump refusing to concede and then making baseless claims that the election was "stolen."

* UnfortunateImplications: Bill Maher's use of "the N-word" on his June 2nd, 2017 show was, as could have been predicted, met with [[https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/6/6/15739538/bill-maher-n-word-real-time-racism near]]-[[https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/tv/2017/06/05/al-franken-cancels-real-time-after-bill-maher-slur/102532600/ universal]] [[http://deadline.com/2017/06/bill-maher-backlash-grows-n-word-hbo-1202106964/ condemnation]], with some even calling for him to be fired. Maher, realizing what he'd just stepped in, promptly issued a rare (for him) apology, and after then-Senator Al Franken (D-MN) canceled his appearance on the show the following week, Maher [[AuthorsSavingThrow invited a panel made up of people of color]], including Professor Michael Eric Dyson, Music/IceCube, and activist Symone Sanders, and appeared to at least be remorseful on the episode.

* PeripheryDemographic: Despite being an outspoken Democrat, Maher has a surprising number of right-wing viewers, who appreciate his willingness to [[StopBeingStereotypical call out his own side]] from time to time and being by far the most moderate of the major late night comedy hosts.

** Some liberals/left-wingers claim that he is unfair to them as well as Muslims in general. Others, however, say that his criticisms of these groups are valid and need to be said. A third camp says that he makes good points, but still focuses too much on these groups.

** Some liberals/left-wingers claim that he is unfair to them as well as Muslim people in general. Others, however, say that his criticisms of these groups are valid and need to be said. A third camp says that he makes good points, but still focuses too much on these groups.

** Some liberals/left-wingers claim that he is unfair to them as well as Muslim people in general. Others, however, say that his criticisms are valid and need to be said. A third camp says that he makes good points, but still focuses too much on these groups.

** Some liberals/left-wingers claim that he is unfair to them as well as Muslim people in general. Others, however, say that his criticisms are valid and need to be said. A third camp claims that he makes good points, but still focuses too much on these groups.

** There are many liberals/left-wingers who find that he is unfair to them as well as Muslim people in general, so there is that. Many liberals/left-wingers find that he is a sell-out who only pragmatically sides with Democrats and the Democratic party because he hates Republicans more. It doesn't help that he was friends with George Carlin before he died, who was undeniably more liberal/left-wing than right-wing/conservative. Many of the George Carlin fans who used to like Bill Maher now hate him.

* BrokenBase: Many of Maher's fans heavily criticized his decision to have infamous troll and alt-right poster boy Milo Yiannopoulos as his interview guest for his February 17, 2017 show, saying that it gave him a national platform to spout "racist, transphobic, and homophobic" views. Other fans loyal to Bill defended his decision, saying that liberals would look like cowards if they refused to challenge opposing views. Maher defended his actions by arguing that "sunlight is the best disinfectant."
** There are many liberals/left-wingers who find that he is unfair to them as well as Muslim people in general, so there is that. Many liberals/left-wingers find that he is a sell-out who only pragmatically sides with Democrats and the Democratic party because he hates Republicans more.
** It doesn't help that he was friends with George Carlin before he died. Who was undeniably more liberal/left-wing then right-wing/conservative. Many of the George Carlin fans who used to like Bill Maher now hate him.

----

* CriticalResearchFailure:
** Maher defended ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' for being against religion, even though the creators of ''South Park'' are not. In fact, they made a [[Recap/SouthParkS10E12GoGodGo two-part]] [[Recap/SouthParkS10E13GoGodGoXII episode]] against this kind of mindset.
** He dismissed the controversy about Apu from ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' as the usual [[PoliticalCorrectnessGoneMad liberal sensitivity]] when the ''actual'' issue was South Asians like Hari Kondabolu (whose documentary kicked the controversy into high gear) tactfully explaining how the character made life hard for them despite still being fans and the show's flippant response simply being [[ValuesDissonance "It was OK years ago."]][[note]]In the documentary, Kondabolu was in fact shocked when he found out that Creator/KalPenn actually swore off from ever watching the show entirely because of Apu, with Kondabolu explained that he actually likes the show, he just doesn't like the portrayal of Apu.[[/note]]
** He dismissed the controversy about refering to the [[UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic coronavirus]] as the "Chinese virus", which was accused by some of being racist, as PoliticalCorrectnessGoneMad, saying that there has been a history of refering to pandemics after the places they originated, citing as an example UsefulNotes/TheSpanishFlu being called as such because it began in Spain. In fact, that pandemic did not actually originate in Spain. At the time, Spain was neutral in UsefulNotes/WorldWarI, so it simply reported on it more freely due to the lack of wartime censorship other countries imposed to maintain morale, creating the false impression that it was especially bad there, and the naming stuck; its actual place of origin remains disputed. There's also the fact that the World Health Organisation had actually established a guideline in 2015 specifically discouraging using geographical locations in disease and virus names to prevent social stigma, of which Maher seemed unaware.
** In [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UgInmHHO0m4&t=0s his segment]] about comic books and their fans, he claims that all superhero movies follow the same formula: "A person who doesn't have powers gets them, has to figure out how they work, and then has to find a glowy thing." His list of examples includes ''Film/IronMan1'' and ''Film/{{Doctor Strange|2016}}'', neither of which could be accurately described as following this formula: Tony doesn't get powers in ''Iron Man'', he invents a suit of PoweredArmor. Also, the conflict is not about "finding a glowy thing;" Tony invents the Arc Reactor, just as he did the suit, meaning that he doesn't have to "find" it. The conflict is about stopping it from being used for nefarious purposes. Similarly, the conflict in ''Doctor Strange'' is about stopping an interdimensional being from swallowing the universe. The "glowy thing" (The Eye of Agamotto) is literally just sitting on a pedestal in Kamar-Taj within Strange's reach. The plot does not revolve around finding it. Quite a few other movies listed like ''Film/JusticeLeague2017'' and ''Film/CaptainAmericaTheFirstAvenger'' also don't work as in Justice League the characters all already have their powers at the start of the movie and in Captain America, the conflict of the movie is for Steve Rogers to stop HYDRA from waging war against the Allies and Steve only finds the "glowy thing", the Tesseract, at the very end of the movie. ''Film/SpiderManHomecoming'' is also mentioned when Peter has his powers at the start as well and has already figured out how they work and the conflict is over Peter trying to stop illegal weapons of all types, not just the Chitauri energy core pictured as the "glowy thing", from being sold.
* FunnyAneurysmMoment:

** In March 2012, after the Trayvon Martin shooting, Bill did a New Rule criticizing President Obama and the Democratic party for not fighting for stronger and more sensible gun laws, saying "Stand Your Ground, guns in bars, guns in church, guns in the classroom... Where does it end? Why not guns in the delivery room? What if my fetus is armed and comes out firing?". In April 2013, Texas Congressman Steve Stockman said in all seriousness [[WhatAnIdiot "If babies had guns, they wouldn't be aborted."]].
** Arguably HilariousInHindsight, but in the aftermath of the September 2008 recession, Bill tells his guests he found footage of someone on his show [[CassandraTruth who saw it coming and tried to warn everyone]]. Who was it? Bill himself, in a 2005 episode.