History Series / RealTimeWithBillMaher

* ArtisticLicenseHistory: He dismissed the controversy about refering to the [[UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic coronavirus]] as the "Chinese virus", which was accused by some of being racist, as Political Correctness, 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.

* DarkerAndEdgier: In a final segment, Bill criticizes the trend of dark and series {{Reboot}}s of formerly comedic works such as ''Series/BelAir'', pitching remakes of shows like ''Series/DiffrentStrokes'' ("A tiny manchild is snatched from the only home he ever knew by a strange, wifeless, white millionaire. What does he want? Find out on ''Strokes''.") and ''Series/TheRealHousewives'' (''The Real Housewives of the 101 Freeway Underpass'')

* LaughingAtYourOwnJokes: Bill Maher does it as well, though you get the impression that they're not actually ''his'' jokes, but those of his writers, which he seems to be learning for the first time from the teleprompter.

A late night {{political program|mes}} that airs on Creator/{{HBO}} since 2003, hosted by comedian and political satirist Creator/BillMaher.

# The show ends with a five-or-so-minute segment called New Rules, where Maher monologues on issues, with a picture and text caption to describe the issue. New Rules concludes by seguing into a longer and more serious statement on a topical issue.

The show is taped and broadcast live, as evidenced by its name.

** Bill Maher himself has this criticism of a segment of the left that he considers extreme, especially on issues regarding {{political correctness|GoneMad}}. Maher is a lifelong card-carrying Democrat, but is a free speech advocate who thinks that the SoapBoxSadie stereotype turns ordinary people off and makes them vote Republican instead.

* PoliticalCorrectnessGoneMad: One of Maher's primary critiques of fellow liberals are those that try to police humor and language, regarding it as a distraction from real issues and contributing nothing but stifling debate as a whole.

* PresidentSuperhero: Mocked by Maher in his "New Rules" segment where he bemoaned the glut of superhero-themed movies and television series, not just for most of them being StrictlyFormula, but because it instills a mindset that TheOnlyOne can do the job. He then portrayed Donald Trump's presidency as the story of a superhero named [[AtrociousAlias "Orange Sphincter"]].

* YouKeepUsingThatWord: Maher's editorial of October 2021 was a rant against people from his own side (i.e. leftwingers) continually redefining words such as "hate", "victim", "hero", "shame", "violence", "survivor", "phobic", and "white supremacy" in an attempt to [[IRejectYourReality rewrite reality]].

* AtLeastIAdmitIt: Adam Schiff characterized Russian politicians' attitude toward America this way during his interview with Bill, noting that much of President Donald Trump's own rhetoric about Russia (esp. Trump's "is Putin a killer?" interview with Bill O'Reilly) has only further invited the NotSoDifferent comparison:

* HollywoodAtheist: Maher can be thought of as one (generally due to his {{documentary}} ''Film/{{Religulous}}'' and his statements that religious belief is a neurological disorder), but is an [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apatheism apatheist]], which technically speaking, would place him more towards "hard agnosticism" than full on atheism. Though in recent years, he’d refer to himself as an atheist.

* HollywoodAtheist: Maher can be thought of as one (generally due to his {{documentary}} ''Film/{{Religulous}}'' and his statements that religious belief is a neurological disorder), but is an [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apatheism apatheist]]. Technically speaking, this would place him more towards "hard agnosticism" than full on atheism. Though in recent years, he’d refer to himself as an atheist.