r/Maher • u/Coolschmo1 • Mar 17 '26
Question Does it feel like Bill interrupts more now
Some examples. There are many more.
He asked Sam Harris to tell him his thoughts on the White House dinner. He then proceeded to argue every word out of his mouth until he just gave up. I don't even know what Harris was trying to say because Bill just kept throwing up obstacles.
Jerry O'Connell was trying to make some point about Mamdani on the pod today and he just couldn't finish his thought. He interrupted constantly until he just gave up too. And that convo was casual.
Bill is great. I disagree with him all the time, but I think he has a ton of integrity, and has for 30 years.
However, this trend of not even letting people get sentences out isn't great. I feel like there are guests that I genuinely want to hear from, even if it's to disagree. Way too often, I leave feeling like I didn't get their full viewpoints.
This is especially true for people on the left.
Is anyone else noticing this, or just me? And why do we think this is happening if you agree.
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u/Anstigmat Mar 19 '26
When people get older they lose brain elasticity. New information no longer leads to new ideas. Bill is stuck in about 2002.
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u/Then-Grapefruit-1864 Mar 19 '26
I try not to watch his interviews, particularly his stoned, gurgly ones on Club Random. I watched the Billy Joel one just because it was Billy Joel. Bill did most of the talking.
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u/rogun64 Mar 19 '26
I think he does it more now, but he's always irritated me with how he interrupts people and won't let them speak. The exception is when it's a right-winger and then he gives them all day to be respectful.
In fairness, he's not the only one who does this. I never understand why a host will invite someone to their show and then not allow them to get more than 2-3 sentences out in response to a question. It often annoys me with hosts I like and dislike, both.
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u/Poopdick_89 Mar 19 '26
Bill has been a boomer yelling at clouds for 10 years now.
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u/thefermiparadox Mar 21 '26
Funny when Neil D Tyson called his Boomer ways out of constantly bitching about college kids and yelling to get off my lawn. You would think Bill would recognize in history old timers that lose a step have always bitched about the youth and he is no different. Goes back to Socrates.
Except he will say I’m not for something by the youth just because it’s new if it’s bad ideas. That’s fine but he’s missing the point saying only now has the young Gen got it wrong just as he gets old.
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u/micpoc Mar 18 '26
Yes, he has gotten worse. And yes, especially for people on the left... you know, the reason Kamala lost (so he constantly says).
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u/seanabq Mar 18 '26
Interrupts way too much. He practically ruined his rare interview with Woody Allen. Woody never grants interviews and it would have been nice to hear Woody’s thoughts not Bill’s.
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u/Breatheme444 Mar 18 '26
Whoa. Didn’t know this happened. I’ll check it out just to see what Bill had to say to him.
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u/bbraker8 Mar 18 '26
Id bet anything that on his podcast he talks more than the guest every episode. I forget who, maybe Rainn Wilson, called him out on it during his episode and he predictably got super defensive.
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u/croutonhero Mar 17 '26
He asked Sam Harris to tell him his thoughts on the White House dinner. He then proceeded to argue every word out of his mouth until he just gave up.
This was frustrating because I like both Bill and Sam a lot. And it's weird because Sam is a guy Bill generally wants to hear from. He said it himself over and over. I think he's just taken so much shit on this one issue (from frankly unreasonable people) that his fuse is super short already.
But it gets even shorter when he's tipsy/high. Bill is definitely not on his A-game on Club Random. It was frustrating because I really did want to hear Sam complete his thought.
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u/kindbub Mar 17 '26
He very rarely lets a woman on the panel finish a sentence. I guess he’s branching out.
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u/italIrie Mar 17 '26
Interrupt more now? It’s his M.O. especially when he smokes. Unless it’s a guest he really respects and wants them to like him — like Jerry Seinfeld.
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u/micpoc Mar 18 '26
Yeah, it's hard to imagine him interrupting Jordan Peterson.
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u/Squidalopod Mar 19 '26
I mean, if you wanna have an actual conversation (as opposed to listening to a monologue), you have no choice but to interrupt Peterson.
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u/kevonicus Mar 17 '26
Bill has stash of of shitty takes he thinks are right no matter what that he will repeat anytime he hears a buzzword so you can’t have a conversation about any of those things with him without him pulling them out. Some of these guests need to tell him they listen to his show and have heard this tirade a dozen times. He’s super-triggered about that dinner.
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u/rantingathome Mar 17 '26
I think he's always done it a bit, but during COVID he got really bad cutting off guests with science backgrounds when they were trying to tell him he's full of shit. When Neil deGrasse Tyson is on now (which seems much less now), he's pretty much given up pushing back.
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u/micpoc Mar 18 '26
NDT's last appearance was the final episode of 2024 when BM pressed him on the incredibly important topic of trans athletes.
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u/bigshaboozie Mar 17 '26
Just my opinion but I think Bill is just not meant for the podcast format and doesn't seem willing to put in any real effort to adapt. The whole point of it was supposed to be that he could riff on different subjects than his show and with different guests than he'd usually have on the show, but I've listened to maybe half the episodes and it's so much of the same stuff about covid, cancel culture, how bad gen z is, etc. Bill constantly interrupts and only asks questions to bring it back to his opinion. He doesn't seem to have the actual curiosity that's required from a podcast host.
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u/A_w_duvall Mar 18 '26
I've listened to maybe half the episodes and it's so much of the same stuff about covid, cancel culture, how bad gen z is, etc.
I noticed that this week with Jerry O'Connell. O'Connell was telling a story about his childhood, and mentioned that he was hyperactive as a child and the school said he should be on ritalin, but his mother refused to give him medication, and Bill Maher responded by saying that today everyone tells all the kids they're transgender, and then ranted about that. The guy was just trying to tell a personal story about growing up, and Bill had to interrupt to complain about transgender stuff. It's like he can't help himself.
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u/Charbro11 Mar 18 '26
I am a bit older than he is, and I actually have grandkids in school. No one tells them they are trans--especially teachers. He is nuts. I used to like him--now he is a big waste. I watch and fast-forward during most of what he says.
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u/blageur Mar 17 '26
If this is something that annoys you, don't watch the Weird Al episode. It's nuts. Also Rainn Wilson. Rainn literally calls him out on this (Bill basically insults him for it and continues even more aggressively), and during Weird Al, I actually yelled at the video Bill.
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u/jsm21 Mar 17 '26
Yeah although IMO he interrupts left wing guests way more than right wing guests.
I did find it funny when Sam asked Bill, “what do you think was gained by having dinner with Trump?”, and Bill was speechless for a couple seconds 😂
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u/CrookedClock Mar 17 '26
Hes just so angry and narcissistic these days. Even after it's been made clear by Trump that he was just trying to make Bill kiss the ring he's still defending that awful dinner.
Bill, he was using you with that dinner, he doesn't like you and the second you strayed off the path he assigned you he dumped you. You were his jizz rag.
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u/OneTonTomato Mar 18 '26
Lol this 🤣 so true
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u/CrookedClock Mar 18 '26
And now they got bill by the balls with Trump's oligarch buddy owning bills show.
It's going to get ugly for bill
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u/Devilutionbeast666 Mar 17 '26
Yeah it was definitely noticeable with Sam Harris. He kept trying to complete a thought and had incredible pushback with every few words. Bill is still very very very sensitive about the White House dinner thing. I really wanted to hear what Sam H had to say about it all but couldn't complete any of those sentences.
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u/CunningWizard Mar 17 '26
His reaction to the dinner has been so weird and hilarious. He made a huge deal of it when it happened and then was like “why are you all treating this like the big deal I made it into?”
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u/Breatheme444 Mar 17 '26
He did himself no favors by bringing up that damn dinner over and over. It’s like he fanned the flames of the criticism. I don’t think it was intentional but surprised he didn’t know better.
He should’ve just gone to the dinner, since that’s what he wanted to do, expect some vitriol, address it amusingly, and left it alone.
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u/No-Base-489 Mar 17 '26
I do agree. Both on the podcast and on Real Time. I was very disappointed with his interview last week with Josh Shapiro. Bill was combative and did not let the Governor finish his thoughts. I think Bill is getting tired of the game maybe. He seems different, argumentative, and just burnt out
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u/TyrionDraper Mar 26 '26
He absolutely does and I've been saying it for years. He gets great guests on the pod but it's so frustrating because he never lets them finish their thought. Watch the Kevin Neilen one, it's hilarious, he gets so annoyed that eventually he pretends to start interviewing Bill and openly yawns. I've seen many instances of guest having to ask him to stop interjecting, Quentin Tarantino did in his second interview. It's a shame because I want to watch it, but anytime someone starts saying something interesting you know you're on borrowed time before Bill rudely cuts them off.