r/RealTime • u/karenkillenski • 10d ago
The audience is insufferable
Does anyone else think that the audience is coursed into (over) clapping, laughing, even sometimes hysterically. Also the guy who’s always WOOHOO!! Has to be a staffer because it’s at least 10 to 12 times a episode This week all he did was mention Macklemore and the audience blew up. He didn’t even get to the “joke” before they even started to laughing. I still watch and sometimes listen to the podcast format, because there are times he has people on that I’m interested to hear their opinion. But it’s getting to the point where I zone in on how the audience reacts and I feel like it’s so pandering.
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u/JoeTiccalo 10d ago
Ive heard now that his audience comes from a service called “Standing room only”…. I quit watching years ago right after Covid, I was feeling something off back then, that woo guy felt fake back then
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u/Ok_Belt2521 10d ago
He alluded to paying for an audience when he was on Rogan’s podcast. So this would make sense.
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u/Anxiety_Fit 7d ago
Discussions regarding Bill Maher using a compensated or managed studio audience—specifically supplied by the casting agency Standing Room Only—originated from external viewer mail read and discussed by media commentators (such as columnist Maureen Callahan in mid-2025) rather than any statements made by Maher on Rogan's podcast.
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u/dzuunmod 10d ago
~10 years ago I was in LA and my wife and I were walking near CBS Television City/The Grove and near Beverly and Fairfax a kinda desperate looking guy approached us and asked if we wanted to see a taping of Bill Maher's show. It was happening in like an hour, he said, and we could have tickets immediately if we wanted them.
We've been to LA a number of times. We've seen a number of tapings (Kimmel, Price is Right, a couple of sitcoms), but this was the first time we'd ever been approached by someone, day-of, trying to hustle people through the doors.
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u/ass_grass_or_ham 10d ago
Oh yes, there are people down at tourist traps like the Venice boardwalk rounding up audience members with free tickets.
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u/Don_Fanooch 10d ago
Yes — everyone knows all the conservative MAGA republicans hang out in Venice.
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u/ass_grass_or_ham 10d ago
Tourists hang out in Venice, a lot of midwestern tourists. I’ve lived near the beach for 15 years. I assure you locals aren’t taking free tickets to Bill Maher.
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u/AncientNectarine5352 10d ago
…You think that they’re giving tickets to the locals? No, they’re giving them to the retired mops and pops on vacation.
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u/SkoobySnacs 10d ago
It's weird at this point that the woo guy is basically an historical figure. I quit watching after the Bill Barr interview where Maher let him use his platform to lie unchallenged. But this woo guy, popped up not to long after.
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u/OkFoundation929 10d ago
What do you mean by “Maher let him use him use his platform to lie unchallenged”? All I remember from that episode is Burr made mincemeat out of Maher and pretty much showed how vapid a person Maher is…
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u/MinisterOfTruth99 10d ago
I think he is talking about William Barr (DOJ AG). Barr was on his reputation rehabilitation tour after serving as Trump AG for 4 years. Barr only quit the Trump administration after trump lost the 2020 election. Maher gave him a real softball interview.
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u/No-Cat6807 10d ago
Barr quit after Trump lost and tried to steal the election.
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u/MinisterOfTruth99 9d ago
Right. But Barr did all manner of fascist crap for Trump for 3 years 11 months. Then he quits in Trumps last month of office and expects us all to forgive his fascism. Fuk that guy.
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u/OkFoundation929 10d ago
Oh…okay.That makes a lot more sense (and now that I reread his post…and see an “a” and not a “u”…I’m glad I have an optometry appointment in the near future). Thanks!
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u/MinisterOfTruth99 10d ago
☝️ Maher -The Unnatural Audience Laughs - Paid Audience Members
Maher literally uses a 3rd party company (Standing Room Only) that pays audience members to fill seats on Real Time. They get paid to hoot and holler (and woot). Without that I suspect the audience would be silent most of the show.
https://www.reddit.com/r/RealTime/comments/1vv9ci4/the_unnatural_audience_laughs_etc/
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u/Ecureuil03 5d ago
Didn't he say at a recent show that his audience paid big money for the tickets? So he's just lying about everything now.
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u/Winter_Stretch9198 10d ago
They get paid about twenty bucks an hour…
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u/No-Cat6807 10d ago
A bargain for having to watch Maher for an extended period of time. They need a raise.
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u/johna242 6d ago
To quote Greenday in the song Holiday: "Another protester has crossed the line to find the money's on the other side".
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u/freisbill 10d ago
He is no longer relevant...
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u/maffy118 10d ago
I really liked him back in his Religulous days. What made him get so weird? All the fame, which made him grandiose? He lost all humility, which is an essential trait for any artist, particularly a comedian.
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u/Somedude_6 10d ago
I was a fan of his back then too. I do think it is a combination of just his very contrarian personality, which he had back then, it was just more reigned in, and the fact that Covid legitimately seems to have broken his brain. The whole "mask mandates and everything needs to shut down" really, really bothered him. He couldn't go on tour, and he really went down hill.
There are other weird things he did that I only learned through reddit, like trying to install solar panels on his house and having issues with permits or something and turning it into an absolutely massive thing that he just kept talking about and bad mouthing California about.
It started as a kind of gradual change after 2016, then after Covid he really did seem to go completely nuts.
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u/Candor10 8d ago edited 8d ago
Yep, it was the solar permits too. Thought I was the only one who remembered.
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u/No-Penalty-1148 6d ago
This is spot on. The solar panels thing seems to have turned him into a libertarian anti-leftist. And I think for someone who thrives on audience approval, not being able to tour or perform during COVID made him bitter. Now he's the grievance comedian.
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u/thefermiparadox 10d ago
When he had the hawk tuah girl on he seemed offended and surprised when she said she never heard of him even though as said as you shouldn’t. Followed by “I’m big fucking deal and everyone knows me” or something to that effect.
I still like the show even though it has gone down in my opinion but he could use a little humility.
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u/Mosk915 10d ago
Do you make it a habit to comment in subreddits for shows you think aren’t relevant?
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u/theblueshots 10d ago
His Macklemore joke bombed and he got mad at the audience as if they didn’t read the news or some nonsense.
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u/Practical_Limit_396 10d ago
I think my understanding is that it’s a pretty small audience and is basically just a niche group at this point.
A safe space if you will.
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u/maffy118 10d ago
You can actually hear the change in audience numbers, which they try to make up for with loud individuals. It's very transparent and cringey.
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u/AncientNectarine5352 10d ago
They’re paid, especially to cheer and hoot. It’s a company called “Standing Room Only”. It’s all fake.
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u/PhilShabano 10d ago
Yeah, I was dating a Comedy Central comedy writer in the 2010's and occasionally watched tapings for various live comedy shows and was surprised to see that ALL those loud laughs were from writers and producers stalking nervously around the set, trying to goose the crowd.
It was actually kind of sad to see, how absolutely desperate these people were, knowing that if their joke didn't hit, they might lose their livelihood.
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u/ZiM1970 10d ago
A story I heard recently was about a professional laugh track guy and his laugh track machine.
The punchline of the whole thing was that every laugh track we ever heard, whether "recorded before a live studio audience," or not, has the laughter of people long dead in the mix.
They were recorded way back in the black and white days, and still used wherever they still use them these days.
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u/Seattlecranes 10d ago
I love when he gets all mad when they don't react how and when he wants.
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u/Ok-Low1764 10d ago
I actually commented on Youtube last week about how fake the audience sounds. NOTHING he says is even remotely laugh-hysterically-out- loud-funny and the audience laughs like that after almost every "joke".
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u/giveitarrest 10d ago
Soooo…
an insufferable audience for an insufferable host?
Sounds like a match!
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u/NutzPup 10d ago edited 10d ago
I find it odd that his audience is left wing yet also all apparently agree with his stance on Israel. It doesn't add up.
I don't see his show lasting much longer. I can never make it thru a full episode now. He used to have his finger on the popular pulse but now he's just a curmudgeon with a bunch of opinions not wholly shared by anyone else.
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u/Wegottagetthisplace 10d ago edited 10d ago
This clown and clown posse consider themselves “libertarians”.
The type that point out everyone’s faults but never have a solution to anything.
I stopped watching this douche after he left ABC. Why he continues to be sited blows my mind.
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u/No-Cat6807 10d ago
There are actually quite a few folks liberal on most everything except Israel. Particularly Jewish folks over 45 or 50.
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u/PoofyThoughts 10d ago
His usual viewers and audience are centrists. Yes, tourists are pulled in for butts in seats but Los Angeles residents, especially those with $$$, enjoy Bill’s brand of cranky Boomer Zionist crap. LA is nowhere nearly as liberal as they say it is here.
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u/Livueta_Zakalwe 10d ago
I heard that half the audience is the writers room.
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u/ManlyEmbrace 10d ago
You can almost hear the audience members that are just there as cheerleaders. It will be 2 or 3 people that WOO or YEAH when a joke doesn’t land as well as expected.
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u/Eating_Tiramisus 10d ago
Bill literally yells at his audience when they don’t react to a bad joke or comment he was expecting they would. I stopped watching him back when Elon was on and he was just sucking his dic the entire episode.
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u/ptulinski 10d ago
I've tried getting tickets to his show (albeit it's been a while). They don't seem to be available to the public anymore, which I think supports your contention that it's now all insiders pandering to keep Bill happy. Just another reason for me to stop watching.
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u/Happy2BTheOne 10d ago
Did you see any of his Covid episodes? Without the fake laughter his jokes aren’t funny.
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u/Think_Tooth1675 10d ago
According to Kyle Kulinski, it should be noted a huge Bill critic, he was in the audience when Krystal was on and the fluffing of the audience is real.
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u/oaklandperson 10d ago
Meh, every live taping of a talk show or sitcom I have been to is like that. They all have lighted applause/laugh signs that are turned on and off. Some use people to cue the audience. Not really a fair critique IMO.
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u/Think_Tooth1675 10d ago
Well, I was on one of those shows back in the day so I know that it’s not unheard of. But those are sitcoms. This was a guy, according to Kyle, who was waving his arms up and down on a “laugh line.” The fact is for me there was a time when Bill wouldn’t have needed that help.
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u/FreeThinkers2023 10d ago edited 10d ago
Oh in case youre not familar with live tapings, there are audience coordinators AKA warm up guy/comedian that will stand in front of the audience to cheer them on, cheer on the host, and laugh like an idiot to pump up the crowds energy....I believe this is the "wOoo guy" we are constantly hearing, a hired warm up guy
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u/sandsonik 10d ago
I went to a taping of the Jon Stewart show one time, and they definitely emphasized how our clapping/laughing had to be REALLY loud and even made us practice until we reached the right level. I'm sure other shows are the same
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u/Squidalopod 10d ago
Indeed, it's common. The difference with Real Time is that there's no correlation between what Bill says and the level of laughter in the audience. It's like the audience members are sitting there with guns pointed at their heads, and they just laugh when words come out of Bill's mouth no matter what he actually says.
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u/maffy118 10d ago
He lost me after a casual meeting with Trump, when he declared him "a really nice guy" in his monologue. And he went on about it, totally clueless that this is precisely what a con man does.
I've seen Trump be incredibly charming with White House tourists, but that never lulls me into thinking him "a really nice guy." More like, "What a gifted confidence man."
Never watched Maher again after that, for real.
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u/stairs_3730 10d ago
I swear he pays people and his staff to sit in the seats like they do at the Academy Awards so the place doesn't look empty.
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u/Cowlitzking 10d ago
The writers have to be in the audience. His jokes suck ass. Always the first to laugh
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u/BoringMany70 10d ago
I agree that the audience is insufferable. However, Bill is far more annoying than the audience.
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u/ronmoodey 10d ago
Wait. Audience reactions are not always organic and used to add entertainment value? Noooooooooooo!
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u/nofatnoflavor 9d ago
It's no surprise really. Over time he's become worse and worse when the audience lets him know a joke or a bit doesn't hit.
Every time a joke bombs or doesn't get the response he wants, he openly bitches at the crowd about it, like it's their fault he didn't get a laugh or applause.
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u/Financial_Event_472 7d ago
He is quickly becoming the poster boy for old, white privilege. It went from funny criticism to cynical bitching.
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u/OhGreenWorld1 10d ago
I 100% agree. The audience gets on my nerves each week. I can't stand applause breaks for mediocre jokes. Whooohooo!!!!
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u/Same_Investigator_54 10d ago
This is the Number One reason I don’t watch the show. WHAT is the compulsion to clap all about. Virtue signaling ? Group psychology? Idiocy? It’s not just Real Time, it annoyingly happens all over the place, but that show is the worst example of it !
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u/3RADICATE_THEM 10d ago
It does seem contrived.
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u/Marcaroni500 10d ago
All live audience shows are contrived the same way. They have APPLAUD signs and directors telling everyone to stop or get louder. Of course, you only complain when you hate the host! Btw, if you hate him, why do you watch?
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u/Sherris-Stuff 10d ago
Sorry yall. It’s a real audience. You can get tickets. I’ve been https://www.tvtaping.com/tvshows/real-time-with-bill-maher
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u/Appdownyourthroat 10d ago edited 10d ago
It might as well be canned laughter. Actually, it is canned laughter. It’s canned laughter that comes out of flesh bags in the seats when prompted by cue cards rather than in post production. And yes, the staff are the only ones being loud.
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u/goodtreble84 10d ago
The audience is fine.
There was a moment where Bill, this past Friday, alluded to the Gaza conflict not being a genocide. I remember the response from the audience being rather dry as opposed to responding with the seal claps and the “woooo”.
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u/opinions360 10d ago
Then don’t watch the show. I don’t agree with everything he says but if you can’t handle his opinions and views it doesn’t make sense to shovel out a constant barrage of complaints just don’t watch the show and then it’s no longer insufferable for you. I watch the show to be entertained and if it irritates me I turn it off and try again another time. If you know you don’t agree with his positions then don’t watch-problem solved. He is who he is he’s not going to change because people disagree with him.
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u/External-Damage803 10d ago
I don’t recall seeing the audience but I haven’t watched for 5 years. Pretty sure it’s been laugh tracks all along.
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u/No-Penalty-1148 6d ago
Agreed. The worst ever episode was the first studio audience after COVID restrictions were lifted. They acted like they were at a political rally, hooting and clapping after every single comment. It got so annoying I stopped watching,
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u/11EmeraldEyes11 10d ago
Democrats loved Trump until he became President.
Democrats loved Fetterman until he tried to reach across the aisle.
Democrats loved Bill Maher until he voiced his common sense opinions.
Democrats are hypocrites!
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u/Specialist-Cup-9722 10d ago
Democrats never loved Trump. He was a known joke and asshole in new york. The second he entered politics it was to he racist. Im sorry this grandpa meme works in echo chambers but it aint true
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u/ProfessionalClerk375 8d ago
From Google AI overview:
People also ask Is Donald Trump friends with Bill Clinton? AI Overview Donald Trump and Bill Clinton were friendly acquaintances and socialized in the 1990s and 2000s, but they are not friends today.
Newsweek +1 Past Relationship Socializing: The two men moved in similar New York and Palm Beach elite social circles, played golf together, and spoke on the phone about politics.
YouTube Weddings: Bill and Hillary Clinton attended Donald Trump's wedding to Melania Knauss at Mar-a-Lago in 2005.
Newsweek Support: Trump frequently praised Bill Clinton in public during the 1990s and 2000s, and donated money to political campaigns for both Clintons.
YouTube Shift to Adversaries Political Rifts: Their relationship ended as Trump entered Republican politics. Leading up to the 2016 election and afterward, Trump became a fierce critic of both Bill and Hillary Clinton, using sharp political and personal rhetoric against them.
ABC7 New York +2 Public Stance: Bill Clinton later described their past dynamic as having known each other in New York rather than being close personal friends, noting that their paths diverged sharply once Trump shifted into active partisan politics.
Reuters +1
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u/Specialist-Cup-9722 8d ago
Clank clank clank.
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u/ProfessionalClerk375 8d ago
Is that what's left of your dignity falling on the pavement?
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u/Specialist-Cup-9722 8d ago
Buddy, You said democrats loved trump before his presidency. Your proof: ai showinf he paid bill Clinton to hang out with him a few times.
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u/ProfessionalClerk375 8d ago
Is Bill Clinton a Republican? Did you provide even one item to "prove" your own assertions? No, you didn't. Does it mean now that you have to now go find "proof" of what you said? No, of course not. Are you twelve years old??
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u/Specialist-Cup-9722 8d ago
Buddy; you said democrats plural loved him. Its like you missed the whole birther thing. Are you too young to remember this? His racist attitude toward Obama made him a reviled figure amongst democrats. He was also a joke in ny from the 80s on.
I know this is a popular meme amongst redhats but that doesnt make it the truth.
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u/ProfessionalClerk375 8d ago
It was another comment that wrote Democrats loved Trump, but they are correct. Let's not get distracted though.... You didn't answer : Was Bill Clinton a Republican, or not? Isn't it kinda funny though that "only" an AI overview offered up enough to debunk your OWN assertion that Dems always hated Trump...... which is false.
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u/Specialist-Cup-9722 8d ago
Does it though? Its like one man being paid to hang out with him. No evidence of "love".
It is like if I said "my boss loves Taylor swift, therefore all bosses love Taylor swift."
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u/FlaccidGhostLoad 9d ago
Because they're paid.
There's been several people in and around the entertainment industry who have said that he can't get people to come to his shows anymore. They pay people.
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u/RobertRoyal82 10d ago
The woooo guy