These Bill Maher moments have to be seen to be believed. Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re looking at the most controversial and argumentative conversations on HBO’s hot-button political talk show,”Real Time with Bill Maher”.
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00:00This is not about more money.
00:01It's not about more money, because the last time Trump had way less money, and he won.
00:05Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're looking at the most controversial and argumentative
00:09conversations on HBO's hot-button political talk show, Real Time with Bill Maher.
00:13You always have to fight with everybody.
00:15I don't!
00:1710.
00:18Malcolm Nance vs. Ben Shapiro, Season 19
00:20Conservative commentator Ben Shapiro's 2018 debut on Real Time was a combative one-on-one
00:25interview.
00:26A month later, Bill Maher had to manage an even harsher debate on critical race theory
00:30with Shapiro and progressive pundit Malcolm Nance.
00:33Nance maintained that CRT simply teaches the history and legacy of racism in American society.
00:37The Chinese Exclusion Acts of the 1840s, these are things we don't talk about.
00:43Shapiro argued that its reforms in some schools lowered educational standards and promoted
00:46racial tension.
00:47He was baffled when Nance charged him with advocating the whitewash of racial topics
00:51entirely.
00:52A lot of this stuff is taught in schools.
00:53You mean like viruses?
00:54As Nance began mocking Shapiro's show, Maher managed to democratically moderate each party's
00:59perspective and change the topic.
01:01The whole incident nonetheless illustrates CRT as a touchy subject, even in the most
01:05nuanced political debates.
01:06So there are things that are being taught and are going around that I'm not for, that
01:11if that was critical race theory, I wouldn't be for.
01:139.
01:14Ann Coulter on immigration, Season 13
01:16As open as right-wing pundit Ann Coulter is to debate on Real Time, her 2015 appearance
01:21was hardly civil.
01:22She was promoting her provocatively titled book Adios America when she described illegal
01:26immigration with questionable statistics.
01:28This upset Democratic Rep. Luis Gutierrez and MSNBC correspondent Joy Reid, both children
01:34of immigrants.
01:35I would just say one thing, worry about the 50 million Latinos in the United States of
01:39America that are here legally.
01:41They passionately defended the economic value of migrants and the political potential of
01:45their descendants.
01:46Despite Coulter agreeing that Republican policy factored into immigration problems, it devolved
01:51into an ideological shouting match.
01:53No, these are all people who are going to be on welfare soon.
01:55Yes, there are machines that can now pick strawberries, strawberries, tomatoes.
02:00Marr had to assertively break it up, having more experience in keeping his cool with Coulter.
02:04This particularly awkward moment still wasn't enough to close his door to one of Real Time's
02:08most divisive and most recurring guests.
02:10I'm against women working, so I can't.
02:138.
02:14Dennis Prager on lies, Season 17
02:16Dennis Prager is known for inflammatory rhetoric on his radio show.
02:19But even a Real Time panel could rean him in when Marr brought up then-President Trump's
02:23rates of false statements in an Overtime After Show.
02:26He does lie.
02:27You would agree with that.
02:28Prager stunned everyone by agreeing with the study, only to accuse the left wing of making
02:31larger partisan lies.
02:33He shouted over any retort to his argument that the United States is the least racist
02:37country in the world.
02:38This is the least racist, multicultural, multi-ethnic country in the history of the world.
02:43His monologue then veered into the topic of men menstruating.
02:46Prager tried to focus the ensuing transphobic rant into a real debate, but Prager ironically
02:51couldn't fully support his statements.
02:53This absurdity completely tickled Marr, but some saw Prager as a blow to the show's honest
02:57discourse.
02:58Okay, alright, moving on to the next.
03:00Dennis, I remember you in the old show.
03:02You were a little more reasonable.
03:047.
03:05Steve Bannon, Seasons 16 and 18
03:07Bill Marr cordially welcomed Steve Bannon as another conservative to engage in a spirited
03:11debate in 2018.
03:12But the former Breitbart News executive and Trump strategist isn't just another conservative.
03:16The one-on-one interview steadily erupted over the guest's defense of the president
03:20who fired and discredited him.
03:21That's absurd.
03:22You didn't think you'd get fired?
03:23Marr was more frustrated by Bannon's defense of such fringe supporters as Russian apologists
03:28and white supremacists.
03:29I don't think you really think they're the racists and not your people.
03:32This was echoed in a follow-up interview in 2020, when Marr offended Bannon by suggesting
03:36a racial double standard in how he views Obama and Trump's policies.
03:40He even ended the chat by remarking,
03:41I wish we had someone on our side as evil as you.
03:44Clearly, Bannon's question-dodging and defensiveness tested Marr's spirit in both debates.
03:496.
03:50Andrew Cuomo, Seasons 21
03:51Two years after resigning as governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo and his former chief of
03:55staff Melissa DeRosa opened up about his sexual assault allegations on Real Time.
04:00Marr straddled, indulging and questioning the allegations while making light of younger
04:04generations' sensitivity to physical contact.
04:06Cuomo was not particularly amused.
04:08He was visibly unnerved as he deconstructed the overreaches of cancel culture.
04:12This cancel culture, it's a loaded gun, and they can use it against anyone, anytime, even
04:17for their self-interest.
04:18He didn't have much to say on the more solid claims of impropriety that Marr brought up.
04:22It was a wry takedown of two generations' behavior.
04:24It sure wasn't the blowout usually associated with Real Time's more awkward moments.
04:28He could have said, you know what, I went through this.
04:33Let's take a deep breath and actually get the fact.
04:37But Cuomo sifting through Marr's mix of empathetic and gotcha journalism made for a suspenseful
04:41interview.
04:42But defund the police were the three dumbest words ever uttered by the Democratic Party.
04:485.
04:49Jim Jeffries vs. Piers Morgan, Season 15
04:51English conservative commentator Piers Morgan can get confrontational in his views.
04:55Australian comedian Jim Jeffries is an equally unapologetic, if less couth, progressive.
05:01When they met on a Real Time panel in 2017, it was the President of the United States
05:04who set them off.
05:05Morgan praised colleague Donald Trump's policies and argued that his travel ban on Muslims
05:09was exaggerated by critics.
05:11Jeffries immediately and profanely tore into Morgan, accusing him of bias and ignorance
05:15of creeping fascism.
05:16You just like that you won The Apprentice and you have a famous friend.
05:19Between Morgan's condescension and Jeffries' obscene gestures, Marr had to step in.
05:23It was a fraught incident for both notorious provocateurs.
05:26Still, Jeffries got the last word when the audience disputed his rival's claim that his
05:29fervor undermined his message.
05:31Am I losing it?
05:32And you also not losing it.
05:344.
05:35Ejecting protesters, Season 5
05:36The studio audience for Real Time can get as heated as any guest.
05:39Bill Marr is usually good with the crowd, but was pushed too far in 2007.
05:43Almost a month after he bashed conspiracy theories that 9-11 was an inside job, so-called
05:489-11 truthers infiltrated his audience to stage a protest.
05:51Boy, sometimes here at CBS, I wish the sound wasn't working.
05:55As they disrupted a panel with heckles and a banner, a livid Marr ordered security.
05:59His swearing was audible even after he tore off his microphone.
06:02Hey, do we have some f----- security in this building?
06:05Or do I have to come over and kick this guy's ass?
06:10Everyone in the studio applauded as guards and the host himself dragged the hecklers
06:13out through the back.
06:14Marr can handle a debate with the most controversial views, but this incident showed his intolerance
06:18of an unfair fight.
06:19I'll kick your ass out of here, too.
06:223.
06:23Christopher Hitchens vs. the audience, Season 4
06:24Despite public intellectual Christopher Hitchens' friendship with Bill Marr, the war on terror
06:28was a sore spot during his many appearances on Real Time.
06:31It was an especially tenuous panel in 2006, when Hitchens charged Iranian President Mahmoud
06:36Ahmadinejad with pursuing a third world war.
06:39As Marr snickered that George Bush had the same vision, his audience roared.
06:42Who's looking for a war here?
06:44So does George Bush, by the way.
06:45President Bush has said…
06:48Hitchens responded by cursing them out and flashing a middle finger.
06:51He repeated his put-down of the audience later in the debate.
06:53The brief incident became a scandalous touchstone in Real Time's lore.
06:56You know what I think?
06:57This is now the joke that stupid people laugh at.
06:59Hitchens made four more appearances and was poignantly honored by Marr after his passing
07:03in 2011.
07:04Still, his tenure didn't always help his reputation as a debater.
07:07None of whom, none of whom, none of whom was smarter than the president.
07:102.
07:11Ben Affleck and Islamophobia, Season 12
07:13Outspoken anti-theist Bill Marr has been accused of specifically Islamophobic statements.
07:18Philosopher and writer Sam Harris has faced the same accusations.
07:21In 2014, the two united on a Real Time panel to discuss contemporary liberalism's failure
07:26to condemn Islamic dogma.
07:28Author Ben Affleck angrily asserted that an attack on the religion, not just its radical
07:31fringes, is often an attack on the Muslim people.
07:34So hold on, are you the person who understands the officially codified doctrine of Islam?
07:38Harris and Marr boldly stated that radical Islam was not fringe.
07:42Affleck continuously intervened while specialists on his side of the panel anxiously debated.
07:46How about the more than a billion people who aren't fanatical?
07:50The ten-minute-long argument went viral, reviving popular discourse about the Islamic world
07:54and prejudice towards Muslims.
07:56Believe it or not, this feud is widely considered a blemish on Real Time's style of discourse.
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08:191.
08:20Milo Yiannopoulos, Season 15
08:22There's growing concern that Real Time with Bill Marr promotes extreme political demagogues.
08:26Some say it's actually diminished the likes of alt-right commentator Milo Yiannopoulos.
08:30His 2017 solo interview was awkward enough for Marr trying to maintain common ground
08:34on free speech.
08:35For a guy who loves free speech, you've picked a weird boyfriend.
08:39When Yiannopoulos joined the Overtime panel, he unleashed his views in astonishing hate
08:42speech.
08:43This led to a nasty confrontation with comedic commentator Larry Wilmore.
08:46If your argument is that these people are stupid, you didn't hear a word this man said.
08:51The rest of this segment was filled with tension surrounding the provocateur.
08:54Marr ostensibly counted on this.
08:56He justified booking Yiannopoulos by claiming the platform revealed the folly of his extremist
09:00views.
09:01While other controversies at the time mostly drove the former Breitbart editor into obscurity,
09:06some good can come from Real Time getting too real.
09:08Are you American?
09:09No, he's not American.
09:10Oh, f— off.
09:12Which Real Time with Bill Marr standoffs stand out for you?
09:15Join our civil panel in the comments.
09:17Can he have some thoughts?
09:18I don't know, can he?
09:19You tell me.
09:20Did you enjoy this video?
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