The panel this week was excellent. It was one of the times it flowed sweetly and conversely (not in such a bad way) was when special guest Mel Brooks came out for his segment. That was hard for Bill and the opposite flow was with the panel segment but at the same time, it was funny and great to see Bill (Maher) flustered. Not flustered but he had no control with Mel (Brooks) which again, made for that fun. The initial guest at the beginning of the show was the woman that is doing the Edward Snowden Documentary film and that is also up for an Oscar this month. That was a great segment.
The monologue was pretty good too. Lots of Super Bowl jokes with a funny Katy Perry inflated boobs joke along with a cheating jab at the New England patriots because "they do cheat" which i know all too well being a Ram fan. And, then he touches into Willard announcing that he is NOT running while making the joke that his Doctor would consider another a run at the POTUS spot to be too stressful because it would be too hard for him (Mitt Romney) too make pretend to care about poor people which honestly, is the new GOP platform. Not a minute too soon since its very cliche today and that should have been that platform 4 years ago, however, the party was still reeling off its cockiness and what I said many times to be / have arrogant views at the American people (i.e.: John Boehner choosing the largest gavel, Mitch McConnell's constant stances that are always warped, the "you lie" heard round the world, the 47% comment, George Bush Jr and Dick Cheney's overall platforms vs everyone else and that is off the top of my head this second while I mull this over). And, (Bill) Maher touches into the President's speeches in India and then his trip to Saudi Arabia where that speech was the total opposite of the one given in India (i.e.: one day mentioning woman's rights and then next not mentioning a word about it). He also speaks / spoke about Michelle Obama for NOT wearing the 'bee keepers' outfit while they were all in S.A (Saudi Arabia).
The Interview Segment:
Laura Poitras is the Oscar-nominated filmmaker of CITIZENFOUR, about NSA leaker Edward Snowden. She is a co-founding editor of the online news magazine, The Intercept, and a 2014 winner of the Pulitzer Prize for her reporting on the government’s surveillance programs. Twitter: @laurapoitras
This one on one segment with Laura Poitras was excellent. I cannot wait to see this documentary film. This is omeone to look up to peer wise. I love this woman big time and I truly hope she wins the Oscar this month. And, again, I cannot wait to watch this documentary film. I had no clue about it till last night. It is gonna be great. Even the ad for it is perfect.
The Panel:
Joaquin Castro is a Democratic Congressman representing Texas’s 20th congressional district. He serves on the House Committee on Armed Services and the Committee on Foreign Affairs. His identical twin brother is Julian Castro, former mayor of San Antonio and current Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. Twitter: @joaquincastrotx
Katty Kay is the BBC World News America anchor and author of the NYT bestseller The Confidence Code: The Science and Art of Self-Assurance – What Women Should Know. Twitter: @kattykayBBC
Monica Mehta is a financial expert and Ambassador for Operation HOPE Project 5117, whose mission is to strengthen the economy by focusing on empowering those who earn less than $50,000 a year. She is the author of The Entrepreneurial Instinct. Twitter: @monicamehtanyc
As for the panel. It was perfect and I learned a lot. No one was an ass by any means of that term and everyone was pretty real. Honestly, I felt if anyone lacked anything or did not go off, and/or was even a bit lost (meaning, he never says anything bad about anyone but he did get a jab in at Steve King) or not lost, but he could only really chime in to say something nice, was Joaquin Castro. But again and remember too that he can't be mean or rock the boat so to speak because that's him. He is such a nice guy. And, he cannot do anything over the top controversial or anything but act like a perfect Democrat. He is fine in that regard and for him to progress to say run for POTUS, he needs to be the nice guy all of the time. But I learned the most from Monica Mehta to be honest with y'all. She was great. Katie Kay is always cool. She co hosts Morning Joe a lot and especially when Mika (Brzezinski) is not on the show that particular day. She is also pretty ballsy at times and does not hold back which is why I like her.
Mid-Show Interview:
Mel Brooks stars in the upcoming HBO comedy special “Mel Brooks Live at the Geffen,” premiering January 31. Brooks holds the distinction of being one of only twelve people in the EGOT club, having won an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony award.
Like I said here in the blog, it (Mel Brooks) was funny per se, but it was bordering on being a train wreck which to be honest, was part of that fun. I had no complaints but we did go from one extreme to another with the panel being near perfect and totally even keeled to the Mel Brooks' antics (spitting the water out of his mouth (2 X's) which do NOT get me wrong please, it was funny, but not that clever as far as humor but then again, its Mel Brooks; anything he does is rather priceless)
New Rules was OK this week. One was about the gay CEO at Apple and then some others were about an estate sale when it was a pic of a garage sale. And, what else? Oh. the funniest one i thought was him talking about how Kim Jong Yong has to stop plucking his eye brows if he wants to be taken seriously as a world leader and his eye brows were/are these tiny little rectangular spots which are obviously plucked, and/or shaved and/or groomed. That was funny. Him saying that it is not a vagina and that he needs to be more war like was hilarious and again, I think the funniest one by far. The one about the bible and heroin was calculated and I knew what was coming and then his S&M new rule is funny when he showed the 50 shades of Grey guy vs some fat ugly guy that is truly into say doing S&M as part of its sex life. And, then again, his last rant was about what I said above in that the new platform for that GOP is trying to act like it cares about the middle class of America. When its BS. They just want to win an election. Nothing the GOP ever does is for the middle class and its wiped out the real middle class during the Reagan era and on up to this modern day culminating during the Bush Jr years. It was funny when he joked about not knowing whether we could tell if Sarah Palin had a stroke or not (considering her ramblings during her speech at the Steve King convention last weekend).
Overall, he did touch into two beheading jokes. One in the monologue and then one time during the Barbie skit.
Great show last night. Especially after last weeks which I thought was a bit weak. This was a great panel and every one was pretty much right on without any bullshit. I thought Monica Mehta was the best as far as being real and as far as being informative.
Anyway, until next week. Although, stay tuned for Fridays Morning Joe Weekly Update which I am giving a whirl for the first time this week. This is also my first go round with trying to remember last nights show and spewing my opinions about it. I also hope to bring this to live Sunset daily TV but i want to write about what i want to bring to TV first for a while before we take that plunge. It would honestly be graeat to do a Soup type deal but for political shows which is why i wanna write about the best ones on TV today. And, then move it to TV. I am also in talks with an established TV network to do these recaps live but again, I want to gain better chops here in writing first.
Thanks for ear and eyes and please by all means, stay in touch! I hope this makes sense to normal people since I never proof my writings....
You can listen to the show at anytime here: http://realtimewithbillmaher.radioserie.com/
And, you can view it at HBO GO: http://www.hbo.com/real-time-with-bill-maher#/
