Bill Maher In Hot Water

[tgb]

for saying ni**er on the air.

Context is everything. It's not like he used it against somebody. He made a stupid joke and a once-common phrase slipped out.

Interesting that the Times article not only included the word completly spelled out, but imbedded the clip as well, yet it doesn't appear to be getting the paper in trouble.

Which just proves my point that context is important.

[Max Peck]

I've never really understood the taboo against using a verboten word while discussing the word itself. It seems profoundly Kafkaesque.

[Rip]

Agree, off color and unwise but that is who he is.

As long as he isn't using it to name call someone it seems like a big nothingburger.

[geezer]

for saying ni**er on the air.

Context is everything. It's not like he used it against somebody. He made a stupid joke and a once-common phrase slipped out.

Interesting that the Times article not only included the word completly spelled out, but imbedded the clip as well, yet it doesn't appear to be getting the paper in trouble.

Which just proves my point that context is important.

Context is everything, yes, and so printing the word while discussing the incident is one thing... Actually using the phrase as a joke is uncool. Not as uncool maybe as using the term to insult someone, but uncool nonetheless..

[tgb]

It was definitely uncool and a stupid slip, but I don't think it merits all the backlash he's getting for it.

[Jaymann]

What is so ridiculous is it is acceptable to say "the n word" where everyone knows exactly what you mean.

[Holman]

Maher's brand of persistently smug dickery is as much to blame as the bare use of the word itself.

Nebraska's Sasses invited him to come to Nebraska and "work in the fields," a clearly non-racial bit of canned folksiness about being from an agricultural state.

Maher's brain leaped from fields to slaves for some reason, and then decided it would be funny to call himself a "house n-gger" as a joke on avoiding physical labor. He surely knows the cultural history by which that full term is loaded and derogatory in all kinds of special ways, and the whole chain of association and mis-application here is just full of ick.

[geezer]

Maher's brand of persistently smug dickery is as much to blame as the bare use of the word itself.

Nebraska's Sasses invited him to come to Nebraska and "work in the fields," a clearly non-racial bit of canned folksiness about being from an agricultural state.

Maher's brain leaped from fields to slaves for some reason, and then decided it would be funny to call himself a "house n-gger" as a joke on avoiding physical labor. He surely knows the cultural history by which that full term is loaded and derogatory in all kinds of special ways, and the whole chain of association and mis-application here is just full of ick.

This.

[Zarathud]

Meh. I'm pretty sure he was aware of the context and thought the ick was funny. It's not particularly funny, but I see how it was intended to be.

While words are important, I think intent and context matter. Here that helps Maher even though he's being a dick.

[Enough]

Maher's brand of persistently smug dickery is as much to blame as the bare use of the word itself.

Nebraska's Sasses invited him to come to Nebraska and "work in the fields," a clearly non-racial bit of canned folksiness about being from an agricultural state.

Maher's brain leaped from fields to slaves for some reason, and then decided it would be funny to call himself a "house n-gger" as a joke on avoiding physical labor. He surely knows the cultural history by which that full term is loaded and derogatory in all kinds of special ways, and the whole chain of association and mis-application here is just full of ick.

This.

Yeah. When I first watched him all those years ago I tricked myself into thinking he was funny. It turns out I was wrong. It's been years since I've enjoyed his bit.

[Zarathud]

Maher can be funny, but he gets unfunny when he's smug and gets to be a dick about it.