Bill Maher Reveals To Jake Tapper His Show ‘Weeded Out’ Studio Audience Members Who Disagreed With Him

“They got rid of the groaners, and it made my life so much better”

Comic and pundit Bill Maher revealed to CNN’s Jake Tapper that his producers “weeded out” audience members who might audibly disagree with him during his show for the past five years or so.

Tapper interviewed the host of HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher, for a special live event Tuesday night, expanding on CNN’s experiment of putting Maher’s weekly “Overtime” segment that follows the show on at 11:30.

At one point, Maher proudly explained to Tapper why it is viewers no longer hear groans from the audience:

TAPPER: What is it like to be a comedian in this era? Is it more difficult?

Do audiences boo you at times that you’re not ready for them to boo you or you’re surprised?

MAHER: It’s always possible. I mean, it’s interesting. My studio audience at “Real Time” (LAUGH) always booed me – not – for most of the show, but they were definitely more woke than I was – and definitely more sensitive.

I would ask all – all the time over there, I said, “Why? These are the people who – they claim that they – flew all the way across the country. They waited for months to get tickets to this show. They’re my fans. And then they come here and they’re saying, ‘Oh.’”

There’s something about when you get in public you have to put on this act that you are somehow more of a moral person than you really are. Not that I’m doing anything immoral, but that you have to react in a certain way to things that are politically incorrect. You’d think I would come pre-advertised. I mean, there’s a sign right–

TAPPER: Right, “Politically Incorrect.”

MAHER: It’s a sign there (LAUGH) that – and the – and the show was called “Real Time.”

And then, about five years ago we did – I don’t know what they did with the audience but they – they got rid of the groaners, and it made my life so much better.

And there are people who actually say to me now, “Oh, I miss the days when you used to fight with the audience.”

TAPPER: (LAUGH)

MAHER: Well, maybe you do, but I don’t.

TAPPER: Yes.

MAHER: You know? But I was never one of those comics, who could just pretend, “Oh, (LAUGH) I’m sorry. I must’ve made a mistake there.”

I’d be like, “No, I didn’t make a mistake. There’s nothing wrong with that joke. Stop groaning. Get the stick out of your ass.” I must’ve said that 20 times on my show.

TAPPER: Yes.

MAHER: And then when the pandemic came around, first we didn’t have any audience, then we shot here.

And when we came back we were allowed to have, like, half the audience because of social distancing. And again, they just weeded out the people who were groaning. And I would say in the last three, four years I’ve never had that problem again, and it is such a pleasure.

My audience who comes to my show now understands me. They think like me. They – they have open minds. They’re – they’re not woke. They’re generally liberal, but they can be conservative too. And we have a great time, and there’s no groaning. And I love it.

And on the road it was always that way. People who pay, you know, a good penny for a hard ticket price to come see a stand-up show, they generally want you to be exactly who you are. So it’s – it was always pretty hard to get – I’d have to be (LAUGH) pretty far out there, I could do it, to get people to groan on the road.

But, look, any comic in this era, anybody in this era can absolutely fall off the ledge at any moment. It’s – it just makes me laugh when people say to me, “You know, you’re uncancelable.” Are you kidding? I could – I would – in two seconds, I could get canceled. Anybody could.

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Tim Robbins Backs Woody Harrelson in Opposing Hollywood Vaccine Mandates: ‘Time to End This Charade’

Hollywood star Tim Robbins has backed Woody Harrelson’s opposition to vaccine mandates and other on-set COVID protocols, saying it is “time to end this charade.”

The Shawshank Redemption star tweeted his support of  a recent New York Times interview in which Woody Harrelson called for an end to “forced testing, forced masking, and forced vaccination.”

“Woody is right. Time to end this charade,” Robbins tweeted Thursday.

In the Times interview, Harrelson said” “I don’t think that anybody should have the right to demand that you’re forced to do the testing, forced to wear the mask and forced to get vaccinated three years on. I’m just like, let’s be done with this nonsense. It’s not fair to the crews. I don’t have to wear the mask. Why should they? Why should they have to be vaccinated? How’s that not up to the individual? I shouldn’t be talking about this [expletive].”

Harrelson said it’s been three years since the start of the pandemic and it’s time to “stop” with all the mandates. “As an anarchist, I don’t do well with mandates,” he said.

Harrelson was echoing opinions he recently voiced on NBC’s Saturday Night Live when, during his opening monologue, he referred to the pharmaceutical industry as “the biggest drug cartels” that bought up the news media and politicians to force people to take their vaccines.

This isn’t the first time Tim Robbins has come out against forced COVID protocols.

As Breitbart News reported, the actor recently admitted he was wrong to have “bought into” the establishment narrative surrounding forced masking and lockdowns.

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Teens’ body image IMPROVES after just one month of slashing social media use: report

“Adolescence is a vulnerable period for the development of body image issues, eating disorders and mental illness,” said lead author Dr. Gary Goldfield of Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario Research Institute.

Teenagers and young adults who cut their social media use in half experience a significant improvement in body image after just a few weeks, according to a new study.

A team of researchers from the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO) Research Institute conducted a study of 220 undergraduate students, aged 17-25, who were regular social media users and showing signs of anxiety and/or depression.

“Adolescence is a vulnerable period for the development of body image issues, eating disorders and mental illness,” said lead author Dr. Gary Goldfield of Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario Research Institute in a press release. 

“Youth are spending, on average, between six to eight hours per day on screens, much of it on social media. Social media can expose users to hundreds or even thousands of images and photos every day, including those of celebrities and fashion or fitness models, which we know leads to an internalization of beauty ideals that are unattainable for almost everyone, resulting in greater dissatisfaction with body weight and shape,” Goldfield added.

Throughout the four-week experiment, half of the study group were instructed to reduce their social media by 50 percent, while the other half were allowed unrestricted access. At both the beginning and the end of the experiment, participants completed a survey containing a series of statements about their overall appearance, rating statements such as “I am satisfied with my weight” on a five-point scale.

Participants who reduced their social media use had a significant improvement in how they regarded both their overall appearance and body weight after three weeks of reduced social media use, compared with the control group, who saw no significant change. The sex of the participant did not appear to make any difference in the effects. 76 percent of the participants were female, 23 percent male, and 1 percent “other.”

“Our brief, four-week intervention using screentime trackers showed that reducing social media use yielded significant improvements in appearance and weight esteem in distressed youth with heavy social media use,” said Goldfield. “Reducing social media use is a feasible method of producing a short-term positive effect on body image among a vulnerable population of users and should be evaluated as a potential component in the treatment of body-image-related disturbances.”

The study did not examine the link between excessive social media use and the epidemic of gender dysphoria currently afflicting the adolescent population in Canada and around the world. Many detransitioned young people say they first came across the idea that they were transgender online and became immersed in a world of YouTube and TikTok transgender influencers, who make medical transition seem fun and exciting and the solution to the discomfort and distress of puberty.

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