Bill Maher’s HBO Special ‘#Adulting’ Is Where Comedy Goes to Die
These days, a Bill Maher stand-up special more closely resembles a political pep rally. In lieu of setups and punchlines, audiences pay top dollar to be pummeled by a relentless combo of holier-than-thou takes.
He crows about correctly predicting that Trump would fail to concede if he lost the 2020 presidential election (something most leftists thought would happen). Rudy Giuliani is a vampire who sleeps in a coffin; Marjorie Taylor Greene a “Real Housewife of Karen County.” In case you hadn’t heard, Donald Trump appears to harbor disdain for his sweaty spawn Don Jr. Also, the right has “a lot of nerve” for thinking he’d ever move over to the Republican Party, even though the sour sexagenarian spends most of his time amplifying their culture-war diversions. Gen Z has apparently assembled Avengers: Endgame-style to “cancel Abraham Lincoln”—a crusade that exists almost entirely within the comic’s limited imagination. Oh, and in case you were wondering, he’ll still play R. Kelly whenever he wants because “the music didn’t rape anybody.”
Such “bold” opinions are on fully display in #Adulting, Maher’s new HBO comedy special out April 15. It’s his 12th stand-up special for the cable network that remains hopelessly in thrall to his brand of smug contrarianism and the crowd at Miami’s Fillmore Theater, where it was taped some months back, lap up his every word.