Bill Maher tells comic fans, Toy collectors, and game players to "Grow Up!"

[jetengine]

Missing the point bro. It's not important who said it. Could've been some nobody at a Starbucks somewhere. The problem isn't even that it was said, but that people are so blase about it.

People are Blase because he's an irrelevant windbag trolling for attention about a group whom already have a bad reputation in the social mind.

[KOSLOX]

Missing the point bro. It's not important who said it. Could've been some nobody at a Starbucks somewhere. The problem isn't even that it was said, but that people are so blase about it.

I still wouldn't care. It's a hobby I enjoy. It's not like he's challenging my livelihood, my ability to raise my family, or some strongly held belief.

There's all sorts of stuff people are into that I think is stupid, I'd assume they would just tell me that I don't need to rock with it then.

[wjowski]

Those who are just shrugging this off and dismissing it as unimportant: would you still be shrugging this off and dismissing it as unimportant if Maher were going after any other group other than comic book nerds? Or is it perfectly fine because, oh well, it's just comic book nerds. It's OK to trample all over them.

I've been shrugging off being mocked and belittled for my hobbies all my life. Maher's nothing new to me and nothing worth devoting more than a passing insult on.

[Raiders]

Who cares what he says.
It’s his First Amendment Right

[zinderel]

Who cares what he says.
It’s his First Amendment Right

And...it's everyone else's 1st Amendment right to criticize someone for saying something shitty and demonstrably untrue. Bill Maher absolutely has every right to insult comic fans. And those fans have every right to point out the inconsistencies and hypocrisies of his insulting rant.

That's how the 1st Amendment works...everyone is free to speak their mind, but no one is free from repercussions that don't involve the government stepping in and saying 'You can't say that'. That's why we have the proliferation of pro-Nazi policies and slogans again. The government can't stop them, and there are enough people who think that the 1st Amendment allows people to say anything without any consequence or criticism that any attempt to address hate speech or encourage common civil guidelines to acceptable speech is met with well-meaning, but ignorant defenders of their '1st Amendment rights'.

[numberthirty]

Who cares what he says.
It’s his First Amendment Right

Not really.

Unless there is suddenly a government component to this that I haven't come across, this has nothing to do with the First Amendment Right you mentioned.

[Raiders]

And...it's everyone else's 1st Amendment right to criticize someone for saying something shitty and demonstrably untrue. Bill Maher absolutely has every right to insult comic fans. And those fans have every right to point out the inconsistencies and hypocrisies of his insulting rant.

That's how the 1st Amendment works...everyone is free to speak their mind, but no one is free from repercussions that don't involve the government stepping in and saying 'You can't say that'. That's why we have the proliferation of pro-Nazi policies and slogans again. The government can't stop them, and there are enough people who think that the 1st Amendment allows people to say anything without any consequence or criticism that any attempt to address hate speech or encourage common civil guidelines to acceptable speech is met with well-meaning, but ignorant defenders of their '1st Amendment rights'.

Yes, Maher has the right to speak and others have the same right to call him a dumbass.
But there will be no repercussions for him on this. He has paid the price for saying stupid stuff in the pass.
Talking about comic book fans is nothing compare with other crazy things he has said.

[Adam Allen]

Those who are just shrugging this off and dismissing it as unimportant: would you still be shrugging this off and dismissing it as unimportant if Maher were going after any other group other than comic book nerds? Or is it perfectly fine because, oh well, it's just comic book nerds. It's OK to trample all over them.

I shrug it off because it's Internet 101: Don't Feed The Troll!

He doesn't really care at all about comic books or comic book fans. He'll definitely keep having an opinion so long as it keeps getting a reaction, however.

[Powerboy]

Those who are just shrugging this off and dismissing it as unimportant: would you still be shrugging this off and dismissing it as unimportant if Maher were going after any other group other than comic book nerds? Or is it perfectly fine because, oh well, it's just comic book nerds. It's OK to trample all over them.

I wouldn't say so much that the subject is trivial but that Maher is trivial.

I don't follow Maher because I find his personality to be that of a smug, pompous ass. I've seen a couple of youtube videos of his show. I've seen him generalize about Islam as a terrorist religion. Strange. Nobody I work with seems to be a terrorist. The Mosque a couple of blocks away has a sign saying that terrorism is not Islam. In the overall scheme of things, that's a bit more important than Maher having an uninformed opinion about comics that is shared by a lot of people who, like him, hasn't read one since they were ten and most of them are sixty now so they haven't a comic since the 1960s.

I've seen him bash cultural appropriation but only by targeting the most trivial examples of it.

It's just not his style to know or explore a subject in depth which makes it more laughable that he presents himself as the leading expert in the room.

I think there is still a distinction in the minds of many people between being into comic book movies and actually reading comic books, the former being acceptable now and the latter making you a nerd unless you "used to read them when you were a kid".

So almost nothing Maher does is "okay". One could consider it a form of bullying which is not okay.

[DungeonmasterJim]

I was minorly insulted by what Maher said. I am a fan of his show still. One thing I always remind myself about any kind of celebrity with a airtime to fill is that they have air time to fill. Because of that they have to talk and eventually those people are going to say something I will either dislike or not agree with. So it kinda sucks Maher thinks I need to grow up but if I don't want to hear what he has to say anymore I'll stop watching his show. On a related note I've seen some of his stand up comedy work. It doesn't work all that well for me probably because his presentation for me seems to come off as "I'm Bill Maher and it's funny because I said it". I almost never watch his comedy but I enjoy his political show and watch that when I can.

[zinderel]

Yes, Maher has the right to speak and others have the same right to call him a dumbass.
But there will be no repercussions for him on this. He has paid the price for saying stupid stuff in the pass.
Talking about comic book fans is nothing compare with other crazy things he has said.

Agreed. When I was younger, I enjoyed his confrontational style. As I got older, I began to prefer the interview and panel to the monologue. But his straight up Islamophobia-disguised-as-concern schtick, his friends-with-'benefits' relationship with Ann Coulter, now this...ugh. It's just getting harder to justify that hour a week...

[iron chimp]

The other side of the coin is i have friends who like comics but who think dc is just dumb. I will say ok but try this, or this, or this but nearly every book i recommend is 30 years old - alan moore, grant morrison, george pratt, peter milligan, vertigo etc. I can find very few books published in 2000s by Dc that i think would convince them otherwise.

[Tuck]

Those who are just shrugging this off and dismissing it as unimportant: would you still be shrugging this off and dismissing it as unimportant if Maher were going after any other group other than comic book nerds? Or is it perfectly fine because, oh well, it's just comic book nerds. It's OK to trample all over them.

"Comic book nerd" is not an immutable characteristic. It's a description of what a person enjoys.

[Malvolio]

"Comic book nerd" is not an immutable characteristic. It's a description of what a person enjoys.

Yes. We choose to be "comic book nerds." If being teased for it was a really big problem for any of us, we could have stopped buying and reading comic books when we were 12 or 13. But we didn't. We kept doing it, knowing full well the reaction we would get from some people, because we just enjoy it that much.

[Buried Alien]

Maher is kind of like Earth-Reality's version of this guy:



Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)