Satirist Bill Maher began his 90 minute performance at the Tampa Bay Performing – er, Straz Center last night in Tampa by talking about the economy. "I put all my money into Ponzi schemes" the comedian began. "Don't you miss the days when we just morally bankrupt? "
And with that, the jokes began flying, and for the most part in the decidedly liberal audience, the crowd (at far less than a sellout at Carol Morsani Hall) was totally with him.
Although he has throughout the year been critical of President Obama on his show, HBO's Real Time, there was much respect and admiration given to our first black President (something Maher commented extensively on). One source of dissent was on the recent announcement that the U.S. will send 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan next year.
"America is like Irish relatives," Maher said in talking about American military forces in countries throughout the world, "they never leave." He questioned why America is is even in Afghanistan ("I don't get it"). And on Iraq, "the next time we go to war for oil – let's get some oil!"
Maher has been criticized for calling America a stupid country, but he didn't back away from that sentiment one bit in one of his finest set pieces of the evening . He said it was unfair that people said that he hates America.
"I don't hate America first. I wake up, have some coffee, burn the flag, have a few abortions…"
For years Maher has blasted organized religion in his act, and explored his serious doubts in the 2008 comedy documentary Religulous. Because he's associated so closely with that, he actually gave a little warning to the audience when he was about to delve into that part of his act.
He cited statistics that say that 25% of Americans believe that Jesus will come back in their lifetime, and criticized what he said was the sheer ego of that statement. Mocking the idea that God would come back to earth, he joked of somebody seeing him, "Hey Jesus! Big fan! Look, I know you're really busy. But can I get a picture?"
On the "Birther" movement, the conservative attack that claims that President Obama is not an American citizen, Maher said, "I'll show you Obama's birth certificate when you show me Sarah Palin's high school diploma."
On the biggest domestic policy story of the year, the comedian bashed the Republicans, sounding like Orlando area Democrat Alan Grayson (who appeared on Real Time recently). Their first health care plan, Maher explained was "Go drop dead." Now, he says, they've refined it to, "Go fuck yourself plus".
Although known to criticize the country's dietary habits, he only lightly touched on the subject ("Ronald McDonald has killed more Americans than Osama bin Ladin.")
The comic also reflected on what he calls America's uptightness about sex, reflecting briefly on Tiger Woods, but more on politicians like Eliot Spitzer, Mark Sanford and Larry Craig , where he physically got into mocking the Idaho Republican's comment that he wasn't trying to have gay sex in a Minneapolis Airport restroom, but simply had a 'wide stance'.
But there was much love and reverence for Barack Obama and his wife Michelle. Maher says that Obama is the coolest U.S. President since Jack Kennedy, and says there's something exciting about having the coolest guy also being the country's top official.
Although there were plenty of jokes at President Bush's expense, Maher proved that you can do satirical comedy in America, even with an intelligent, athletic, hip commander in chief.
This article appears in Dec 2-8, 2009.