Bill Maher Confusing Truth with Lies but that’s Comedy

Comedian Bill Maher

"I could certainly criticize oil companies and I could criticize America in general for not attacking this problem in the '70s. Brazil got off oil in the last 30 years; we certainly could have."—Bill Maher

Bill Maher has made a career of saying things that sound good to those who believe in political correctness. But good doesn’t necessarily translate into true. Maher knows the pattern well, just say something snippy and anti-Bush, there will be very little fact checking on what you’ve said.

So imagine the sheer irony when Maher goes on his usual Liberal holier-than-thou rant (this time directed at president Soetoro) and then Maher makes a statement to punctuate his disdain for Soetoro’s apparent betrayal of Liberal ideology regarding drilling oil. He claims that Brazil has been oil independent for nearly 30 years.

I believe they did. I believe they in the ’’, they had a program to use sugar cane ethanol. And I believe that is what fuels their country. –Bill Maher

Only this time Maher was called on his statement about Brazil being oil independent by George Will. (see 8:23min video)




Apparently shaken by the fact that his veracity was questioned Maher asked for a judge to fact check his assertion. Politifact.com obliged Mr. Maher and found his statement about Brazil’s oil situation wasFALSE.

Yes, I think he should. You know, he, he owns this issue now, because it was only a few weeks ago that he came out for offshore drilling. And, I would say philosophically this is, you know, the problem I think a lot of people on the Left have with the country and have for many years is that there’s no one that really represents our point of view. There’s two parties who want to fight the war on terror with an army in Afghanistan. There’s two parties who want to drill offshore. Where is the other side on this?

So, you know, I could certainly criticize oil companies, and I could criticize America in general for not attacking this problem in the ’’. I mean, Brazil got off oil in the last 30 years, we certainly could have. But it is very disappointing, I think, for this President to be taking a position, as he has, and I guess he’s backpedalling now on it, I hope. I mean, I hope there’s a flip-flop I can believe in there.—Bill Maher

Funny thing about comedians who attempt to venture into politics, in comedy the truth and lies are virtually interchangeable. However too often when a comedian attempts to became political he or she tends to rely on comedic wit. Unfortunately he or she falls back into the practice of interchanging truth and lies as they would normally do in their act.

I’m guessing that Maher’s confusion was due to the fact that he was out of place.

Maher is more at home on HBO interchanging the truth with lies. There he doesn’t have to worry about anyone questioning the facts in his monologue. There the only judge that he faces are the ones who don’t check facts they only laugh at how wittily Maher interchanges the truth with lies.

It's quite funny isn't it?