Alex+G+Civic+Hero

Bill Maher, Unconventional Approaches  media type="youtube" key="Ky-0KKRtKxI" height="315" width="420"

 The wild jungle of politics and the characters of biblical fiction always seem to slither in a direction that is harmful in today’s political and societal realms. The structure of American politics and its bondage to religion create a situation where certain individuals are left confused and misdirected in how the world functions. Bill Maher produces awareness by offering an innovative approach to inform society about a hazy topic like politics through the use of professional guests and satire.  Born on January 20th, 1956 in New York City, William Maher Sr. named his son William Maher Jr. Bill Maher became a shortened version of this name and stuck. His mother Julie Berman was a nurse and his father William Maher Sr. edited network news and also acted as a radio announcer. Although now he is a devoted atheist, he was raised in his father’s heavily influenced Irish-American Catholic religion. His mother is Jewish but this was concealed to him until his years as a teenager, not unintentionally, but because the family chose to grow with the Catholic church. His mixed religious upbringing most likely play an important role in his delivery and methods for comedic aspects on his show. One recent joke compared Mitt Romney‘s religion (Mormonism) to Jim Jones cult, “Jim Jones full of hate, Mitt Romney full of shit.” At the age of thirteen his family decided to stop going to church services because of his fathers disagreement on the stance of birth control. The church is pro-life and Maher’s father is pro-choice, naturally the disagreement was too much for Bill’s father to cope with. He grew up in River Vale, NJ and graduated from Pascack High School there. He then proceeded his educational path to Cornell University and graduated to receive his B.A. in English and History. His literary concepts obtained through his degree in English help solidify his delivery and writing production behind his show. His Career as a comedian and an actor started in 1979. He worked as the Host of New York City’s Catch a Rising Star’s comedy club. He became acquainted with fellow comedian Steve Allen, who was his ticket to appearing on shows hosted by Johnny Carson and David Letterman in 1982. While continuing to appear on these types of shows he made many television appearances such as Murder She Wrote and Sara. It wasn’t until 1993 when he hosted his first show called Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher which aired on Comedy Central until 1997 before he switched to ABC’s network. His show usually started off with a monologue of topics he was going to cover and then an introduction of his guests. His show was also nominated for 10 Emmy awards and a few other minor T.V. awards. However, after 9/11, ABC decided not to renew his show in 2002 after a controversial comment he made. Maher countered President Bush’s statement saying the hi-jackers were cowards by stating that “lobbing cruise missiles from two thousand miles away was cowardly.” Clearly referencing the U.S.’s method of attack, but his statement was not meant to be anti-military- in fact in his defense he referenced his drawn out documented support of the military. Following these events and after his show was taken off air, he received the L.A.’s Press Clubs “champion of free speech” award and on top of that he was asked to be a judge on Pen/Newmans First Amendment award, which basically chooses any U.S. citizen who embodies the first amendment. This free speech and satiric persona facilitated by the media and via awards has been a successful appeal to reel in viewers.  Maher’s former show Politically Incorrect and the informative approaches intrigued the people over at HBO to bring him along. Presently he hosts a similar but more refined and serious show on HBO’s network called Real Time With Bill Maher. On top of this somewhat recent success he created a documentary film along with Director Larry Charles, to develop the movie entitled Religulous which explained and exposed religion as being detrimental to people. Although this movie is not about the normal political realm of topics, his innovative ideas to share knowledge by interviewing scientists and even Cardinals in Rome paints a picture of how information expands with Bill’s approaches. Similarly to the tactics on his shows, he exposes both sides of a topic and generates awareness to the viewer to make up their own mind. Also, throughout his career he consistently guest stars on news programs and debate shows like Larry King Live. His guest appearances have topics that range from politics to religion. Here he offers his stance and informative suggestions in response.  His celebrity status and his television shows allow Maher to reveal and discuss political issues in hopes to better societies knowledge on today’s problems. Bill’s present show Real Time’s guests often include former congressman and even presidents (Jimmy Carter). media type="youtube" key="vpo5ynSvLEM" height="315" width="560" On top of representatives in congress or political authors, Maher’s guests also include professors, scientists, economists, and other highly qualified people of different political views and backgrounds to discuss political topics. This is a great technique in engaging society to become better educated and well versed in the political arena of today. Instead of consulting random unaffiliated and often times unprofessional guests that most news/other political shows have, Maher maintains a confident and objectively focused show. Maher unleashes satire and his comedic background on Real Time to confront the topics and engage the community with a lighter and less complicated approach to politics. Maher’s structure and production of his show represent an ideal civic hero in an unconventional way. He gives back to the community by sharing knowledge and implementing discussions on recent events in today’s world with professionals. Maintaining a solid guest line-up of current or retired, professional representatives of congress is key because they specifically know first hand the topics they discuss. Rather than settling with being misdirected by one sided and lobbyist networks like Fox news or any other show, Maher’s innovated approach to political television allows people a chance to see all sides. Throughout Bill’s career he navigates the community down an avenue of awareness by spreading knowledge and educating society to be more receptive of the issues we face everyday as a country. Along with his show as a pathway to enhance peoples political perceptions he also backs major environmental organizations like the EPA and similar charity organizations for helping people or animals in need that often arise in the topics on his show. Down a similar path he created a website that outlines recent shows and topics covered as well as video clips with important interview guests. Aside from his site, he frequents facebook and twitter to gain viewers, show new material and articulate jokes online by posting clips from the segment on his show called "New Rules", which solely dictate comedic responses to parts of the show. media type="youtube" key="62Y5uHcD_Ko" height="315" width="560" On these sites he also uses them as a tool to endorse programs/organizations/movements such as bullying in school or helping fight a disease or even rebuilding a part of society. These are outcomes of his success that he uses to benefit society in some way, either through education of politics or bringing light to an issue that normally doesn’t get the attention it deserves. Being a civic hero doesn’t mean someone needs to invent or market a product like the iPhone or come up with any new gadget to make peoples lives more convenient. Being a civic hero can also mean using success as a pathway to share knowledge and educate people in parts of today’s society that are normally one sided or misguided. Bill Maher is a civic hero because he is unconventional- he did not need to invent a new technology or lead a social movement to benefit the public good- he uses success to increase awareness and knowledge. Although, most of the general population is misguided and one sided- some people like Bill Maher dedicate their television show and success to debunk political misrepresentations in society and use satirical comedy as a tool to illuminate the darkness society is used to, but not always aware of.

