World Famous Comics: New Rules: Polite Musings from a Timid Observer
New Rules: Polite Musings from a Timid Observer
By: Bill Maher Publisher: Rodale, Inc. Average Rating: Binding: Hardcover Format: Bargain Price Label: Rodale, Inc. Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 230 Publication Date: July 26, 2005
Bill Maher is on the forefront of the new wave of comedians who have begun to influence and shape political debate through their comedy. He is best known not just for being funny, but for advocating truth over sensitivity and taking on the political establishment.Maher first came to national attention as the host of the hit ABC-TV program Politically Incorrect, where he offered a combustible mixture of irreverence and acerbic humor that helped him to garner a loyal following, as well as a reputation for being a controversial bad boy. Bill Maher's popular new HBO television show, Real Time, has put Maher more front and center than ever before. Partic-ularly one regular segment on the show, entitled "New Rules," has been a hit with his ever-growing legion of fans. It is the part of the show during which Maher takes serious aim, bringing all of his intelligence, incisiveness, wit, and his signature exasperation to bear on topics ranging from cell phones ("I don't need my cell phone to take pictures or access the Internet. I just need it to make a phone call. From everywhere! Not just the places it likes!") to fast food ("No McDonald's in hospitals. I'm not kidding!) to the conservative agenda ("Stop claiming it's an agenda. It's not an agenda. It's a random collection of laws that your corporate donors paid you to pass.")His new book, the first since his bestselling When You Ride ALONE You Ride with bin Laden, brings these brilliantly conceived riffs and rants to the written page. Appropriately titled New Rules, the book will collect some of the best of the rules derived from previously written material and will also contain substantial new material, including some longer form "editorials"--of course with a twist and bite that only Bill Maher can deliver.
Amazon.com Review: Book Description: Bill Maher is on the forefront of the new wave of comedians who have begun to influence and shape political debate through their comedy. He is best known not just for being funny, but for advocating truth over sensitivity and taking on the political establishment. Maher first came to national attention as the host of the hit ABC-TV program Politically Incorrect, where he offered a combustible mixture of irreverence and acerbic humor that helped him to garner a loyal following, as well as a reputation for being a controversial bad boy.
Bill Maher's popular new HBO television show, Real Time, has put Maher more front and center than ever before. Particularly one regular segment on the show, entitled "New Rules," has been a hit with his ever-growing legion of fans. It is the part of the show during which Maher takes serious aim, bringing all of his intelligence, incisiveness, wit, and his signature exasperation to bear on topics ranging from cell phones ("I don't need my cell phone to take pictures or access the Internet. I just need it to make a phone call. From everywhere! Not just the places it likes!") to fast food ("No McDonald's in hospitals. I'm not kidding!) to the conservative agenda ("Stop claiming it's an agenda. It's not an agenda. It's a random collection of laws that your corporate donors paid you to pass.")
His new book, the first since his bestselling When You Ride Alone You Ride with bin Laden, brings these brilliantly conceived riffs and rants to the written page. Appropriately titled New Rules, the book will collect some of the best of the rules derived from previously written material and will also contain substantial new material, including some longer form "editorials"--of course with a twist and bite that only Bill Maher can deliver.
Rule Breaker: An Amazon.com Interview with Bill Maher
In New Rules: Polite Musings of a Timid Observer, Bill Maher skewers celebrity, pop culture, and politics in his classic acerbic style. With a new season of Real Time with Bill Maher and an upcoming HBO Special (his sixth), Bill Maher: I'm Swiss, on deck, Maher also found the time to host Amazon.com's 10th Anniversary Concert at Seattle's Benaroya Hall. Amazon.com caught up with Maher upon his return to Los Angeles to talk about the book, the comic's night-table reading habits, the Internet, and what's wrong with the media.
Easy to read but in the same time you can learn something from it There are a lot of stuff that you can learn reading this great book.Maher is a philosopher, he loves to think and to share his opinions about life and he is smart , a combination that can be "lethal" for not so bright folks.His ideas about world are those of a very bright thinker, although he is a democrat and that's why not so objective, most of his rules make sense.Is too bad that he's not apolitical because he would have been a better guy,a true nonconformist.
A glance back New Rules offers a brief review of some of the quips from Real Time. If you're a regular viewer and Maher fan, you've pretty much heard it all before. I didn't mind, since I'd picked it up at a generous discount, and can listen to it with friends who aren't familiar with Maher's bits. Of course his delivery is spot-on, and most of the jokes have a general appeal beyond current events. It's smart and funny and gets my 4 stars; but, as Maher himself pointed out in a New Rules segment, this collection is nothing new.
Meh.. Amusing, on point, toilet reading Not so much a book as much as a collection of random opinions. It's amusing, and I agree with most of what he says. I hardly think it should have been a hardback book though. Its more in line with the little water damaged pocket books you leave sitting on your toilet tank. I picked it up for $3.99 on the clearance rack at Borders, that's about what it's worth, buy it used if you buy it on here. That being said...
I'd buy it again.
Rough and raw Some readers may be surprised by his audacity with the printed word and its' presumptive underpinning. On TV, he's quite the smooth orator, almost always persuasive and articulate. "New Rules" is something like his movie "Religulous"; often hilarious, but too often falling back on tired stuff better left in the gutter. His bit on public "breast feeding" will generate laughs, but they are over and out - something like his expose of a religious cultist in the above-mentioned film, who indulges in ritualistic (?) marihuana smoking. Bill (appears to) light one up too and we say...got the point...but we're well past Woodstock.
Bill Maher is always worth listening too but this is not his best work This collection of observations is pretty hit and miss. Many of the jokes are obviously excerpts from stand-up rountines and don't have the impact when read on a page rather than being delivered on-stage. There are some really funny comments but many others just bomb. Another disappointment is that there is simply not that much material here and what there is is scattershot - the whole enterprise would have benefited from a cohesive theme. Bill Maher's iconoclastic perspective is great but this is simply not his best work.
Anything Goes Trivia
Megaton Man
Trevor
In New Rules: Polite Musings of a Timid Observer, Bill Maher skewers celebrity, pop culture, and politics in his classic acerbic style. With a new season of Real Time with Bill Maher and an upcoming HBO Special (his sixth), Bill Maher: I'm Swiss, on deck, Maher also found the time to host Amazon.com's 10th Anniversary Concert at Seattle's Benaroya Hall. Amazon.com caught up with Maher upon his return to Los Angeles to talk about the book, the comic's night-table reading habits, the Internet, and what's wrong with the media. 
