What This Comedian Said Will Shock You cover art

What This Comedian Said Will Shock You

 Preview
Try Premium Plus free
1 credit a month to buy any audiobook in our entire collection.
Access to thousands of additional audiobooks and Originals from the Plus Catalogue.
Member-only deals & discounts.
Auto-renews at $16.45/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

What This Comedian Said Will Shock You

By: Bill Maher
Narrated by: Bill Maher
Try Premium Plus free

$16.45 per month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for $26.99

Buy Now for $26.99

About this listen

The hilarious and controversial host of HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher has written his funniest, most opinionated, and most necessary book ever—a brilliantly astute and acerbically funny vivisection of American life, politics, and culture.

Some of the smartest commentary about what’s happening in America is coming from a comedian—this comedian being Bill Maher. If you want to understand what’s wrong with this country, it turns out that one of the best informed and most thought-provoking analysts is this very funny pothead.

The book was inspired by the “editorial” Bill delivers at the end of each episode of Real Time. These editorials are direct-to-camera sermons about culture, politics, and what’s happening in the world. To put this book together, Maher reviewed more than a decade of his editorials, rewriting, reimagining, and updating them, and adding new material to speak exactly to the moment we’re in. Free speech, cops, drugs, race, religion, the generations, cancel culture, the parties, the media, show biz, romance, health—Maher covers it all. The result is a hugely entertaining work of commentary about American culture in the tradition of Mark Twain, Will Rogers, and H. L. Mencken.

©2024 Bill Maher (P)2024 Simon & Schuster Audio Elections & Political Process Politics & Government United States World Funny Witty
All stars
Most relevant  
I like Bill, But in my view, he seems to make broad assumptions about a number of topics based on anecdotal evidence, rather than documented, Scientific fact. I think he'd be wise to have a disclaimer to cover himself, with some of his comments, that on no occasion do I recall, claimed was only his opinion.

Cynicism at its best

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
providing amusement or enjoyment
Ie. a list of entertaining things to do on a snow day

Funny and incisive

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Simultaneously irreverent and irrelevant performed with a more relaxed but still patronising tone that sometimes gets drowned out by the overenthusiastic whoops and cheers from the idiots in his studio audience on Real Time, the kind of trained seals who would applaud a ham sandwich (especially if it had marijuana on it) perpetual left leaning, fake fence sitter and Americas pre-eminent sciolist Bill Maher doesn't have to concern himself with runtime or how much he can bang on about certain pet peeve subjects in this hours long form version of the "New Rules" editorial.

Everything from the same blinkered view of Republicans to his edgy, 12 year old boy who decided to become atheist because he finds Sunday school boring, attitude towards organised religion to endless griping that the horde of Marxist zombies he helped propagate, some of which he keeps, roaming the grounds of his private estate occasionally break out and wreak havoc. Maher's tired, predictable opinions are back in these well-worn paths down the same rabbit holes.

Always the smartest guy in the room of any given mansion he calls home, because he lives by himself. The childless, confirmed bachelor multimillionaire playboy and grumpy miserly old boomer Maher emerges from his own hermetically sealed, Trump Derangement Syndrome fallout shelter like a completely unchanged Ebenezer Scrooge to elaborate on exactly the same stuff he's been complaining about for 30 years on his tv show so for the most part its stuff you've already heard in dispersed with some new content.
While the title isn't exactly controversial, Maher still proves that he's an "old school classical liberal" which at this point means "in nearly every way that matters, he's conservative, but his head is so utterly up his own rectum that he can never be fully trusted"

Deep down Maher knows the world, and the people he's envious of, is leaving him behind. Especially in his "explaining jokes to idiots" series, which demonstrates the kind of breathtaking lack of introspection that maybe what was written for him by his writing team, just wasn't funny.

Until he can let go of criticisms stretching back as far as the Bush administration and grow as a person, which means ditching most, if not all, of his previously held stupid beliefs, 'What the Comedian said will Shock you' is a reminder a broken clock also gets it wrong 22 times a day.

Maher's condescending tone and Trump Derangement Syndrome is on full display... again.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
The best book imho. Logic, common sense, and dare I say it, keeping it real. Thanks Bill

Just so many moments of "exactly!"

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I enjoyed this book. Great humour and plenty of hot takes on a range of subjects that will have you laughing and thinking.

Great humour and insight.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
lf you like bill Maher real-time new rules segment this will be right up your alley.

real-time compilation

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

As a huge fan of Real Time and Club Random this was unsatisying.

Maher's customary satirical wit is unfortunately lacking, replaced by a bad-tempered lurching from one complaint to the next.

I now understand why Bill was falling over himself to tell/remind various hosts on his promo tour how the book is funny.

Sorry Bill, doth protest too much. You are a very funny man but this book isn't. Whilst I agree with nearly all of your thrusts the few laughs are far overshadowed by the excesses of cynicism.

Light on humour

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I was told this was "laugh out loud funny". I don't think I even chuckled once. The jokes were lame and predictable. I like Bill Maher and generally like his commentary on various political topics and generally agree with most of what he says but this book just didn't cut it for me.

Not really funny, but mostly sensible

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
In the spirit of reconciliation, Audible acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.