MOVIE PREVIEW, TEASER: Religulous with Bill Maher
By Norm Schrager at September 13, 2007 | 6:01 am | Print
UPDATE (04.08.08) Check out the new Religulous teaser poster, with Mr. Maher making quite a ”high-minded” statement…
UPDATE (03.05.08) After this post, you can see more Religulous details, including another hot-button appearance by Bill Maher on Larry King Live (seriously, what’s so “live” about that show anyway?…)
ORIGINAL POST
“This movie will make you laugh so hard you’ll pray for it to stop.” That’s the tongue-in-cheek quote from Bill Maher, who’s teamed with director Larry Charles (Borat, “Curb Your Enthusiasm”) to skewer religion with the documentary Religulous. Here’s the early teaser poster from our friends at Lionsgate:
It looks and sounds like Maher and Charles plan to say anything, expose anything, and tear into a millennia-old structure that’s always been at the center of war, politics and law. Check out their comments:
Maher: Since there is nothing more ridiculous than the ancient mythological stories that live on as today’s religions, this movie would try to be a real knee-slapper. Comedically, the topic of religion is hitting the side of a barn — it’s literally hard to miss.
Charles: The funny will be scary, the scary wildly funny. The crazy will seem sane and the sane absolutely and undeniably crazy. All lines are blurred. All bets are off. Nietzsche said God is dead, but he didn’t see the grosses for The Passion of the Christ.
Ahhh. With the current American contradiction that slams together “political correctness” and “the right to free speech,” this one seems like a breath of fresh air. If you’re a religious nut, you’re not gonna see it anyway, so lose the anti-Michael Moore-style rant. Better yet, go right ahead. For those of us who appreciate religion, but also appreciate science, philosophy and reason, this sounds great. And for you atheists… rejoice! Look for a Spring 2008 release.
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16 Comments
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- Quidam –
Hey, I haven’t seen eXpelled so I can’t comment. I think Ben Stein has the occasional axe to grind, but he seems to do it smartly and quietly. What’s the deal with eXpelled? Fill us in when you can.-Norm S. (Meet In the Lobby)
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Quidam- Expelled is an aweful film. Seen it last night. Total propaganda. Seriously not worth watching. If you do, go home and google some of the things they claim and you will feel greatly decieved! Even the Intelligent Design proponents are not that happy about it because it is so clearly Creationist! The IDers are trying to get away from that!
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This will certainly be an interesting project.
I wonder if he will tackle the faith of atheism.
The difficulty will be to take him seriously. After all, people excuse his unfathomable ignorance on the fact that “he is just a comedian.”
I could see people committing the ad hominen based on the fact that even if religious faith is fallacious, if the alternative is to be like Maher then, “No thanks.” Let’s face it, he is certainly not the best, or even mediocre, example of anything that could even be imagined to be decent.
He thinks that incestuous pedophilia is hilarious (http://lifeanddoctrineatheism.blogspot.com/2008/03/bill-mahers-sad-anniversary.html), he rejoices when people such as Jerry Falwell dies (as did Sam Harris and Christopher Hitchens: http://lifeanddoctrineatheism.blogspot.com/2008/02/quadripartite-equine-riders-were-just.html), etc., etc., etc.
Maher has two difficult mountains to climb: he is a clown trying to make a serious point and he is sadly of very, very poor character even while trying to belittle others. -
- Mariano-
I’m not sure I agree that Maher is dismissed as “just” a comedian any longer — between Politically Incorrect and Real Time, he’s been able to establish himself as another guy charged up about politics, culture, and the little guy getting screwed. He may not be taken seriously, but at least he acts serious enough to be out there, in my opinion.
My occasional problem with him is his rush to extreme for the sake of a laugh. I understand it’s part of the game in his career, but you can’t really rail on like a loony about parenthood if you’ve never actually had a child (and yeah, he’s done that.)
And I agree with you, there’s no need to belittle others. If they’re acting stupidly on their own accord, it only requires pointing a finger at them. They’ll look bad all on their own.
Thanks for joining in.
-Norm S. (Meet In the Lobby)
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Meet Bill Maher – April 28th Los Angeles
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=120251030205
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The religion of atheism? is that anything like the hobby of not collecting stamps or the drunk of being sober?
Is there such a word for “not having a religion”?
Jerry Falwell was a horrible person who blamed 9-11 on prochoice and homosexuality. There is also such a thing as “a bad person finally dying”
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I agree with Norm completely. Jerry Falwell was a ridiculous person, and I was thinking the same thing about atheism being called a religion
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I have to point out that the “Norm” who made the Falwell statement was not me, but a Lobby reader named Norm. I’m not saying I don’t agree…
-Norm S. (Meet In the Lobby)
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