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Is Anyone Else Seeing This?

Bill Maher

HBO · 2025 · 66 min

A cynical political lecture that marks his potential stage retirement.

Bill Maher walked onto the stage of Chicago’s CIBC Theatre in late 2024 with an hour designed to irritate partisans of every stripe. Positioned as a direct appeal to the politically exhausted, the set serves as a broad-side critique of American tribalism, taped just weeks after the presidential election. Maher makes it clear from his opening minutes that while the country might have signed up for another round of Donald Trump, he has no intention of letting the news cycle consume his sanity. Instead, he spends the hour lecturing on the performative absurdities of the left, the conspiratorial lurch of the right, and the collective panic of a nation that has forgotten how to have a normal conversation.

The special, which premiered on HBO in January 2025, represents Maher’s 13th stand-up hour for the network. It arrived alongside his announcement on his podcast that he intends to retire from the road, making this special his likely farewell to the stage. Clocking in at just over an hour, the material often plays less like traditional stand-up and more like an extended, highly polished version of his weekly late-night monologues. When he departs from national politics, Maher pivots to personal fixations, including the failures of modern parenting, the lingering irritations of late-stage pandemic behavior, and a lengthy final stretch reviewing his own sex life and his decision never to marry.

While some critics complained that the show felt more like a lecture than a comedy routine, the hour still earned a Golden Globe nomination, proving that Maher’s brand of equal-opportunity irritation remains a draw for viewers tired of predictable team-player politics.

The set list

6 bits

  1. Donald Trump assassination attempt and morality

    Dismisses denialist conspiracy theories around the 2024 campaign rally shooting, remarking that an attendee dying while Trump survived makes Trump 'Jesus in reverse. Other people die for his sins.'

  2. Trans fats and Dave Chappelle

    Argues that people should be wary of scientific consensus getting things right on the first try, citing trans fats as fats that 'hate Dave Chappelle.'

  3. The '69' sexual position

    Critiques the mechanics of oral sex, labeling the 69 position the 'betamax' and 'myspace' of sexual positions and claiming participants are either incompetent or lying.

  4. Campus activism and Middle East protests

    Criticizes student protesters demonstrating in support of Hamas by likening their stance to 'rooting for the planes on 9/11.'

  5. Southern political campaign advertisements

    Acts out a reductive Southern campaign ad focusing solely on trucks and firearms rather than actual public policy.

  6. Critique of Gen Z and modern parenting

    Claims parents treat modern kids as rational adults when 'they're stupid, like dogs,' and jokes that kids are primarily important because 'they assembled my phone.'

How it plays

Tone
Sardonic, biting, combative, unfiltered, and cynical.
On stage
Sardonic, self-described 'noticer' and old-school liberal railing against extremes on both sides, delivering material with a lecture-like, confident, and unapologetic demeanor.
Pace
Conversational, episodic monologue cadence with deliberate pauses, repetitive thematic beats, and occasional mock voice act-outs.
About
Hypocrisies of conservative and liberal politics, Donald Trump and political violence, Wokeness and cancel culture, Freedom of speech and the First Amendment, Gen Z, parenting, and modern youth, Sex, dating, and aging

What the critics said

Met with widespread critical skepticism; reviewers from Salon, Decider, and MSNBC described the special as tired, formulaic, and lazy, arguing it rehashed well-worn monologues from Real Time into a smug, lecture-heavy set rather than inventive stand-up comedy.

In the room: Mixed and polarized dynamic, featuring enthusiastic applause from partisan supporters alongside isolated single laughs, canned response accusations, and noticeable silence on contentious punchlines.

Summed up from reviews, articles and listings. Sources: imdb.com, whattowatch.com, rottentomatoes.com, letterboxd.com, decider.com, ms.now, hbowatch.com, salon.com, en.wikipedia.org.

Backstory

Filmed in Chicago in December 2024 in the immediate aftermath of the 2024 presidential election, amid heightened American political polarization, culture war debates over free speech, wokeness, and generational friction.

Details

Released
Taped
2024, CIBC Theatre, Chicago
Runtime
66 min
Where
HBO
Director
Marcus Raboy
Topics
Before
#Adulting (2022)
After
The Kennedy Center Mark Twain Prize for American Humor (2026)

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