Society & Culture Bill Maher hating on comic book culture

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By Bill Maher

The guy who created Spider-Man and the Hulk has died, and America is in mourning. Deep, deep mourning for a man who inspired millions to, I don’t know, watch a movie, I guess. Someone on Reddit posted, “I'm so incredibly grateful I lived in a world that included Stan Lee.” Personally, I’m grateful I lived in a world that included oxygen and trees, but to each his own. Now, I have nothing against comic books – I read them now and then when I was a kid and I was all out of Hardy Boys. But the assumption everyone had back then, both the adults and the kids, was that comics were for kids, and when you grew up you moved on to big-boy books without the pictures.

But then twenty years or so ago, something happened – adults decided they didn’t have to give up kid stuff. And so they pretended comic books were actually sophisticated literature. And because America has over 4,500 colleges – which means we need more professors than we have smart people – some dumb people got to be professors by writing theses with titles like Otherness and Heterodoxy in the Silver Surfer. And now when adults are forced to do grown-up things like buy auto insurance, they call it “adulting,” and act like it’s some giant struggle.

I’m not saying we’ve necessarily gotten stupider. The average Joe is smarter in a lot of ways than he was in, say, the 1940s, when a big night out was a Three Stooges short and a Carmen Miranda musical. The problem is, we’re using our smarts on stupid stuff. I don’t think it’s a huge stretch to suggest that Donald Trump could only get elected in a country that thinks comic books are important.
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http://www.real-time-with-bill-maher-blog.com/index/2018/11/16/adulting
 

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Maher has a point, the endless Superhero films are such dumbed down repetitive s**t.

Now you get reviewers praising s**t like Thor Ragnarok for injecting some humour because Chris Hemsworth makes some lame unfunny quip, it's still s**t.
 
I'm not a big Marvel fan outside of Spiderman or the X-Men and do think there are too many superhero films these days. However, I don't see why Stan Lee or the comic books he created shouldn't be celebrated by those who grew up on them.

Mahar seems rather ignorant of the fact that comic books catering to adults has been around since before World War 2. The reason why they became so kid originated in America for so long was the Comic Code Authority and their strict outdated rules on what to release. As a result, comic books were considered a dying industry by the late 70s, early 80s until the likes of Alan Moore and Frank Miller made them more adult for modern audiences, defying the Comic Code Authority.

I knew many adults back when who continued to enjoy the Disney/Looney Tune cartoons they watched as kids right up until they died. Why not the same for those who read Superman or Batman?

Hell, even the cartoons I did watch growing up like He-Man or Captain Planet tackled adult issues that are still relevant today.

Watchmen was listed as one of Time magazine's 100 best modern novels of all time, and with good reason.

“Genius is the recovery of childhood at will.” - Arthur Rimbaud
 
Bill Maher is alright. For a political comic at least he recognises how many idiots there are on both sides of the fence.

Don't necessarily disagree with him RE: comic books (I have no interest in endless superhero movies) but he could at least wait for Stan Lee's body to cool down. Always s**t timing to comment on something right after someone has died.
 
I'm entertained by it but I'm not crying over Stan Lee passing. I'm not staging a vigil. There's a lot that do cross that line in the fandom and its like its encouraging lack of emotional resolve.

Sent from mTalk
 
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Bunk Moreland said:
Agree with him 100%. Never had any idea how grown adults are entertained by this s**t. My imagination for this fantasy stuff dried up when I was about 10, ya know, when you realised super powers weren’t real.
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I agree with this and I'm a fan of Maher's, but time and place and all that. So soon after Lee's death, it came across a bit "look at me and how edgy I am" imo.
 
TheWoodenSlug said:
I agree with this and I'm a fan of Maher's, but time and place and all that. So soon after Lee's death, it came across a bit "look at me and how edgy I am" imo.
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Somewhat, but there's also the fact it was topical, and some people were carrying on a bit. If he said it a month later, it would be like lol what, where did that come from?

Can't win sometimes.

Sent from mTalk
 
News cycle is so fast now. Anything that happened 6 hours ago is old news. Talking about things as they come up is how it's going to be.
 
I've never read a comic book in my life and I detest the spate of Marvel/D.C comic movies that are being spewed out recently, but I really ****ing hate wannabe intellectuals like Bill Maher who think that every piece of literature or form of entertainment has to have some grander meaning to it. Not every adult wants politics and philosophy shoved down their throat at every opportunity. Some people just want to chill out and enjoy some mindless entertainment to assist them in getting through their mundane, pointless life. For him to hold the (ignorant) opinion that comic books are for kids is fine, but to make these comments whilst Stan Lee's body was still warm is pretty tasteless. I'm sure if he was in mourning over one of his stand-up comic mates dying he probably wouldn't appreciate others branding their work as stupid and unimportant.

But he got the attention he wanted for him and his blog (lol, people still 'blog' in 2018?) so good on him.
 
Bunk Moreland said:
Agree with him 100%. Never had any idea how grown adults are entertained by this s**t. My imagination for this fantasy stuff dried up when I was about 10, ya know, when you realised super powers weren’t real.
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Would you say the same about grown adults that are into video games?
 
Superheroes are absurd and impossible to take seriously so in that respect the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies have the right tone. But those movies do feel like the same thing over and over and have helped make blockbuster movies become even stupider. That wouldn't really matter if everybody realised it, but there's a whole lot of *s out there who think this stuff is high culture. Maher once made the argument that when this stuff was only released in summer (winter here I guess) people weren't kidding themselves about what it was.
 
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