Alan Rapp

A compilation of Maher’s New Rules from the closing segment of his HBO show Real Time with Bill Maher such as “Country music stars can’t be authors,” and “If you can’t get drunk at a fraternity, it’s not a fraternity.”  Great stuff!

New Rules
3 & 1/2 Stars

I’ve said it before and I will say it again:  I freakin’ love Bill Maher.  New Rules is a collection of Maher’s weekly musings from the closing segment of HBO’s Real Time With Bill Maher.  Although I don’t always agree with his take, I will constantly stand up and cheer him for having the balls to put it out there without apology.  So sit back kiddies; it’s time for New Rules.

I DON’T CARE IF YOUR PHONE TAKES PICTURES. IT’S A PHONE, NOT A SWISS ARMY KNIFE.

Okay, you know I’ve going to recommend this so let me start of with some of the things that bothered me about the collection.  Except for the introduction there is no new material here.  If you have watched the show you will have seen and heard all that the book contains.  Also, some of the rules do not have the same impact taken out of the context in which they originally aired.  These are small gripes however and although it comes with a steep price tag (Hardcover is priced at $24.95) I still believe it’s a nice addition to a collection, or as Maher says in his introduction many, many times “it makes a great gift.”

So what are New Rules?  They are observations Maher has made about people, activities,  groups, and our society.  For each one he creates a “new rule.”  His rules have a certain liberal slant, but it does not stop him from voicing his displeasure at the both the left and the right.  He also comments on observations and troubling trends of our society.  Each rule is stated as a simple fact and then explained in greater detail.

Maher attacks the evil of fast food, parents who are incapable of disciplining their children, and the spinelessness of the Democratic Party.  He examines the hypocrisy of the small government party, Republicans, invading privacy in the home and even going so far as to try to regulate love and marriage.  He rails against interest groups power in Washington, especially the Christian Right.

He spends time ranting against pharmacists who refuse to fill medical prescriptions for birth control on their own personal moral objections.  He voices his displeasure over Hollywood’s ineptitude to put out a quality product, but spends some time defending his home state of California.  He attacks pop culture; he criticizes the idea of people being famous for nothing and makes a quite humorous suggestion for the name of Brittney Spears’ baby.

In two of his more entertaining spiels he looks as the sexually active youth of America.  In the first, he examines how abstinence pledges have caused teenagers to have exactly the same amount of STDs as teens who do not take the pledge.  Also it seems girls who have taken the pledge are six times more likely to perform oral sex and four times more likely to perform anal sex.  The kids signed a contract, but as Bill points out, “they found loopholes—two of them to be exact.”  In the second he examines a rather strange phenomenon at local malls.  It seems many young suburban white girls have begun prostituting themselves at the local mall in order to buy clothes from the various shops.  Sigh, to be sixteen again. 

I’d recommend this look to anyone that likes political and observational humor; this is well researched and well delivered.  Maher provides a sharp wit, an uncompromising gaze, and a certian flippancy at the world in analyzing what is wrong with all the rest of us.  I’ll leave you with a few more rules I paticularly enjoyed:

If you can’t get drunk at a fraternity, it’s not a fraternity.

Country music stars can’t be authors.

The more complicated the Starbucks order, the bigger the asshole.

Bob Dylan must stop denying he was the voice of a generation.

The people in America who were the most in favor of the Iraq war must go there and fight it.