Photos by Virginia Rollison
It was the smackdown of a lifetime, albeit one we’ve seen before: Bill Maher versus Ann Coulter. Last night’s sold-out event took place at Radio City Music Hall, and the tusslers tackled everything from President Obama’s first 45 days in office to why newspapers (and reporters, flip sons of bitches that they are) deserve to die.
The fight was mostly friendly, even if the audience wasn’t. Yes, Ann Coulter was booed. Repeatedly. Deafeningly at one point. This came after both Maher and a Radio City rep asked the audience nicely to be respectful and let Coulter have her two cents. Maher, in his plea for civility, told attendees that his favorite thing about Coulter was that she “wasn’t afraid to get booed,” and that “this country needs more people like that.”
Never one to bow under pressure, Coulter stood tall (and awfully skinny), cracked some zingers of her own and wrapped her 15-minute remarks amid a torrent of “You suck!”s and “Where’s Bill?!?”s. Maher’s monologue followed; among other things, he derided the Republicans’ decision to consistently and repeatedly nominate bimbos (Danforth Quayle, George Bush, Sarah “George Bush with tits” Palin, etc.); their idiocy regarding the war on drugs, Iraq, Afghanistan and Muslim-sounding middle names; and their insistence on calling Obama everything (socialist, communist, etc.) except what he is: black. News flash, he joshed, “It’s not a birthmark!”
When Coulter went off on one of her seemingly well-documented tangents (embryonic stem-cell research springs to mind), Maher whipped out her nickname: “Two-Day Ann,” the idea being that when she’s talking—on the show, here, wherever—the stuff sounds good, but look it up two days later and you’ll see it for the “rectum-derived” drivel that it truly is.
The best barb of the night—or at least the one that pulled the greatest ballyhoo—was slung by Maher during a round on science and faith: Coulter was calling hogwash on all the scientists who stand behind evolutionary theory, and Maher asked her if she also believed gravity was something Jews invented to collect spare change.
After the show, we checked in with TONY ticket-giveaway winner Clint Headley, a black Republican (and Coulter fan) who brought his white Democrat girlfriend (a Maher fan) to the throwdown. Says Headley, “Even my girlfriend thought [the audience] was being mean to [Coulter]. I wish the New York liberals who claim to be so fair would have given her the respect she deserved.… She’s such a smart and well-read woman.… When the moderator asked who could be a Republican candidate for 2012, I was hoping she would announce her interest. Though she hasn’t held any government positions, she’s still more qualified than Palin.” Well put, friend.
See: Democrats and Republicans can get along.
Bummed you missed it? You can still snag tickets to Anderson Cooper, Arianna Huffington, Mike Huckabee and D.L. Hughley on March 31 and James Carville, Karl Rove and Charlie Rose on May 26. Note: The attorney-general brawl scheduled for April 20 has been canceled. We’re guessing something more pressing—like a singing engagement for John Ashcroft—came up.
Ms. Coulter is a very smart and intelligent woman, and I think she is a good looking woman until she starts to speak in that mean spirited tone, this is the United States; but when you have republicians like Ann who wants blood to prove their point, that shuts me down and I go on a defensive seige. That attitude from both parties makes us Divided States and I really hope one day that we could all somehow get along better than we do. I’m really excited about President Obama and his willingness to work for the people of all races and fix our country, he is doing a fabulous job. We all know that knowone is perfect so lets give the guy a chance and continue to support him. Ms. Coulter your a talented person but my suggestion is to use your energy in a positive way instead of being a mean spirited soul. Get your party to work with President Obama and resolve your issues in a more settle way, I’m not saying to concede but be respectful to one another, and lets resolve the issues.
Ann Coulter vs Bill Maher is like comparing a Harley Davidson to a Big Wheel.
Bill Maher is the democrats representative here? That shows you where they stand. He is a comedian, not a political expert - more like a dunce with motor skills. If you have seen Ann enough, you’d know there is no “mean-spiritedness” about her. But she is passionate about what she believes in. She cares about our country. Genuinely. As opposed to Bill Maher, who only really cares about cracking jokes and getting a paycheck. And as for mean-spirited - how about the liberal cretins who booed Ann during the debate? Having Jerry Springer audience-like attendees (liberals) making noise and acting like children is testament to their mentality. Obama working for all the people? Give me a break. Trillions of dollars being spent on nothing, and now the Chinese own us. A fabulous job, yes - if you’re a socialist retard.
…and by the way Tony - “knowone” isn’t a word.
Really RamJet666? If Bill Maher is nothing but an entertainer then what is Rush Limbaugh? I’m not sure where you get your information from, assuming Maher just does it for the paycheck and Coulter is all about passion is just ignorance on your part. Also average Americans expressing themselves against the failed Republicans does not equal to Jerry Springer. Don’t get off on saying Ann Coulter is just being passionate while the audience is just there to boo the much disliked conservative.
As a final note; Obama was not the sole reason we are in extreme debt to the Chinese right now - I’ll go as far as to say he had no influence on the debt we are in right now. And looking at our current economy Socialism sounds pretty darn good. Look at the Swedes.
To RamJet666, And there must have been a lot of those so called “liberals” in the crowd when McCain gave his congratulations to Obama on election night. Because, as I recall, they were booing when he congratulated Obama on winning.
And when the crowd was shouting “Shoot him” and all the other stupid things at a Palin rally.
It is still funny how people only see what they want to see…on both sides of the aisle. We will never get anything done if people don’t just let it go.
I don’t see how anyone could like or respect Ann Coulter. People like her make me think of CIVIL WAR. Loudmouth idiots, so stuck in their moronic ways like Coulter should not EXIST. Ann Coulter, go eat donkey poo and jump into a pool of lava.
Maher is nothing but a cheap comic. He doesn’t deliver anything substantive. He plays on ad hominem. “I have nothing to say about issues, but I have a really good joke to put down the people on the other side.” It’s only funny to the same people who got their jollies on the playground picking on someone else’s weight, or nose, or hair.
It says something, that so many liberals think it’s brilliant to get on TV, be clueless about actual issues, and call names. Wow, that’s just genius.
Ann Coulter is every bit the comedian that Bill Maher is. Maher is just good at it while coulter is a pathetic shock jock. Classy lady slamming the grieving 9/11 widows, and urging them to appear in Playboy before their 15 minutes was up. Two day Ann is the perfect name for her. Too bad the only people who bother to fact check her already know she’s wrong. Thanks to the “conservatives” for mortgaging my grandchildren’s future to pay for a war only the most die hard idiots support.