Name: Larry Charles talks Bill Maher and “Wokeism”
Uploaded: 2023-10-24T12:00:03.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Larry Charles talks Bill Maher and “Wokeism”' from Office Hours Live with Tim Heidecker on Comedy Buff. Published 2023-10-24. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Larry Charles talks Bill Maher and “Wokeism”' from Office Hours Live with Tim Heidecker on Comedy Buff. Published 2023-10-24. Transcript available.

Your pal, Bill Maher, mentioned you on his podcast.
Uh-oh. And the director, Larry Charles,
you know, he really is my full partner in this.
I can't direct a movie. He did Borat.
You know, he's a genius, Larry Charles.
Hey, let's hear it for that.
So I had dinner with him recently, and I said,
I always thought we shouldn't do Religious 2, the Hindus,
but somebody suggested to me Religious 2,
but the religion is, um, woke-ism.
He's talking to Tommy Lee.
Tommy Lee doesn't want to talk about this.
Okay, confirm.
He's ready to throw up Tommy Lee.
He's drunk a gallon of vodka.
Yeah, he drank his two gallons.
He did talk to me about that,
but also I should tell you that I was the original director on,
what was the name of the movie about Motley Crue, The Dirt.
Oh, wow.
I was the original director on that.
So I hung out with Motley Crue for quite a while
until I couldn't take it anymore,
and I dropped it.
Because they wanted to be like,
we're the Beatles.
We want our master taste.
I was like, people want to see you snort pants on the ground,
you know, with Ozzy Osbourne.
But Bill did mention that to me at dinner.
We had dinner a few weeks ago.
And so he drops this woke-ism stuff,
and you've got to just be like, mm-hmm.
Or does that interest you?
Well, I'm open to the idea of exploring.
I've had people come to me with different documentary ideas
about woke-ism and political correctness.
Yeah, yeah.
It doesn't feel that fresh to me, really.
Cancel culture, all this stuff feels like
a kind of already warmed over.
It's been marinating since the 90s.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So I think if there was some way to do something
that makes that subject funny,
and again, crosses the boundaries and is unpredictable,
then maybe I would be open to that.
But I couldn't say yes or no to it.
It's a very embryonic idea.
And I don't think Bill's the guy to walk us through that.
I don't think he even wants to do it, actually.
It's just, of course, you sit around and you spitball things.
It is an obsession of his, it feels like, lately.
It's like...
He has been on a bit of a tear.
Yeah, and it's a little, like, it's sad
because it feels a little grumpy old man get off my lawn feeling.
Which is weird with, you know, the thing,
that is how he sometimes comes off.
And yet in my exposure to him over the years,
he's actually a very open-minded person, strangely enough.
You wouldn't think it from the persona.
Yeah, yeah.
But, I mean, he is very open to changing his mind.
And listening and stuff like that.
And that I always find surprising about Bill.
Well, I guess you could say...
In terms of his perception.
In that way, he's not sticking to this kind of partisan line.
Yeah.
As he presents with the way he thinks.
But it does feel like that feeling of when older guys
kind of see the world changing and can't get on board.
And it's like, you got it.
Sometimes it's hard.
I was just going to say, you get into a bubble sometimes.
People get into bubbles.
They're surrounded by people who are sort of agreeing with them.
And they lose touch with the outside world.
I think one of the great things that you're doing here
is you're very tapped into the real world.
But Bill, to some degree, and a lot of people that I know like this
are kind of isolated from the real world.
Sure.
And so they develop their ideas within this bubble.
Yeah.
And it's not really tested in the real world as much.
Yeah, they're having dinner with their manager and, you know,
other people on their level.
Yes.
With you.
But you could push back on him a little bit.
But maybe you don't feel like you want to because that's uncomfortable.
I push back.
But it's also, it's like having a sandwich.
You know what I mean?
It's like, it's not, neither one of us is going to change anything
over the hour that I spent with him.
So it almost reminds me when I was a kid
and guys started growing their hair along
and they go, you can't tell the boys from the girls anymore.
You know what I mean?
There's a little bit of that feeling to all this also.
Trans swimmers are going to ruin the world, you know?
That kind of stuff.