Bill Maher Compares the NFL and MLB to the Republicans and Democrats

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Darth Jello

RE: Blaxican
Baseball is incredibly boring.

Rogue Jedi
Boring to watch, fun as hell to play.

The Dark Cloud
I think all sports are about as interesting as a five pound bag of fertilizer

skekUng
I think he was speaking more to the mental midgets that make up the tea party. I think he summed it up perfectly, though. I love Bill Maher.

Quiero Mota
That was a dumb comparison on his part, because it was just an obvious joke and nothing more.

The World Series is best 4 out of 7; the Super Bowl is one game, once a year. It also has a more fitting name, because most of the world isn't into baseball. And many people who aren't even into football watch it for the commercials alone, its also an unofficial American holiday.

My youngest brother who's currently an officer stationed in Iraq tells me that there's only two days a year that they're allowed to drink and party on-base: Marine Corps Birthday and the Super Bowl. So its become a special day in American cultre.

Maybe if pro basketball, baseball and hockey limited their championships to only one game, they might earn the cult following that the Super Bowl has.

red g jacks
that's clever, and i didn't realize that all of the NFL teams shared the television revenue, but i'm pretty sure americans upgraded from watching baseball to football for the simple fact that football is more violent, more entertaining and less demanding to follow. baseball is 162 games for each team. 162 games of this:

jfwp70Bdfy8

Rogue Jedi
Originally posted by The Dark Cloud
I think all sports are about as interesting as a five pound bag of fertilizer A bag of fertilizer can potentially be very interesting.

BruceSkywalker
until Maher can actually get out there and throw a football or throw a baseball, maybe even run a 4/40 in the 40 yard dash or hit a homerun without the benefit of steroids than maybe i will believe what he is saying

Rogue Jedi
Originally posted by BruceSkywalker
until Maher can actually get out there and throw a football or throw a baseball, maybe even run a 4/40 in the 40 yard dash or hit a homerun without the benefit of steroids than maybe i will believe what he is saying thumb up

Or hit a 100 mph fastball. Not all can do it.


I can thumb up

Grate the Vraya
Originally posted by Quiero Mota
That was a dumb comparison on his part, because it was just an obvious joke and nothing more.

The World Series is best 4 out of 7; the Super Bowl is one game, once a year. It also has a more fitting name, because most of the world isn't into baseball. And many people who aren't even into football watch it for the commercials alone, its also an unofficial American holiday.

My youngest brother who's currently an officer stationed in Iraq tells me that there's only two days a year that they're allowed to drink and party on-base: Marine Corps Birthday and the Super Bowl. So its become a special day in American cultre.

Maybe if pro basketball, baseball and hockey limited their championships to only one game, they might earn the cult following that the Super Bowl has. It was a decent analogy IMO. Whether what he said was clever or not, it's still true. I don't know what your tangent about the popularity of the Super Bowl was about so I shall just ignore it. Originally posted by BruceSkywalker
until Maher can actually get out there and throw a football or throw a baseball, maybe even run a 4/40 in the 40 yard dash or hit a homerun without the benefit of steroids than maybe i will believe what he is saying That's completely illogical. Did you even read the quotation? Maher did not mention anything about his own athletic skill.

ADarksideJedi
Originally posted by RE: Blaxican
Baseball is incredibly boring.

I argee and being that the Superbowl is not until the afternoon people still can go to church before they watch it.

red g jacks
Originally posted by ADarksideJedi
I argee and being that the Superbowl is not until the afternoon people still can go to church before they watch it. you're a legend.

skekUng
Originally posted by Quiero Mota
That was a dumb comparison on his part, because it was just an obvious joke and nothing more.

The World Series is best 4 out of 7; the Super Bowl is one game, once a year. It also has a more fitting name, because most of the world isn't into baseball. And many people who aren't even into football watch it for the commercials alone, its also an unofficial American holiday.

My youngest brother who's currently an officer stationed in Iraq tells me that there's only two days a year that they're allowed to drink and party on-base: Marine Corps Birthday and the Super Bowl. So its become a special day in American cultre.

Maybe if pro basketball, baseball and hockey limited their championships to only one game, they might earn the cult following that the Super Bowl has.

I cry foul. It wasn't a dumb comparison, you simply decide to over analyze it to death because you're one of those 100 million Americans who drool over the game. And that's fine, but maybe you never realized the socialist aspect of the game. I also call foul that in order to validate your opinion on the joke, you have to bring up both your child and your child's service in the military, in a war zone. I honestly mean you no offense, but you did say it in a way that makes me think it isn't the first time you've made mention of your son being in Iraq as a means of disallowing anyone from arguing with your opinion.

Originally posted by BruceSkywalker
until Maher can actually get out there and throw a football or throw a baseball, maybe even run a 4/40 in the 40 yard dash or hit a homerun without the benefit of steroids than maybe i will believe what he is saying

You completely missed the point. It has nothing to do with believing what he is saying. You may be one of those people he was talking about in the joke.

Quiero Mota
Originally posted by skekUng
I cry foul. It wasn't a dumb comparison, you simply decide to over analyze it to death because you're one of those 100 million Americans who drool over the game. And that's fine, but maybe you never realized the socialist aspect of the game. I also call foul that in order to validate your opinion on the joke, you have to bring up both your child and your child's service in the military, in a war zone. I honestly mean you no offense, but you did say it in a way that makes me think it isn't the first time you've made mention of your son being in Iraq as a means of disallowing anyone from arguing with your opinion.

I'm actually a dual US-Mexican citizen, and I won't be drooling over this game because my team isn't playing in it. But I'll still watch it for the commercials (which is what the game is mostly for), and because I hate the Steelers...and I like I said, the game has become a special day of partying and socializing in American culture. There's no "socialist aspect" to it at all, he was making a political joke, which is what Maher has always done for a living. Also, what "child" Did I bring up? I mentioned my brother, and something he told me that shows how the Super Bowl has become an unoffical US holiday. Argue all you want with my opinion. Nada malo, guey.

inimalist

King Kandy
Originally posted by inimalist
can anyone else piece together what he is saying here?

the best I can interpret is that political indifference caused the French Revolution? or he thinks Antoinette was indifferent?
I think he's saying that because the French royalty was indifferent to the lives of its citizens, there was a revolution.

BruceSkywalker
Originally posted by Rogue Jedi
thumb up

Or hit a 100 mph fastball. Not all can do it.


I can thumb up


i can still hit 100mph fastball as well..

Originally posted by Grate the Vraya
It was a decent analogy IMO. Whether what he said was clever or not, it's still true. I don't know what your tangent about the popularity of the Super Bowl was about so I shall just ignore it. That's completely illogical. Did you even read the quotation? Maher did not mention anything about his own athletic skill.

Originally posted by skekUng
I cry foul. It wasn't a dumb comparison, you simply decide to over analyze it to death because you're one of those 100 million Americans who drool over the game. And that's fine, but maybe you never realized the socialist aspect of the game. I also call foul that in order to validate your opinion on the joke, you have to bring up both your child and your child's service in the military, in a war zone. I honestly mean you no offense, but you did say it in a way that makes me think it isn't the first time you've made mention of your son being in Iraq as a means of disallowing anyone from arguing with your opinion.



You completely missed the point. It has nothing to do with believing what he is saying. You may be one of those people he was talking about in the joke.

i have never liked nor care about Bill Maher.. Others in my family love is show, I'll only watch when he has on someone I like

Grate the Vraya
Originally posted by Quiero Mota
I'm actually a dual US-Mexican citizen, and I won't be drooling over this game because my team isn't playing in it. But I'll still watch it for the commercials (which is what the game is mostly for), and because I hate the Steelers...and I like I said, the game has become a special day of partying and socializing in American culture. There's no "socialist aspect" to it at all, he was making a political joke, which is what Maher has always done for a living. Also, what "child" Did I bring up? I mentioned my brother, and something he told me that shows how the Super Bowl has become an unoffical US holiday. Argue all you want with my opinion. Nada malo, guey. Maher is not saying that the Super Bowl uses a policy similar to socialism. He's saying that the entire sport of football and especially the draft rules share policies with socialism. I you actually managed to read the quotation, you would have realized that the Super Bowl was hardly even mentioned. Originally posted by BruceSkywalker
i can still hit 100mph fastball as well..





i have never liked nor care about Bill Maher.. Others in my family love is show, I'll only watch when he has on someone I like So, to make sure that I understand, you don't believe anything Bill Maher says because he's not athletic and you don't like him, right?

skekUng
Originally posted by Quiero Mota
I'm actually a dual US-Mexican citizen, and I won't be drooling over this game because my team isn't playing in it. But I'll still watch it for the commercials (which is what the game is mostly for), and because I hate the Steelers...and I like I said, the game has become a special day of partying and socializing in American culture. There's no "socialist aspect" to it at all, he was making a political joke, which is what Maher has always done for a living. Also, what "child" Did I bring up? I mentioned my brother, and something he told me that shows how the Super Bowl has become an unoffical US holiday. Argue all you want with my opinion. Nada malo, guey.

My mistake. I thought you said son. Otherwise, my point does not change and you haven't challenged them, jerk.

Originally posted by BruceSkywalker
i have never liked nor care about Bill Maher.. Others in my family love is show, I'll only watch when he has on someone I like

you believing him, much less caring about him or who is on his show does not change the fact that his point flew right over your head.

Grate the Vraya
Originally posted by skekUng
My mistake. I thought you said son. Otherwise, my point does not change and you haven't challenged them, jerk.



you believing him, much less caring about him or who is on his show does not change the fact that his point flew right over your head. There's no need for namecalling. Especially when you're agreeing with me.

BruceSkywalker
Originally posted by Grate the Vraya
Maher is not saying that the Super Bowl uses a policy similar to socialism. He's saying that the entire sport of football and especially the draft rules share policies with socialism. I you actually managed to read the quotation, you would have realized that the Super Bowl was hardly even mentioned. So, to make sure that I understand, you don't believe anything Bill Maher says because he's not athletic and you don't like him, right?

no i couldn't care if he was athletic or not, if he was than perhaps he would have a better leg to to stand on being that he actually played sports


Originally posted by skekUng
My mistake. I thought you said son. Otherwise, my point does not change and you haven't challenged them, jerk.



you believing him, much less caring about him or who is on his show does not change the fact that his point flew right over your head.

actually no what he said didn't go over my head.. the man is a pompous arse.. if he was so all that than perhaps he should stop being on HBO and go out there and help the world better instead of talking about it

Grate the Vraya
Originally posted by BruceSkywalker
until Maher can actually get out there and throw a football or throw a baseball, maybe even run a 4/40 in the 40 yard dash or hit a homerun without the benefit of steroids than maybe i will believe what he is saying You don't believe him because he can't do these things?

skekUng
Originally posted by BruceSkywalker
no i couldn't care if he was athletic or not, if he was than perhaps he would have a better leg to to stand on being that he actually played sports




actually no what he said didn't go over my head.. the man is a pompous arse.. if he was so all that than perhaps he should stop being on HBO and go out there and help the world better instead of talking about it

Your comments stand in direct contradiction to what they claim. Either you do or do not hold his lack of experience in the NFL against his ability to observe, from the outside, just like every drooling fan who watches the games, the rules you love and cheerish against the institution that observes them, the inability of the majority of Americans who enjoy that institution to comprehend the joke he's made or the people towards whom the joke was intended.

As for your second, tossed in at the last minute, point, don't be mad. You love the millionaires that beat the hell out of each other on Super Bowl Sunday, but hate the millionaire on HBO that makes intellectual jokes about their behavior and the codification you get from it. Guess what, if you didn't pick up on that point, you totally missed the joke he was making. The more you say, the more correct you prove him to be.

BruceSkywalker
Originally posted by skekUng
Your comments stand in direct contradiction to what they claim. Either you do or do not hold his lack of experience in the NFL against his ability to observe, from the outside, just like every drooling fan who watches the games, the rules you love and cheerish against the institution that observes them, the inability of the majority of Americans who enjoy that institution to comprehend the joke he's made or the people towards whom the joke was intended.

As for your second, tossed in at the last minute, point, don't be mad. You love the millionaires that beat the hell out of each other on Super Bowl Sunday, but hate the millionaire on HBO that makes intellectual jokes about their behavior and the codification you get from it. Guess what, if you didn't pick up on that point, you totally missed the joke he was making. The more you say, the more correct you prove him to be.


k

Quiero Mota
Originally posted by skekUng
My mistake. I thought you said son. Otherwise, my point does not change and you haven't challenged them, jerk.


Even though "son" and "brother" aren't spelled alike, or are even similar sounding words? In any event...

What "point"? That there's a socialist aspect to the game? If anything, the game embodies capitalism, considering that to air a 30 second commercial costs approx. 2 million dollars. (By the way; I got Maher's Republican/Democrat metaphor, I just thought it was corny).

skekUng
Originally posted by Quiero Mota
Even though "son" and "brother" aren't spelled alike, or are even similar sounding words? In any event...

What "point"? That there's a socialist aspect to the game? If anything, the game embodies capitalism, considering that to air a 30 second commercial costs approx. 2 million dollars. (By the way; I got Maher's Republican/Democrat metaphor, I just thought it was corny).

You're harping on a simple misread as a means of trying to bolster your point, much like needing to mention a family member in the military, in Iraq, at all when you express a simple opinion, so that people will lend your opinions more weight. That point, also, has not changed.

No, that you thought it was dumb simply because you enjoy this holiday and the sport it celebrates. Just because your brother gets to drink beer in Iraq because 1/3 of the US gets off on watching millionaires beat the hell out of each other in a game with socialist rules, but then pretend they understand socialism at all, much less that it is already present and operating in many ways in our country and government.

skekUng
Originally posted by Grate the Vraya
There's no need for namecalling. Especially when you're agreeing with me.

I called you no names. Mota called me one, though. I think he understood.

meep-meep
Hmm. Not a horrible comparison. I would say that all major American professional sports are by nature capitalist, but, it does seem that this past decade there hasn't been one football team that has completely dominated the NFL. On the flip side of that though is that there are a few teams that have been bottom feeders for quite awhile e.g. Lions, Raiders etc. Admittedly, though, they have made some impressive improvements this year. All in all , I like his simile .

skekUng
-w5CckZtcNU

ADarksideJedi
Originally posted by red g jacks
you're a legend.

Ok and your point is?

Quiero Mota
Originally posted by meep-meep
Hmm. Not a horrible comparison. I would say that all major American professional sports are by nature capitalist, but, it does seem that this past decade there hasn't been one football team that has completely dominated the NFL. On the flip side of that though is that there are a few teams that have been bottom feeders for quite awhile e.g. Lions, Raiders etc. Admittedly, though, they have made some impressive improvements this year. All in all , I like his simile .

Because they are by nature capitalist. Children's sports, on the other hand, are pretty socialist. Little league baseball, pee-wee football, and even karate all award kids just for participating. Everyone on the team, win or lose, gets a trophy just for being present and to not hurt any feelings. I don't like it, because it doesn't encourage the kids to push themselves; it dulls their drive.

Now, when we start to get into the upper echelon sports, things are a lot different. In college football and in the NFL, the only ones playing are the guys who are good enough to be there. High school sports is where sorry players get culled out. The coaches have hopefully done their job of filtering out the bad players, so when college scouts come around, they only see the best ones. So NCAA and NFL football worship the best individuals, who make the most money for the school or franchise. Brett Favre didn't get to be the guy he is (or was, during his prime) through any "socialist" environment. His case is an example of survival of the fittest at work.

skekUng
You can't redefine the joke by suddenly assuming the rules that get the players on the field are the point, rather than the rules that govern them once they're there -or the huge number of fans who adore the game, while ignoring the nature of the rules that govern it. Those fans would cry foul if those rules were ignored, but don't have the presence of mind to associate that level of fairness when the concept is extended to other games, like modern American politics.

meep-meep
Originally posted by Quiero Mota
Because they are by nature capitalist. Children's sports, on the other hand, are pretty socialist. Little league baseball, pee-wee football, and even karate all award kids just for participating. Everyone on the team, win or lose, gets a trophy just for being present and to not hurt any feelings. I don't like it, because it doesn't encourage the kids to push themselves; it dulls their drive.

Now, when we start to get into the upper echelon sports, things are a lot different. In college football and in the NFL, the only ones playing are the guys who are good enough to be there. High school sports is where sorry players get culled out. The coaches have hopefully done their job of filtering out the bad players, so when college scouts come around, they only see the best ones. So NCAA and NFL football worship the best individuals, who make the most money for the school or franchise. Brett Favre didn't get to be the guy he is (or was, during his prime) through any "socialist" environment. His case is an example of survival of the fittest at work.


I think you might be over analyzing the comparison. It was probably meant to just give a broad comparison so that the "average joe" could identify with the topic. I know what you are saying, though.

meep-meep
Originally posted by skekUng
You can't redefine the joke by suddenly assuming the rules that get the players on the field are the point, rather than the rules that govern them once they're there -or the huge number of fans who adore the game, while ignoring the nature of the rules that govern it. Those fans would cry foul if those rules were ignored, but don't have the presence of mind to associate that level of fairness when the concept is extended to other games, like modern American politics.


Agreed. thumb up

Grate the Vraya
Originally posted by skekUng
I called you no names. Mota called me one, though. I think he understood. I was talking about you calling him a jerk. Originally posted by Quiero Mota
Because they are by nature capitalist. Children's sports, on the other hand, are pretty socialist. Little league baseball, pee-wee football, and even karate all award kids just for participating. Everyone on the team, win or lose, gets a trophy just for being present and to not hurt any feelings. I don't like it, because it doesn't encourage the kids to push themselves; it dulls their drive.

Now, when we start to get into the upper echelon sports, things are a lot different. In college football and in the NFL, the only ones playing are the guys who are good enough to be there. High school sports is where sorry players get culled out. The coaches have hopefully done their job of filtering out the bad players, so when college scouts come around, they only see the best ones. So NCAA and NFL football worship the best individuals, who make the most money for the school or franchise. Brett Favre didn't get to be the guy he is (or was, during his prime) through any "socialist" environment. His case is an example of survival of the fittest at work. Wow, you really just do not get it, do you?

Adam_PoE
Originally posted by Quiero Mota
Children's sports, on the other hand, are pretty socialist. Little league baseball, pee-wee football, and even karate all award kids just for participating. Everyone on the team, win or lose, gets a trophy just for being present and to not hurt any feelings. I don't like it, because it doesn't encourage the kids to push themselves; it dulls their drive.

That is not Socialism, it is Communism.

skekUng
Originally posted by Grate the Vraya
I was talking about you calling him a jerk.

He called me one first, dear.

Symmetric Chaos
Originally posted by Quiero Mota
His case is an example of survival of the fittest at work.

His father was the coach of the football team which gave him a degree of opportunity and access to personal knowledge about the game that only a small portion of young footballers have.

He wouldn't even have been in college to get noticed without a state scholarship.

Totally pulled himself up by his own bootstraps.

Quiero Mota
Originally posted by Symmetric Chaos
His father was the coach of the football team which gave him a degree of opportunity and access to personal knowledge about the game that only a small portion of young footballers have.

He wouldn't even have been in college to get noticed without a state scholarship.

Totally pulled himself up by his own bootstraps.

Yeah, his father got his foot in the door, big deal. The same can be said about a lot of atheletes; Tiger Woods, The Rock, Ken Griffey Jr. and many others I can't think of at the moment. It doesn't detract from their talent or accomplishments.

If Favre was a scrawny dweeb who couldn't throw a ball, you can rest asssured that fool wouldn't be in the NFL. He'd probably be a white collar desk-jockey somewhere. However, as fate would have it, he turned out to be an incredibly talented QB, who got a boost from his dad.

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