The other commenters covered it but before Politically Incorrect and Real Time he was a minor comedian in the 80s. He did standup, bit parts on a few TV shows, and I think he got a movie.
So he had a career to speak of before he became primarily a political commentator. His standup act was very reactionary and critical of the "growing trend" (at the time) of political correctness/basic human decency, which is how he got his first show.
Edit:
Oh, I forgot to mention he is somewhat left-leaning. He claims to be a liberal, or rather people claim he is, but his stances are all over the place. He's mostly cultivated a brand of a smug asshole who would call out hypocrisy while being hypocritical..but it's "okay" because he's open about being a hypocrite?
He tried to fill the role of THE democrat-hard-hitting-common-sense-political-comedian but was quickly overtaken by Jon Stewart on The Daily Show. In my opinion Bill Maher never truly fulfilled that role because he lacks empathy.
Also, it should be noted that he was an antivaxer for a while.
Oh, I forgot to mention he is somewhat left-leaning.
He's not really a left leaning person IMO, just anti-religion and pro-pot.
On the last episode I watched of his show he had a twenty minute gripe session about how COVID affected the partial ownership of some ball club he had. I think that was what it was but I don't 100% remember anymore because he sounded so fucking out of touch I turned it off.
The other commenters covered it but before Politically Incorrect and Real Time he was a minor comedian in the 80s. He did standup, bit parts on a few TV shows, and I think he got a movie.
So he had a career to speak of before he became primarily a political commentator. His standup act was very reactionary and critical of the "growing trend" (at the time) of political correctness/basic human decency, which is how he got his first show.
Edit: Oh, I forgot to mention he is somewhat left-leaning. He claims to be a liberal, or rather people claim he is, but his stances are all over the place. He's mostly cultivated a brand of a smug asshole who would call out hypocrisy while being hypocritical..but it's "okay" because he's open about being a hypocrite?
He tried to fill the role of THE democrat-hard-hitting-common-sense-political-comedian but was quickly overtaken by Jon Stewart on The Daily Show. In my opinion Bill Maher never truly fulfilled that role because he lacks empathy.
Also, it should be noted that he was an antivaxer for a while.
He's not really a left leaning person IMO, just anti-religion and pro-pot.
On the last episode I watched of his show he had a twenty minute gripe session about how COVID affected the partial ownership of some ball club he had. I think that was what it was but I don't 100% remember anymore because he sounded so fucking out of touch I turned it off.