Bill Maher hates your (fill in the blank) religion

In Bill Maher's new documentary, "Religulous," the film's protagonist--Maher himself--feels the same way about the film's subject matter at the beginning as at the end: In other words, he thinks religion is a big crock of spit. You know irreverence is the order of the day when Maher, reacting to a smooth-talking black preacher's boast that he got a great deal on his $2,000 suits, drolly observes, "I find it interesting that you're a Christian, you used to be a Muslim but you buy all your clothes like a Jew."

"Religulous" doesn't open until Oct. 3, but after seeing the movie I couldn't wait to grill Maher about how he managed to get so many deeply religious figures to actually talk to him, since it's obvious to anyone whose ever watched Maher's act (on "Politically Incorrect" or HBO's "Real Time With Bill Maher" or in a comedy club) that he wasn't much of a believer. In many ways, the film is a comic bookend to Sam Harris' "The End of Faith," a humorless best seller that views religion as a bastion of superstition and moral hypocrisy. Although Maher embraces Harris' belief that religion is a destructive force that has brought great pain and suffering into the world--at one point he calls it a neurological disorder--Maher is always searching for the humor in every situation. A longtime acolyte of George Carlin, when Maher confronts a religious zealot or hustler, he prefers mocking over scolding.

Rolling his eyes, often full of derision, Maher gets in his licks with everyone, from a guy playing Jesus at a Holy Land theme park in Orlando to Muslims at a gay bar in Amsterdam to a rabbi who advocates the dissolution of Israel (he wears a card with the slogan "A Jew Not a Zionist"). As everything from "The Gong Show" to "Borat" has proved, real people and situations are often undeniably funnier than anything scripted by the best comic minds. In Holland, Maher is in the midst of questioning a somber Muslim cleric when he's interrupted by the cleric's cellphone, whose ring tone is Led Zeppelin's "Kashmir."

So how did Maher manage to get all these people to actually talk to him? Since "Religulous" was directed by Larry Charles, who also did "Borat," I suspected that subterfuge and trickery were involved. I was not far wrong. Here's how Maher pulled it off:

On how he got people to talk to him: "It was simple: We never, ever, used my name. We never told anybody it was me who was going to do the interviews. We even had a fake title for the film. We called it 'A Spiritual Journey.' It didn't work everywhere. We went to Salk Lake City, but no one would let us film there at all."

On the element of surprise: "Larry Charles' theory is--just keep going till they throw you out. I guess he learned that on 'Borat.' The crew would set up and at the last second, when the cameras were already rolling, I would show up. So either they'd be seen on camera leaving the interview and lose face or they'd have to talk to me. It was like--'And now here's ... Bill!' You could usually see the troubled looks on their faces. At the Holy Land theme park, the PR woman freaked out and finally told us to leave. She was definitely not a happy camper."

On his encounter with Arkansas Sen. Mark Pryor, who tells Maher he believes the biblical account that Earth was created 5,200 years ago: "He's not going to be happy with this movie. I suspect he's going to say that the editing is not favorable to him [laughs]. And he's not completely wrong about that. But we didn't make anything up. When I told him I was worried about people [with such literal interpretations of the Bible] running the country, he's the one who says, 'Well, you don't have to pass an IQ test to be in the Senate.' "

Tomorrow: Bill Maher tells us what he really thinks about religion.

photo of Bill Maher and Larry Charles by Alexandra Lambrinidis/Lionsgate

Comments

[Tom Dwan]

Sam Harris' book is far from humorless. The first couple of chapters are nonstop laughter. This whole idea of religion is a joke in itself, and Harris and Maher do a great job of highlighting that.

[Saved]

Yeah, Well, the worst thing for an Atheist is that at the end of the day who do you thank? Yourself? Hahahaha...

Bill Maher is so full of himself he doesn't recognize he's full of hot air.

[Pam]

Thank you Bill! I'm always tired of being the lone person in almost any group who thinks religion is a moral atrocity. They always have some rationalization of why it's such a good thing, but that's a crock. Relgious people seem to have more hatred in their hearts than love. They feel it necessary to say "I'm a Christian"... and to me that's a warning to watch my wallet. As Albert Einstein once remarked "the bible is a fairy tale". OF COURSE IT IS! People act like God took a pen and wrote all that superstious, ridiculous bullsh.. down and that makes it so. Completely irrational. I am not an atheist...I have no idea what's going on in the spiritual world and I don't have the arrogance to pretend that I do.

[Quan]

As John Lennon would say:

Don't believe in Bill Maher

I just believe in me ( not me and Yoko) !!!

[FW]

To use Carlin/Maher language:

You stupid f___heads!!!. Without belief in something higher (true or false) we wouldn't have the Acropolis in Greece, Macchu Picchu, Stonehenge and many other amazing sites around the world. Belief in higher powers inspires us to many things, some good some bad. Atheism, humanism, lust for power land and riches have led to lots of ugly things in history. Religion might have been some of the icing on the cake in these instances, but like a good detective, you gotta look past the obvious sometimes. Read your f----ckin' history books.

--There I feel much better now.

[Doug]

This movie will be a great bigot magnet. I can tell that many are already in line to cheer on his hate.

[dave]

people,
Bill is paid to do comedy and mock others. He is not meant to be taken seriously. If you are really searching for truth, you'd do well to look elsewhere.
His efforts will wind up some people on both sides of the issue. But in the end, it is only comedy, not a serious search for the truth.

For so many of the posters claiming "reason", it seems there is little of it found here.
For example: Let's assume there is no God and we can eradicate religion with no divine consequences. Assuming that all religion is bogus, where did it come from in the first place? Humans must have made it all up.
Many of the posters seem to believe that if we could simply eliminate religion, we'd somehow eliminate many of the supposed problems that come from such belief. But kids... think with me here: IF it is US that invented it, then the problem is with US.
Eliminate religion and humans will find some other motive to misbehave.
We should all be able to reasonably look around and notice that there is alot of misbehavior, stupidity and malice present in human actions. It would be just about as assinine as could be to think that it is all caused by "religion" when supposedly it is US that made up the religion.
The problem is human nature.. NOT religion. Just a little bit of thought ought to make that clear enough.

[Marty]

If God doesn't want me to see this movie, may he strike me dead....crickets...That's what I thought.

[shaunna]

a must-see for fall.

[c'est moi]

"Gay for Obama"...kinda says it all.
....ick