This isn't really surprising, but it is a little disappointing (I always hoped these guys were just ridiculously witty with their comebacks). Seems like it's p

This isn't really surprising, but it is a little disappointing (I always hoped these guys were just ridiculously witty with their comebacks). Seems like it's par for the course though. Back when the election season was in full swing I had the opportunity to appear in a taped segment for Real Time With Bill Maher. I'll probably write a longer blog post about the experience at some point, but long story short, most of his really biting jokes are pretty set up. For our segment they got members of the UCLA Democrat and Republican clubs, as well as a few "indies" who they had found at bars the night before (I was one of these). It basically felt like the point of the Dem/GOP club members was to provide predictable responses. Bill would lob a highly controversial statement to a member of the Republican club, they'd respond with the same arguments everyone had heard a million times before, and he'd smack them down with a wisecrack. There was still some decent debate, but it was a bit of a let down. I don't get HBO, but my friends have told me they never saw the segment air, so apparently the producers weren't too fond of it either :)