New Rules

Polite Musings from a Timid Observer

By: Bill Maher

Narrated by: Bill Maher

Length: 2 hrs and 30 mins

Publisher's summary

Bill Maher first came to national attention as the host of the hit Comedy Central and ABC-TV program Politically Incorrect, where he offered a combustible mixture of irreverence and acerbic humor that helped him to garner a loyal following, as well as a reputation for being a hilarious provocateur.

Now, his popular new HBO television show, Real Time with Bill Maher, has put him more front and center than ever. In particular, one of the show's segments entitled "New Rules" has struck a chord with viewers. It's within his rules that Maher takes serious aim, bringing all his incisiveness, wit, and his signature exasperation to bear on topics ranging from cell phones ("I don't need my cell phone to take pictures or access the Internet. I just need to make a phone call. From everywhere! Not just the places it likes!") to fast food ("New Rule: No more McDonald's in hospitals. I'm not kidding!") to the conservative agenda ("Stop claiming it's an agenda. It's not an agenda. It's a random collection of laws that your corporate donors paid you to pass."), Maher brings these brilliantly conceived riffs to audio for the first time, along with some singularly Maher-ian "editorials", editorials nothing like the standard fare found on the pages of the local newspaper!

©2005 Bill Maher (P)2005 Phoenix Audio

Critic reviews

• Grammy Award Nominee, Best Spoken Word Album, 2006

funny, topical, relevant

A great way to bring Bill Maher's irreverent musings into my car and onto the subway. A funny, fun listen; my only criticism is that it was too short!!

Not great.

Without the audience booing, hissing, or clapping with approval the New Rules don't quite pack the punch, sounds more like whining.

Love me some Bill Maher but this is better read

Bill Maher's collection of new rules (some of which feel dated, other poignant and even more relevant) doesn't make for the best audiobook, as 3 hours of Bill Maher barking new rules isn't nearly as amazing it sounds. Its best in nuggets, read in bursts and not extended audiobook format. Bill, while amazing on stage (be it stand up or TV) feels a little less edgy when reading his new rules, without the audience to react to his natural comedic timing. This is far from bad, but without flowing chapters, paragraph long rants make you thirsty for something longer. I read the book years ago, and loved it, and liked the idea of Maher reading the best of classic new rules... and that's what I got. This is for the fan, not a would be fan.

Good laughs

Bill gets better with each passing year, this book was written during the G. W. Bush years, he has so much more material with Trump in office.

BIll Who?

This guy is terrible - how this one-time crappy comedian became a "respected" political analyst and commentator is beyond me. Who makes up his audience? If you have any desire to learn about today's political environment or want to understand the world a bit deeper than Bill's bumpersticker-deep philosophy go elsewhere!

Poorly written and even more poorly thought out.

The lack of imagination, lack of clear thinking, and - most importantly - lack of a sense of humour are in clear evidence with this terrible book.

Though I never found him all that funny, he is clearly far too bitter now to have anything interesting or entertaining to say.

New Rule: List books suck.

Bill Maher is a very intelligent man, a great comedian and a wonderful social comentarian (is that even a word?) but this book is drivel. It is the second book I've ever abandoned in my life, (Ellen of the show of the same name wrote a book which was dreadfully difficult to listen too)

Great at commentary, yes, great at whiny one-liners, no.

Bill, stick to the stuff your good at, leave this poor style of critisim and comedy to Letterman.

Terrible-whining from front to back

This is the worst book ever. If you like to whine about things read it. Otherwise stay away from it.

Waiting for my refund in the mail...

Sooo boring and formulaic I wished for the first time someone besides the author had been the narrator. "New Rule" being spoken in Maher's drone-like voice became instantly annoying and distracting considering my mislead expectations that this 'funny' (occasionally, at best) and 'insightful' (more often than not) book was going to be presented as a dialogue where more than few sentences would be dedicated to each topic, or at least the funnier ones. Bill Maher must have released this solely as a way to augment his retirememt fund a bit because I see no other purpose for actually paying for this book other than using it as way to A) help barely pass the time in rush hour or B) rile up extreme conservatives, which we all know is sooo hard to do nowadays anyhow...

Horrible

Waste of money!