The New New Rules

By: Bill Maher

Narrated by: Bill Maher

Length: 4 hrs and 44 mins

Publisher's Summary

From best-selling author and host of HBO's Real Time, Bill Maher's new book of political riffs serves up a savagely funny set of rules for preserving sanity in an insane world. 

A follow-up to the New York Times best-selling The New Rules, The New New Rules delivers a series of hilarious, intelligent rants on everything from same-sex marriage to health care, from Republican agendas to celebrity meltdowns, with all the razor-sharp insight that has made Bill Maher one of the most influential comedic voices shaping the political debate today. With another presidential campaign on the horizon and a stellar set of real-life characters to have fun with - "New Rule: If Charlie Sheen's home life means he can't have a TV show, then I say Newt Gingrich can't be president" - this enlightening and important book may be the best thing you pretend to read all year.

©2011 Bill Maher (P)2011 Penguin

Critic Reviews

"Of all the comic commentators, Maher is the gutsiest, boldest, and least inhibited." ( The Washington Post)

New Rules Everyone; New Rules

A compilation of many of the New Rules segments from his HBO show Real Time. The liberal Commentator and extremely religulous (I probably spelled that wrong) man gives a broad view of rules that need to be enacted; at least for a little while. His attacks combine politics and humor; intentional humor as opposed to the accidental humor exhibited by the politicians and news commentators. Liberals, or anyone who despised the Bush/ Cheaney administration and enjoys the heretical joy of piercing the sanctimony of organized religion will enjoy this one.
For those of you who practice religion on a regular basis or support conservative politics if you don't already know Bill Maher trust me you'll hate it and probably him.

4 of 4 people found this review helpful

Audio isn't the right format for this sort of book

I want to be clear that my rating on this one isn't a reflection of the book itself - I'm just trying to suggest that you may want to stop and consider (as I should have) if audio is the right format for a book that is almost completely composed of independent 30 second sound bytes each of which starts with the phrase "New Rule!"

It was just too repetitive to enjoy in this format, which I should have realized if I'd given it more thought ahead of time. I'm sure it's a clever amusing book for people that like Bill Maher, but only if it's in physical form where you can pick it up, read a couple, and put it back down. There's only so many times you can hear "New Rule!" in a three minute period before you realize your judgement was off. Definitely my own fault for not thinking it through.

19 of 22 people found this review helpful

Great Material But A Little Hard To Listen To.

Any additional comments?

Despite the fact that the majority of the material in this book is hilarious, it is almost impossible to listen to this book for more than 20 minutes at a time. Every 10 or so words, the phrase "New Rule!" is repeated. I imagine this would actually have been a more enjoyable READ rather than an enjoyable LISTEN.

7 of 8 people found this review helpful

Easy to get offended but what the hell...

First of all if the "F" word or any mention of sexual body parts offends you, this isn't the book for you but if you want to think of our county in a new light, give this book a try. Not only are his "rules" good advice to live by, his essays give unique ways at looking at what is presented to us on a platter in the evening news. It's worth being offended to be prodded to think.

7 of 8 people found this review helpful

Almost as good as watching the show

Any additional comments?

Reading this book is probably fine -- but why not listen to Bill Maher make Bill Maher's comments? Nobody can adequately approximate his tone of voice when reading. Listening to this was a real pleasure

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Get a new beginning to the joke

As a segment in a show, if you say "new rule" a dozen times, it's not so grating. But for a book in which you start every new joke with "new rule", after a while you want that rule to be "no more saying - new rule". Annoying the point of distraction IMO.

Furthermore, I simply didn't laugh much at this book!

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Sarcasm from a master

What made the experience of listening to The New New Rules the most enjoyable?

There is a lot of humor. Dark humor, often, but still funny.

Who was your favorite character and why?

does not apply

What about Bill Maher???s performance did you like?

Bill read the rules as if he werre performing on his HBO show.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

2 sittings did it for me.

Any additional comments?

If you've seen HBO's Real Time weekly comedy you are aleady familiar with Bill's New Rules. There is nothing new here but maybe you've forgotten or missed something. It is worth the time to listen.

If you have not seen Real Time but are a fan of Maher you are in for a treat. Bill delivers exquisite timing in his social and political humor.There is often irreverant wisdom underneath the humor and you can learn from him.

Worth the listen

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Insightful, fun, thought inspiring

Where does The New New Rules rank among all the audiobooks you???ve listened to so far?

This was a fun listen, forcing one to reconsider perspective on some of our everyday elements.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

New New Rules Rules!

Bill Maher is one of my heroes. His biting wit and sarcastic style was seemingly made just for me! If I had one criticism, it would be that the book wasn't switched up a bit and read by others on occasion... And these pieces could have been read by someone ironic to the subject being discussed. Having said that, I would highly recommend this book to other Bill Maher supporters and fans. You will not be disappointed and there were even a few times that I laughed out loud; something that is almost impossible for an audiobook to make me do!

5 of 7 people found this review helpful

Love, love, loved it!

Bill Maher and my late boyfriend were cut from the same cloth in so many ways. The first time I watched "Real Time with Bill Maher" I could have sworn I was sitting with a more articulate version of my boyfriend. I started to record his show last year and play it for my him and he loved it. He was fighting cancer at the time which last month took his life. New Rules was our favorite part of the show. We would both belly laugh at this section. Being from MA, my boyfriend's favorite interview was the one with Duval Patrick.

Cancer took him last month and I had just downloaded this book which I was going to listen with him. Losing him devasted me, as we had been together for fifteen years. Listening to this book on my commute has been the only thing that has made me smile since his loss. I actually laughed out loud at times. Thank you Bill Maher!

5 of 7 people found this review helpful

Mostly Very Funny Occasionally hilarious, But!

Where does The New New Rules rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

some of the funniest one liners i have heard in a long time, laughed so hard I couldnt breath on a couple of occasions.

How would you have changed the story to make it more enjoyable?

He delves too much into his liberal agenda, dismissing and scolding anyone who holds a different opinion on many topics. this for me pretty much ruined my enjoyment of the book.

What did you like about the performance? What did you dislike?

liked the unusual quirky way Bill uses topical events to make new rules for the future, this can be just so funny.

disliked the social comment from a narrow perspective. if I want political opinion then I will listen to political opinion shows.

Any additional comments?

If your fine with a liberal, progressive agenda, dont have a problem with social programs funded by insane debt and like a laugh then you will love this. oh and ideally agnostic or atheist.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Very funny

I just love this guy. Haven't guffawed so much for ages. On the strength of this have purchased Audio's 2 other books.