New Rule: I Will Not Learn It! | Real Time with Bill Maher (HBO)

0:00 And finally...

0:00 (CHUCKLES) ...New Rule, stop making me know stuff I don't wanna know.

0:04 (AUDIENCE LAUGHING) Did you know that the human

0:07 brain actually has an actual finite storage capacity?

0:11 It's estimated to be about 2.5 million gigabytes.

0:14 Impressive, but not infinite.

0:17 That's why sometimes you just gotta say,

0:19 "Disk full." (AUDIENCE LAUGHING, APPLAUDING) Stop shoving things down my brain.

0:32 Couple of weeks ago on our Overtime segment,

0:34 one of my guests used the term "the Overton window," which up until a year ago,

0:40 I had heard only once every never.

0:42 -(AUDIENCE LAUGHING) -(GILLIAN TETT CHUCKLES) But lately, I hear it everywhere.

0:46 -The Overton window.

0:47 -The Overton window.

0:48 -The Overton window.

0:49 -The Overton window.

0:50 -Overton window.

0:50 -The Overton window.

0:51 -The Overton window.

0:52 -The Overton window.

0:54 -The Overton window.

0:54 -The Overton window.

0:56 -(AUDIENCE LAUGHING) -(SIGHS) Sorry, but I just couldn't hold my tongue anymore.

1:04 Well, the Overton window has opened up, um, you know, about things you can say.

1:08 I don't know what that is, and I don't wanna know -what that is.

1:11 -(AUDIENCE LAUGHING) -(HESITATES) And the fact— -Don't tell me.

1:14 (AUDIENCE APPLAUDING) Yeah.

1:16 (CLEARS THROAT) Yeah, I wasn't kidding.

1:19 This isn't a bit.

1:20 I really don't know -what the Overton window is...

1:23 -(AUDIENCE LAUGHING) ...and I really don't want to know.

1:26 -(GILLIAN LAUGHS) -So don't tell me.

1:28 -(AUDIENCE APPLAUDING, CHEERING) -It...

1:33 It may be the only thing that's still on my bucket list.

1:36 I want to die not knowing what the Overton window is.

1:40 (AUDIENCE LAUGHING, APPLAUDING) Now, maybe it's awesome,

1:44 but it just seems like the kind of pedantic bullshit that triggers me.

1:49 -So if you try to...

1:50 -(AUDIENCE LAUGHING) So if you try to tell me on the street, I'll keep walking.

1:53 -(AUDIENCE LAUGHING) -(GILLIAN LAUGHS) Try to tell me on a plane,

1:56 I'll jump out a real window.

1:58 (AUDIENCE LAUGHING) If you start to explain it to me, I'll stop you.

2:02 If you write it, I won't read it.

2:04 I...

2:04 (AUDIENCE LAUGHING) -(BRET STEPHENS LAUGHS) -I didn't order it.

2:10 -(AUDIENCE LAUGHING, APPLAUDING) -And I— (CHUCKLES) And I don't think I need

2:15 it because I'm a strong believer in the academic theory of...

2:19 "I kinda get it." -(AUDIENCE LAUGHING)-♪ (PERKY MUSIC PLAYS,

2:24 FADES)♪ (AUDIENCE APPLAUDING, CHEERING) Yeah.

2:29 I kinda get it.

2:32 Yeah, the Overton window.

2:34 It's something bad we don't want to pass through, and Trump...

2:37 Trump is just making it worse, and I'm sure he is, but that's enough for me.

2:41 I don't need to chase every one

2:43 of your manufactured buzzwords down the rabbit hole.

2:47 -Couple of...

2:49 (CHUCKLES) -(AUDIENCE APPLAUDING, CHEERING) A couple of years ago,

2:56 Joe Rogan and his guest, some guy...

2:59 -(AUDIENCE LAUGHING) -(BRET LAUGHS) (LAUGHS) ...took me to task

3:05 for not knowing what WEF or MKUltra was.

3:10 He doesn't even know what the WEF is all about.

3:12 -That's crazy.

3:12 -He didn't even know what MKUltra was.

3:14 (AUDIENCE LAUGHING) Okay, all right, guys, WEF is World Economic Forum,

3:20 where the billionaires meet every year in Davos.

3:22 Yes, I do know that.

3:23 I just don't call it "the WEF." (AUDIENCE LAUGHING) If I hear Joe

3:27 Rogan say "WEF," I just assume

3:29 it's some form of professional wrestling organization.

3:32 (AUDIENCE LAUGHING, APPLAUDING) And MKUltra, okay,

3:41 the old CIA program where they experimented with LSD.

3:44 Yes, I've read about it.

3:46 I just don't use the decoder ring.

3:47 -(AUDIENCE LAUGHING) -(GILLIAN LAUGHS) -La—

3:51 (LAUGHS) -(AUDIENCE APPLAUDING) Last week,

3:55 when the news was all about the Supreme Court,

3:58 suddenly everywhere, everywhere I looked or read,

4:01 someone was talking about "the shadow docket." -Shadow docket.

4:05 -The shadow docket.

4:06 -Shadow docket.

4:07 -The shadow docket.

4:08 -The shadow docket.

4:09 -The shadow docket.

4:09 Shadow docket.

4:11 (AUDIENCE LAUGHING) Yeah, the shadow docket.

4:18 I kinda get it.

4:20 Some kind of fuckery Trump's trying to pull, -and I'm sure he is.

4:23 -(AUDIENCE LAUGHING,

4:24 APPLAUDING) But the court is kind of stopping him, a little bit.

4:27 (HESITATES) Okay.

4:28 -(GILLIAN LAUGHS) -(AUDIENCE LAUGHING) Here's another one I can't get away from.

4:33 "Looksmaxxing." (AUDIENCE LAUGHING) I kinda get it,

4:36 some new fucked-up shit the kids are doing,

4:39 but come on, it'll go away soon when they die.

4:42 -I don't...

4:44 -(AUDIENCE LAUGHING, APPLAUDING) I don't feel like I need to know everything.

4:51 I'm sure if I was a better citizen, I would research all these things.

4:55 "MKUltra," and "cognitive offloading,"

4:58 and "astroturfing," and "enshittification,"

5:00 and the "Schelling point." And I will, I promise, I'll bone up on all of them.

5:06 But not the fucking Overton window.

5:08 (AUDIENCE LAUGHING, APPLAUDING) (AUDIENCE CHEERING,

5:13 APPLAUDING) A man has to make a stand somewhere.

5:22 I know enough.

5:22 I know it's something liberal pundits care very deeply about,

5:25 as do I, as do I, absolutely, very deeply, whatever it is.

5:29 (AUDIENCE LAUGHING) 'Cause I am with you on this, 'cause I get it.

5:33 I mean, I kinda get it.

5:34 (AUDIENCE LAUGHING) I know it's gotta stop, or start.

5:37 Whatever it is, you cannot make me learn the actual meaning.

5:40 I will not learn it on the panel.

5:42 I will not learn it wearing flannel.

5:44 -(GUESTS CHUCKLE) -(AUDIENCE LAUGHING) -I will not learn it in a tree.

5:48 -(AUDIENCE APPLAUDING) I will not learn it from ChatGPT.

5:51 -I will not learn it on a yacht.

5:52 -(AUDIENCE CHEERING) I will not learn it smoking pot.

5:54 I will not learn it from a cow.

5:56 I will not learn it on MS NOW.

5:58 I will not learn it from social media.

6:00 I will not learn it from Wikipedia.

6:02 I will not learn it from a nerd.

6:05 I will not learn your new dumb word.

6:08 (AUDIENCE APPLAUDING, CHEERING) BILL MAHER: Look...

6:18 Look, I wish I had unlimited storage, -but I don't.

6:22 -(AUDIENCE LAUGHING) I also will not learn the word

6:25 "heuristic." (AUDIENCE LAUGHING) I hear it a lot lately.

6:29 "Heuristic," sounds important.

6:30 -Fuck you.

6:32 -(AUDIENCE LAUGHING,

6:34 APPLAUDING) All I know is whoever uses it is going to lose the election.

6:41 -(AUDIENCE LAUGHING) -(GILLIAN LAUGHS) "Platform decay"?

6:44 If it involves my dentist, yes, I'll learn it.

6:46 -Otherwise, no.

6:47 -(AUDIENCE LAUGHING, APPLAUDING) "Groyper"?

6:48 I think I get it.

6:50 A neo-Nazi with bad skin?

6:53 If it's not exactly that, it's very close.

6:55 I'm just tired of my mind being cluttered with things I didn't ask for.

7:00 This is what I call "mind rape." -(AUDIENCE GASPS, CHUCKLES) -Th...

7:05 (AUDIENCE LAUGHING) Things forced into my head without my consent.

7:09 I know all five Kardashian sisters' names.

7:13 (AUDIENCE LAUGHING) And I know the names

7:16 of all six of the characters on Friends,

7:18 and yet I've never seen one minute of either show.

7:21 -(AUDIENCE LAUGHING, APPLAUDING) -I did not consent to that.

7:27 I even know that Ross was a paleontologist.

7:30 -(AUDIENCE LAUGHING) -(GILLIAN LAUGHS) And the fact

7:32 that I know that, I consider that violence.

7:34 (AUDIENCE LAUGHING, APPLAUDING) I know things

7:42 about the Kardashian sisters I shouldn't,

7:44 like the names of all their kids and which NBA team their fathers played for.

7:49 (AUDIENCE LAUGHING, APPLAUDING) I know Kim had several children with a Nazi.

7:57 I know her ex-boyfriend has a big penis.

7:59 (AUDIENCE LAUGHING) People used to read books.

8:03 Now they watch a YouTube of a raccoon opening a can of soda.

8:06 What did we think was gonna happen?

8:08 (AUDIENCE LAUGHING, APPLAUDING) Among the words that should never have

8:17 been allowed to get inside my brain are Scott and Disick.

8:21 (AUDIENCE LAUGHING, APPLAUDING) I don't want

8:27 to know who Bill Belichick's girlfriend is.

8:29 I really don't.

8:31 I hope I never get Alzheimer's, but if I do,

8:33 at least I'll forget who Justin Baldoni ever was.