What\u2019s Bill Maher<\/a>\u2019s newest peeve? \u201cClueless, useless\u201d dads in popular culture \u2014 and on broadcast TV particularly \u2014 who, within the comic\u2019s thoughts, are a part of an issue that sends teen boys into the misogynistic on-line teams referred to as the manosphere.<\/p>\n \u201cLet\u2019s make the Father\u2019s Day we just celebrated the last one that takes place in a culture where dads have become such punching bags \u2014 literally the last demographic group that TV, ads, and movies can still depict as clueless, useless dips***s, basically, just another child that mom has to look after,\u201d Maher mentioned<\/a> on his present Real Time<\/a><\/em> on Friday, June 20. \u201cEvery sitcom is, \u2018Tonight on ABC, Larry burns down the house,\u2019 and the tagline in the commercial for every household product is basically, \u2018Because your husband is a moron.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n He went on: \u201cYou know, I\u2019m not sure when this trend started, but I\u2019m going to blame the 1987 movie Three Men and a Baby<\/a><\/em>, the premise of which is that three grown men can\u2019t manage to keep a baby alive. The same year gave us Married\u2026 With Children<\/a><\/em> with its idiot shoe salesman of a father, followed by an endless parade of eye-roll, short-bus dads.\u201d<\/p>\n (Note: The time period \u201cshort-bus\u201d is ableist language, as famous by Ly X\u012bnzh\u00e8n Zh\u01cengs\u016bn<\/a>, public coverage director on the National Disability Institute.)<\/p>\n Ronald Martinez\/Getty Images<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Maher listed the TV dads from The Simpsons<\/a><\/em>, Family Guy<\/a><\/em>, Modern Family<\/a><\/em>, Malcolm within the Middle<\/a><\/em>, Everybody Loves Raymond<\/a><\/em>, Home Improvement<\/a><\/em>, and According to Jim<\/a><\/em> as examples of those depictions.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, TV mothers are \u201calways the smart one, the good one,\u201d whose orbit a TV dad is \u201cjust lucky to be in,\u201d Maher mentioned. \u201cAnd I get it that this is a correction to centuries of women being deemed the weaker sex, but how long does the correction last? And when will men stop making me throw up in my mouth with the way they pander so nakedly?\u201d<\/p>\n Maher claimed Queen Mary, Cleopatra, Catherine the Great, Golda Meir, and Indira Gandhi have been political leaders who weren\u2019t \u201cany less violent or hard-a** than men.\u201d And he mentioned the \u201ccringy pandering\u201d to ladies as superiors is the explanation teenage boys \u201cflock to jerks like Andrew Tate,\u201d the social media persona and self-proclaimed misogynist at present dealing with rape and human trafficking expenses<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cYes he\u2019s a huge a**hole, and your kid thinks he\u2019s cool because that\u2019s the choice of role models that an American teenage boy has: either performative p***yhood, or the manosphere,\u201d Maher mentioned. \u201cJesus, can\u2019t the pendulum ever land in the middle in this country? Can\u2019t we have something in between a complete cuck, who dares not open his mouth for fear of mansplaining, and owning a tiger? The Democrats are always asking, \u2018How do we win back men?\u2019 Just be real, not a monster and not a doormat. Is that so hard? \u2026 I\u2019m just saying, men, we\u2019re not completely useless. So if you want to if you want to know what to get dad next Father\u2019s Day, how about a little respect?\u201d<\/p>\n Real Time With Bill Maher<\/em>, Fridays, 10\/9c, HBO<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n![\"Bill](\"https:\/\/www.tvinsider.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/bill-maher-1014x570.jpg\")
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