BOY TALK.("Real Time with Bill Maher")(Television Program Review)

Last year, much was made of ABC's secret, and then absurdly publicized, courting of David Letterman for its 11:30 p.m. time slot, a move that would have meant the demise of "Nightline"and of Bill Maher's "Politically Incorrect,"which followed it. In the end, Letterman decided to stay at CBS, and "Nightline"was safe. But Maher had probably already sealed his fate on September 17, 2001, the night his show resumed broadcasting after the terrorist attacks six days earlier. Amplifying the comments of one of his guests, the writer Dinesh D'Souza, who took issue with government officials calling the terrorists cowards, Maher said, "We have been the cowards, lobbing cruise missiles from two thousand miles away. That's cowardly. Staying in the airplane when it hits the building, say what you want about it, it's not cowardly."Maher's point was that thinking in terms of cowardice or bravery wasn't particularly useful, because it wouldn't help us understand why the attacks had happened, but his remarks became notorious, thanks to a campaign started by a radio talk-show host in Texas. Some big advertisers pulled out of "Politically Incorrect"and some stations stopped showing it, and the flap extended all the way to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue--where Ari Fleischer, the White House spokesman, who hadn't actually seen the show, said that Americans "need to watch what they say, watch what they do."

"Politically Incorrect,"which was cancelled in mid-2002, was a forum in which guests could speak freely about current events. The trouble was that even when the guests Maher chose (or their publicists) had done their homework, they were often unqualified to talk about the night's given subjects. They were usually appearing on the show because they had a book or a movie to promote, or because, like Arianna Huffington and Ann Coulter, they were indefatigable self-promoters. People talked at and over one another, and the host often seemed contemptuous of the whole affair, as if being annoyed were proof of intelligence. Maher is intelligent, and quick, but as a comedian he's a heavy-handed drag--low on wit and full of easy ironies. He lacks the verbal flair of, say, Dennis Miller or Chris Rock, and, watching him, you rarely felt entertained or enlightened--you felt as if you were being poked in the sternum by a brainy bully.

And now he's back, on HBO on Friday nights, doing an hour-long live show called "Real Time with Bill Maher."HBO's ads for the show called him "too hot for TV,"but so far the main difference between his new show and the old one is that it's less funny and uses more swear words. On the first night, Maher announced that he wasn't going to cast his celebrity net as wide as he had before, and that he would have eight or nine regular panelists. This means that the free-for-all quality is gone--the motley guest list, as it turns out, was what gave "Politically Incorrect"an element of unpredictability. "Real Time,"in contrast, feels more canned than live. The guests are all polished performers: Coulter, Huffington, Alec Baldwin, Tim Robbins, Dennis Miller, D. L. Hughley--none of them "too hot for TV."There is one new face: Paul F. Tompkins, a comedian who does a bit on current affairs on every show and has about as much edge as a beanbag chair.

There's also more of Maher in the new show, and it's no big surprise that more Maher is less. He's a jerk of the old school, full of unexamined anxiety and arrogance, with a habit of using sexual stereotypes from half a century ago both to put down and to compliment people. "I love it when Tony Blair tries to talk tough,"he said. "He makes Bush look like Vin Diesel. I tell ya, there's only two guys less convincing when they try to sound tough, and both of them are on 'Will & Grace.' "(Memo to Maher: And they're both much funnier than you are.) Introducing Monica Crowley, a Ph.D. and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, he said to the comedian Larry Miller, "That's a good-looking doctor, huh, Larry? I'd like to get a checkup from her."When the ...