Politically Incorrect segment
April 25, 1997
Host: Bill Maher
Guests: Norman Mailer (novelist)
Lakita Garth (activist)
Caroline Rhea (comedienne, Sabrina the teenage witch)
Luke Perry (actor)
Braces {} enclose unclear text.
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Bill
Okay, we're talking about the family an' the fact that every time
something goes wrong in this country--no matter what it is--polititians
blame it on-- these days--the breakdown of the family. An' we know about
family values, but I thought that Democracy was founded on the idea of
the individual, an' not the family. [to MAILER] You're wiser than the rest
of us, what is--what i-is this country about bein' the individual or is it
about the family?
Norman
Well, I'd like to turn it just a little because uh, if there's anything I
hate about talkin' about the family it always gets so politically correct,
an' I'm on a show that's--
Bill
Not here.
Norman
--the opposite of that. All right--well, nott here. So let me say that most
marriages, whether they're good or bad, have a basic element tha-that no
one ever talks about enough. Which is: most marriages are founded on an
Excrementitious Relationship.
Bill
Whoa.
Norman
Yes. Yes.
Caroline
Wow.
Lakita
Can you interpret that for us?
Norman
I will indeed--
Caroline
I--just tell me what the word means. Okay?
Norman
[people are laughing] I--I can't. I can't. You're gonna have to psyche it
out.
Caroline
Okay. [laughs]
Norman
You're--When. People have a lot of mediocrity in them.
An' it's very hard to express that mediocrity, in the World. Because
people want your best performance out there. So you gotta have someone,
with whom you can really be low and dull, and wasteful. And, that's an
excrementitious relationship.
Caroline
Oh, I got ya. Okay.
Norman
You got the root of the word--
Bill
Are you saying you can fart in front of 'em?
[Audience laughs, Caroline adds: Excrement. Ishious.]
Norman
{That's where you use some discrimination.}
Bill
I see. An' you're sayin' that's the key to marriage--
Norman
No, I'm sayin' it's a fundamental key to marriage that's ignored in talk
of family. A lot of people like family, 'cause they can be a low life in
their family. They can just live at a low level, an' it's accepted because
it's a family unit. The moment you step out of that, the moment you go
forth--in the eyes of lesbians, in the eyes of gays--they're seein' that
they have a higher relationship, 'cause they're fightin' society--
Bill
--But why--
Norman
--They're havin' a very tough time because tthey can't afford that
excrementitious relationship--
Luke
Right--ever--every moment for them has to be heightened an' that's just--
Norman
A little higher--a little higher than the average--that's very tough--
Caroline
No, it's the opposite, you have to live up to your parents' Standards.
You're certainly not. You can't be a low life. I-I-I don't feel like--
Norman
You obviously had high standards in your family. There are a lot of
families that have very low standards.
Bill
Yes.
Norman
--you know--
Caroline
--I-I--
Norman
But even in high standards, there can be an awful lot of Meanness
back and forth. We know that.
Lakita
But even so, that uh--concept of a family brings some sense of.. Civility
and some sense of Stability. Individuals don't come out of thin air, they
come out of families.
Caroline
But families aren't defined as mothers and fathers then. You can get that
in a friendly support group.
Lakita
[during laughter] Okay, but, but the thing is that, no, but--a friendly
support group-- [waits for laughter to subside]
A friendly support group doesn't provide for you what a parent should. My,
my friendly support groups won't lie down in front of a MAC truck like my
mother would for me--[Caroline and Bill are interjecting]--and that
brings--no, in the same sense there, there are certain things that,
certain types of enculturation that you can only get in a family. It's the
family that is supposed to, I'm not saying that it's--ac--that this
actually exists, but it's supposed to bring standards to the young people
as they bring them up. Set a standard, an'--an' nurture, discipline, an'
love those children that they would reach those standards. [Bill and Luke
are saying "Wait, wait," she talks past them] We have lowered the
standards so far that our generation has to crawl through a Sewer just to
get underneath the bar.
Bill
--Okay, okay, okay.-- Thank you.
Luke
[aside to stage people] You got a soapbox?
[Audience enjoys that a lot!]
Luke
[amused, calm] I--You know what, I for one do not think our nation is in
the sewer, {despite the ?}. [during her next speech: "I wouldn't be living
here if I thought that that was the case."]
Lakita
Well, you are in Beverly Hills 90210.
Luke
No no no. I--I [Audience is now screaming in reaction to her statement, he
acknowledges it]
Lakita
That's where you live, Luke. [Audience is still laughing]
Luke
No. You know what, That, that, that that, that is a Television created
reality.
Lakita
Where do you live Luke?
Luke
The reali--the reality of it is I live in th--I live in the valley!
How about that! How much more American could it get? I live, I live, I
live right in the valley.
Bill
Yes. The Valley is real.
Luke
I really--I really--I believe-- [Audience is laughing at Bill's wry
comment]
Lakita
Yes it is real. There are a lot of things that are real.
Luke
--I believe the bar needs to be lifted a litttle bit--
Lakita
[eyes rolling] --a little bit--
Luke
--but to say that our nation is in the sewerr, yeah--I, I don't agree.
Lakita
Well, I didn't say that, that we-we are All there. I said that there is a
certain generation that--you know what--it's the next up and coming
generation, they have nothing to hope for, they have nothing to stand for
because people keep telling them that..
----
[I cut taping there.]
[Later they commented on how the laws say you will get death if you kill
someone but then it never happens and these kids live one step removed
from reality so these kids kill a pizza guy just to see what it would be
like because they have to see what it's like because words are meaningless.
What I really wanted was Mailer's comments.]
Transcript by Suzanne Morine
(
geocities.com/tvtranscripts)