Bill Maher’s Barbie review calls movie preachy, man-hating ‘zombie lie’
By Matt Moore
Real Time with Bill Maher may be on hiatus, but Bill Maher isn’t putting any of his hot takes on hold. The late-night TV recently weighed in on Barbie, giving the movie a very Maher-like review.
Barbie has largely received positive reviews on its way to making $1 billion at the box office. It holds an 88% score on Rotten Tomatoes and an 80 out of 100 on Metacritic. Now, Bill Maher has added his Barbie review to the mix.
Posting on Facebook, Maher shared that he thought Barbie was fun and admitted he enjoyed it. But that doesn’t mean Maher didn’t find any faults with it. The Real Time host took issue with the de facto villain of the movie: the patriarchy.
Maher referred to Barbie as a “zombie lie.” The comedian wrote that a zombie lie is “something that USED to be true but no longer is, but certain people pretend it’s still true.” He applied this theory to the Mattell board featured in Barbie, arguing that real life is better than Barbie depicts it.
"Spoiler alert, Barbie fights the Patriarchy. Right up to the Mattel board who created her, consisting of 12 white men! The Patriarchy! Except there’s a Mattel board in real life, and it’s 7 men and 5 women. OK, not perfect even-steven, but not the way the board IN THE MOVIE – which takes place in 2023 – is portrayed. And not really any longer deserving of the word “patriarchy.” Yes, there was one, and remnants of it remain – but this movie is so 2000-LATE."
Bill Maher argues that he’s more in touch with reality than Barbie
Bill Maher’s Barbie review attempted to anticipate any backlash or criticism it could face. He continued, saying “I know, I know, ‘How could I know about the patriarchy, I AM a man!’ That argument is so old and so silly.”
Instead, Maher contends that he sees the world as it really is. That makes him more connected to reality than Barbie. “Of course, none of us can know exactly what others go through life, but I can see the world around me, and I can read data,” he wrote. “The real Mattel board is a pretty close mirror of the country, where 45% of the 449 board seats filled last year in Fortune 500 companies were women.”
Maher went on to warn against anyone else believing in “zombie lies” like the one he says it as the heart of Barbie. “Truth is, I’m not the one who’s out of step – I’m living in the year we’re living in. Barbie is fun, I enjoyed it – but it IS a #ZombieLie,” he concluded. “And people who don’t go along with zombie lies did not take some red pill – just staying true to CURRENT reality. Let’s live in the year we’re living in!”
Real Time with Bill Maher remains on hiatus with the rest of late-night TV due to the writers’ strike. When the show returns, expect more opinions like these from Maher.