HBO’s “Real Time with Bill Maher” host admitted he hoped the reports about the new “Barbie” movie being a “man-hating” film was a lie — but said after finally seeing the movie it was that and more, slamming the director for ignoring the world we currently live in.
The 67-year-old comedian/TV host took to Twitter on Monday and wrote to his 10.8 million followers that the Greta Gerwig-directed movie about the famed Mattel doll was a “ZombieLie,” along with being “preachy” and out of touch with reality.
Maher said the term “ZombieLie” means it’s either “something that never was true, but certain people refuse to stop saying it” or “something that USED to be true but no longer is, but certain people pretend it’s still true. ‘Barbie’ is this kind of #ZombieLie.”
“Spoiler alert, Barbie fights the Patriarchy,” the HBO host wrote in his lengthy post. “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.”
OK, "Barbie": I was hoping it wouldn't be preachy, man-hating, and a #ZombieLie – alas, it was all three. What is a Zombie Lie? Something that never was true, but certain people refuse to stop saying it (tax cuts for the rich increase revenues, e.g.); OR something that USED to be…
— Bill Maher (@billmaher) August 7, 2023
“And not really any longer deserving of the word ‘patriarchy,'” he added. “Yes, there was one, and remnants of it remain — but this movie is so 2000 —LATE. At one point the Barbies have to win over the Kens, and they are told to do it by pretending to act helpless and not know how to do stuff. Helen Gurley Brown called, she wants her premise back.”
Maher admitted yes, at one point in history this “was a thing” but said he knows from at least one woman in her 30s this is simply not true and she told him, “I don’t know a single woman of any age who would act like that today.”
And when it comes to critics who will say the TV personality couldn’t know a thing about the patriarchy cause he’s a man, he blasted the argument as “so old and so silly.” He said he might not know what others go through in life, but can clearly see “the world around me, and I can read data.”
“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 added. “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,” the talk show host 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! Hi Ken!!!”
Maher’s comments echoed that of Daily Wire Editor Emeritus Ben Shapiro’s, who’s made it clear he’s not a “Barbie” movie fan, other than for the look of the sets, calling the “production and set designs” great.
My producers dragged me to see ‘Barbie’ and it was one of the most woke movies I have ever seen. My full review of this flaming garbage heap of a film will be out on my YouTube channel tomorrow at 10am ET. pic.twitter.com/Lptha0p3qx
— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) July 21, 2023
Related: The Left Freaks Out Because I Hated The ‘Barbie’ Movie. Here’s The Real Reason Why.