Fistfight at the Coulter/Maher Speaker Series!

Published Mar 11 2009, 12:46 PM by Sara Faith Alterman

What happens when the country's most litigious conservative butts political heads with the man who champions pot and prostitution more fervently than a horny frat boy on 4/20?

A fistfight in the audience of Boston's theatrical mastodon, The Wang Theatre.

Ann Coulter and Bill Maher came to town last night to inaugurate the theater's 2009 "Speaker Series: The Minds That Move The World,” each flapping their caricatured cake-holes about America's political landscape before engaging in a yawn-fest "debate" that was marred by technical snafus; an awkward, ill-informed moderator; and - what proved to be the most exciting element of the evening - some crazy-ass heckling, courtesy of drunk dipshits.

Considering that Coulter spits venom at liberals and that Maher wants to skull-fuck every Republican that crosses his path, one would have expected a balls-out catfight to break out on stage. Instead, Maher and Coulter took predictable potshots at politicians (Coulter facetiously compared Obama to Jesus! Maher thinks Rush Limbaugh is fat and ineffective! Insert canned laughs here!) and each other, and let the audience do the brawling.

It started innocently enough; Maher was in the middle of a long and comedically tired set-up about how Sarah Palin is an Avon lady, and a man in the back of the house screamed something about the "liberal Gestapo," a bizarre choice of insult, given that nobody ever accused Hilter of being a bleeding-heart progressive. The rest of the drunk conservatives in the audience took this as an invitation to scream at Maher whenever they felt so moved, perhaps forgetting that they were watching an informed political event in the theater district, and not a Larry the Cable Guy set at the Chuckle Hut.

What really set it off, though, was when Coulter's lavaliere microphone stopped working. The sound was shitty to begin with, and the set - a few leather armchairs and a giant bouquet of flowers - looked like it'd been airlifted directly off the set of an Oprah spin-off show. (Really, the Wang has absolutely no business hosting a speaker's series, given last night's awkward staging, shoddy production value, and the audio staff's apparent inability to rectify simple sound issues. I digress.)

A man, who'd been previously yelling something unintelligible about Maher and his liberal agenda, started screaming, at Coulter, about how he couldn't hear her. He screamed again and again, until a woman sitting in front of him asked if he'd please quiet down. "Fuck you, bitch!" he bellowed. "I paid $120 for these motherfucking tickets and I can't hear a fucking thing!"

The octogenarian ushers at the Wang couldn't shuffle over there fast enough, so another man stood to defend this woman's honor. Nothing doing! "Motherfucker, I will fuck you up!" screamed the heckler, inciting chest puffing, fist clenching, and scuffling. Our poor theater critic Carolyn Clay was sitting right next to the fracas, bless her heart, and to her credit, she ignored the meatheads and kept watching the stage like the diligent arts pundit that she is.

Hoo boy! Finally, security arrived to escort Drunky McGoo out. Probably a first for the Wang. I doubt anyone's ever had to be thrown out of, say, Cats, for being unruly.

As he made his way out he screamed, "I was in Baghdad for three years! Iraqi freedom NEVER!"

While your service to your country is appreciated, sir, it does NOT give you the right to be a spectacular asshole.

Sadly, this debacle was the highlight of the evening. No matter how inflated Maher's ranting, how nonsensical Coulter's analogies, they both lost the debate. To the audience. Score one for the liberal Gestapo and the conservative buffoons!

Filed Under: Ann Coulter, Bill Maher: Wang Theatre

Religious Warfare on the Globe Comment Boards

Best spots for a frosty-fix

9 Comments

James Zipadelli said:

Sara -- it's stories like this one that REALLY make me miss Boston. When I was a sophomore at UConn, Coulter came to speak at the request of the College Republicans. She said a few incidendiary things and it really pissed off my classmates. They started yelling things at her, and someone broke into the sound system and began playing music. Coulter was escorted off the stage by security.

March 11, 2009 2:26 PM
eLocke said:

"nobody ever accused Hilter of being a bleeding-heart progressive"

Because, after all, he never formed anythink like the National Socialist party.

March 11, 2009 3:32 PM
Jennie Palluzzi said:

Missing things like this is tragic. Wish I could have been there.

March 11, 2009 3:51 PM
Amanda said:

I waas there, the "liberal gestapo" guy was somewhere behind me (I was left balcony) while the guy who yelled about his time in Baghdad sounded like he was closer to the front. They should have had the people who do security for Red Sox/Yankees games replace the timid ushers for the night since it took forever for them to get control over these guys.

March 11, 2009 5:10 PM
JR said:

@ eLocke: learn your history. Hitler's "Socialist" party bears no resemblance to the modern, progressive socialism that conservatives criticize today. (And which is working quite nicely in Europe, by the way.)

March 12, 2009 9:26 AM
eLocke said:

I suggest you look a little more closely; the similarities are quite striking. Hitler realized that Marxism failed to account for peoples adherence to national identity, but Socialism could be quite successful politically. The collectivism and commitment to the commmon good are prevalent in modern Europe's version of Socialism. Hitler just didn't include the Jews (and others) in his concept of "the folks".

March 12, 2009 4:51 PM
Jeff Nichols said:

I was there. The biggest fireworks occurred when Maher made fun of Palin. A man near me yelled, "She's a lot better than our Governor." Maher went off on the guy for a full 90 seconds. He hammered the heckler into the ground and topped it off with, "Maybe if you had worked harder in your life, you'd be talking up here instead of out there. So why don't you just shut up, Joe the Plumber." It was a very unusual event.

March 12, 2009 5:40 PM
lkcape said:

It's all entertainment...

And guess who got the lion's share of the proceeds?

Did you get your money's worth?

I doubt it.

March 16, 2009 5:08 PM
Mario said:

I wasn't at any of the debates though I wanted to be. After reading the "post-bout" comments it appears I didn't miss much. Whatever happened to real debates? Those we had in high school and college where a subject was presented and then the gloves came off? These moderator led exercises are boring and really not informative or entertaining. Well at least I saved some money that can go to AIG instead.

March 22, 2009 12:39 PM