Bob Costas | Club Random with Bill Maher
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What nostalgic TV moments and memorabilia do Bill Maher and Bob Costas reminisce about?
Bob Costas. You were very... Velvet-tongued. You were very nice. Diminutive virtuoso of the sportscasting world. There, that's correct. You have that picture I gave to you in your... Not only do I have it... I gave Bob a picture. You mentioned it to Stephen A. I did? Yeah. Right. Well, I'll mention it again, because I had it for 50 years. I cut it out of TV Guide. It was an ad... for ABC News, like on at 6.30 local in New York. Right. Eyewitness News. Eyewitness News. And it had the picture of the two news twinks or the weather guy. Yeah, I guess the two news guys. And then Howard Cosell. Oh, no, no, no. I'm sorry. It was Jim
Bouton, Frank Gifford,
and Howard Cosell. It was the two athletes. And it said two guys who got there because they played ball and one guy who got there because he never played ball.
And you said to Stephen A. Smith that you gave it to me, which
I
appreciated very much. It was a lovely touch after a taping of real time. After 50 years in my file. And you said that you've regretted it. Ever since. So,
here it is. No, no, I
don't. No, no. Oh, there it is. Yep. I don't regret it at all. It has a place of honor in my office. You have to put it back there. Oh, that's where it's going. Don't
crack
this over
your
head. It's only a fake handoff. It's so awesome.
You know what that reminds me of, though, when you almost did a spit take?
Yeah.
When you were on later, this is like 30 years ago on NBC. 94 almost.
Yeah.
After David Letterman on NBC. And we scarcely knew each other then. Right. We had a very good show. And somehow we're talking about these old comedy tropes, one of which was the spit take. and Danny Thomas was famous for the spit take.
Never
funny. No, we agreed. The spit take is, not Danny Thomas. Never funny, right? Right. But I then think I'll demonstrate a spit take a la Danny Thomas, and I say, and about 1% of the people watching this will get this reference, you know, Uncle Tannous is coming
from
Toledo
on
Tuesday,
and I take a swig,
but it was orange juice. Just fuck the whole thing up.
Well, it's good to hear you say fuck, Bob. There you go. I feel like you're liberated here. Are you drinking? Can I fix you something? What are you having? I have some Cabernet. I was going to go... Cabernet? Yeah. It was in the green room. I didn't even know you were gay, Bob, but that's fine.
How do they transition from classic comedy bits to the infamous ‘spit‑take’ discussion?
I like all... I'm trying to be as open-minded as I can. It's a very diverse... Oh, by the way, I was reading Richard Belzer's obituary. Yeah. And they actually quoted in the New York Times. I love this. And... I mean... This
is a
deep chair. That paper is horrible to me, but they got this right. Those are, you know... was my mentor when I started at Catch a Rising Star. And so it kind of hit me hard when he died. I should have talked about this with Deepak. And they wrote about him being Detective Munch on all those shows, and that's how people knew him. But what they didn't know was that was not Belzer. That's what he did. He fell into something like let him buy a house in France. That's right. It's wonderful. But he was the... the black knight of comedy you know when i was at catch the bells i mean he never was able to like get it find a way to get it out of that little rat skeller called catch a rising star and have it translate to the rest of the world very well but in his element he was amazing and it's it quoted one night the guy don't it said you know you didn't want to heckle bells i remember bells are one saying it's hey it's like kissing a cobra babe
And a guy said, nice jacket. And Hinton Belzer said, apparently, thanks. I got it on sale in your mom's vagina.
Classic comeback.
Well, it's not something you'll hear from Uncle Miltie, who actually, he was kind of funny. He could be
funny. Miltie could be funny. Should I tell
a multi-story? When I was 13, he was funny. If kids don't know Milton
Berle, who was he, Bob? Mr. Tuesday Night. He dominated early television in
the 50s. Right. Even before our time. I don't remember him except when he was a little over the hill, but he was still famous. And he'd be doing things like the Hollywood Palace.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What nostalgic TV moments and memorabilia do Bill Maher and Bob Costas reminisce about?
0:01–2:37
2
How do they transition from classic comedy bits to the infamous ‘spit‑take’ discussion?
2:37–6:22
3
Why do they argue that modern pitchers are more fragile than those from baseball’s golden era?
6:22–15:48
4
What do they say about meritocracy, race, and cultural harmony in sports today?
15:48–48:32
5
Why does Bob break his “no‑paper” rule and bring a sheet about the Atlantic article on separating sports by sex?
48:32–50:45
6
What is the significance of the Atlantic piece on gender‑segregated sports and how do Bob and Bill react to it?
50:45–55:03
7
How do Bob and Bill explain Title IX and its impact on women’s athletics?
55:03–59:02
8
Why do they argue about the value of women’s sports, pay equity, and media coverage?
59:02–1:40:37