Jane Fonda and Bill Maher waste each other's time on Club Random

In her infinite patience, Jane Fonda deigned to sit down on Bill Maher’s Club Random podcast and talk about her political passions. At one point of their winding conversation, she declares, “I’m not afraid of dying. I just wanna be sure that when I die, I know I’ve done everything that I possibly could.” Apparently, one of those things is spar with Maher, who describes her to herself as a “world-class piece of ass.”

Of course, Fonda’s life and career mean much more than her physical appearance. Maher readily acknowledges that, though he fails to get her excited about things like Kylie Jenner dressing up as Barbarella. Fonda doesn’t know or much care about being a youth idol, beyond that young people tend to share her causes. Meanwhile, Maher has his own pet causes, like his claim that Trump gained voters because many people “just think the far left has gone so nutty on so many issues.” Fonda is also unimpressed by that response. “That’s what they’re being told… by people like you,” she replies. 

Perhaps you can wring a drop or two of schadenfreude out of Fonda’s utter dismissal of Maher’s worldview, which continues throughout the episode. Certainly, the Internet got some good mileage out of Bill Burr Totally DESTROYING Bill Maher On Club Random earlier this year. But if you’re watching it from Maher’s perspective, you might just as easily assume him victorious in his equal dismissal of Fonda’s ideas for solving the climate crisis. Ultimately, the conversation is a case study in two people who simply cannot meet in the middle. Fonda thinks Maher is “so cynical”; Maher thinks Fonda is “so naive.” At one point, he describes to her the plot of The Way We Were—Fonda “can’t remember the movie well enough to know” what comparison he’s trying to make—and suggests she’s much like Barbra Streisand’s character. “Sometimes I wonder if we had a utopia, it would be the greatest pain for you,” Maher says. “You’re there for the cause, absolutely sincerely, but also, the cause is there for you a little. Am I wrong?”

“You’re so different from me that it’s hard for me sometimes to even understand what you’re talking about,” Fonda says after a pause to process. “Really? We must have a lot in common,” Maher counters for the nth time. “I don’t think we do,” says Fonda. “Really?” He asks a final time. “No,” says she. Ah well: can’t win them all.