Mark Ronson roasted Bill Maher on social media over his response to “Barbie,” for which Ronson served as music producer and oversaw the film’s original soundtrack. Maher slammed “Barbie” as “man-hating” and “preachy” and criticized the scene in which Barbie (Margot Robbie) confronts the Mattel board of executives, which is depicted as 12 men in the film.
Maher noted the scene is a “Zombie Lie” because the Mattel board actually has 7 men and 5 women on it in real life, although he failed to mention the “Barbie” movie is not based on real life and is actually a satirical fantasy in which a plastic doll comes to life.
“We come to this place for magic,” Ronson wrote in response to Maher, evoking Nicole Kidman’s beloved AMC Theatres ad. “We come to AMC theaters to laugh, to cry, to care… and to furiously google ‘Mattel board configuration’ while others are trying to enjoy a fucking magnificent comedy.”
In Maher’s original post, the television personality and political commentator wrote: “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 true but no longer is, but certain people pretend it’s still true. ‘Barbie’ is this kind of #ZombieLie.”
Maher appears to be upset with the film for not depicting the Mattel board as it really is in 2023, but, again, the film is a fantasy movie.
“I know, I know, ‘How could I know about the patriarchy, I AM a man!’ That argument is so old and so silly,” Maher continued in his post. “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. 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. 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 Zombie Lie.”
Maher’s complaints were not far off from many conservative figures who also condemned “Barbie.” Podcaster Matt Walsh, for instance, called the movie “the most aggressively anti-man, feminist propaganda fest ever put to film.” These criticisms previously drew ire from Marc Maron, who praised “Barbie” as a “masterpiece” and told off the men who are outraged over the movie.
“The fact that certain men took offense to the point where they, you know, tried to build a grift around it in terms of their narrative is right wing [explicative],” Maron said. “It’s so embarrassing for them. I mean, so embarrassing for them. Any dude that can’t take those hits in that movie, they’ve really got to look in their pants and decide what they’re made of. I mean, Jesus Christ, what a bunch of fucking insecure babies.”
“Barbie” is now playing in theaters nationwide from Warner Bros.
