« Yet More Lucas and Odessa. | Main | Sam > Pippin > Merry > Gollum > Frodo. »

December 17, 2003

I Don't Usually Get This Excited About Television...

But YES YES OH GOD YES.

For those of you too lazy to click through: Penn & Teller: Bullshit! has been renewed for a second season by Showtime. Because Showtime kisses open-mouthed with God, and Showtime knows the motherfucking score. Oh, yes. Yes.

Basic premise? People are full of shit. The homeopathic medicine people, the alien abduction people, the organic food people, the creationist people, the feng-shui people, the end-of-the-world people. All of them. Shit. You shouldn't believe them. And Penn & Teller spend an hour each week trying to explain why.

It's not just a show, it's a public service. And it's coming back.

If you've never seen Bullshit!, the entire first season's been immortalized; it's easy to find on the DC hubs and eMule, and there should be plenty of reruns on Showtime right now. Watch it. Trust me, it's like a breath of fresh air in a world where your televison seems determined to convince you that the moon landings were faked, half the US will be underwater by 2050, and religious statuettes regularly bleed the blood of their owners ER UHM I MEAN JESUS.

Posted by Spike at December 17, 2003 08:50 AM

Comments

No, no. Dark Shadows is the best thing on television. Penn & Teller are a mere second place. Feh!

Posted by Lisa Jonte at December 17, 2003 10:49 AM
64.85.227.122

Why did my friends list on Livejournal suddeny get flooded with your past blog entries? Hmmm... I took you off, I'd rather just keep checking here regularly.

Posted by Psychomelody at December 17, 2003 12:38 PM
141.158.29.47

Mine did the same thing, it's just a glitch.

Posted by Lisa Jonte at December 17, 2003 02:36 PM
64.85.227.122

Yup. It's in the FAQ on Livejournal feeds. There's an initial flood of blog posts, because your journal adds all the entries for the past 30 or so days at one time. Only happens once, though.

Posted by spike at December 17, 2003 02:48 PM
68.20.212.217

damn. i really want to download that show, but I can't find any Mac-friendly programs or sources that have it. Sigh.

Posted by jaclyn at December 20, 2003 12:38 PM
68.104.231.26

Last night I watched a P&T B.S. show on the environment and global warming. Instead of learning something about the subject, and talking to climate and eco-scientists, they interviewed several well meaning no nothings, and a few representatives of right wing think tanks (Cato institute), and pronounced that they'd debunked it all. On this episode at least, Penn & Teller show themselves as a couple of obnoxious imbeciles totally full of sh?t themselves.

Posted by Mark Lloyd Baker at December 23, 2003 08:12 AM
148.64.48.162

Dude, it's okay. You can curse here. SHIT FUCK PISS.

And I remember that episode, although not exactly that way. They interviewed that hippie girl who lived in a cedar tree or whatever for two years... is that who you meant by a well-meaning know-nothing? If so, then I agree.

But I also remember the interview with the disillusioned founder of Greenpeace. I tended to give his word more weight than anybody elses. And P&T didn't actually claim to know the answer to all the enviromental hub-bub, screaming "WE DON'T KNOW YET!" once or twice.

That "skeptical enviromentalist" guy I can't really comment on, since I haven't read his book, but sounds like the typical "playing with statistics" stuff.

I any case, you hafta agree about the air of hysteria and gloom-and-doom the enviromental lobbyists tend to promote not doing much good for their cause.

Posted by spike at December 25, 2003 01:24 AM
68.20.18.145

Post a comment