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Sven
08-08-2009, 01:56 AM
So remember how I said the next show that Kristen and I would be doing is Kids in the Hall? Well, there was some problems with the torrent transferring over to our television, so until I've worked that out, we've been watching this show.

For a show so adamantly pro-truth, it's remarkably opaque. The editing is totally unbalanced, Penn's critique's usually a bit rash, they really like letting crazy people stand in for the side that they aim to expose as BS, and they never quite explain the structure of their stunts and interviews... but I can't help but love it. Obviously impassioned and usually pretty funny. Their arguments generally tend to be a bit, wellllll, broad, but well-intentioned and coming from smarts.

The bottom line, I am entertained even though I find it more than a bit hypocritical and too frequently relying on refusing the opposition a calm or rational voice.

Milky Joe
08-08-2009, 02:07 AM
Paragon of intellectual dishonesty and holier-than-thou horseshit. This is going off of one episode (guess which one).

Sven
08-08-2009, 02:12 AM
Paragon of intellectual dishonesty and holier-than-thou horseshit. This is going off of one episode (guess which one).

Tell me!

Oh, wait. Right. Ha! Forgot about that. Been a while. You're silly. :)

Raiders
08-08-2009, 02:20 AM
Paragon of intellectual dishonesty and holier-than-thou horseshit. This is going off of one episode (guess which one).

Occasionally true perhaps, but on the whole they tackle many of today's trends and weird beliefs with convincing science and a generally amusing and sometimes hilarious dialogue. I'm not sure how fair they really are to those they roast, but there's also no doubt many people and subjects burn themselves, and it is often great to watch.

Winston*
08-08-2009, 02:22 AM
It's kind of like South Park to me. I like it when they try to take the piss out of a stupid small subject, I like it less when they go for bigger targets.

Kurosawa Fan
08-08-2009, 03:38 AM
It's kind of like South Park to me. I like it when they try to take the piss out of a stupid small subject, I like it less when they go for bigger targets.

This. But even when they go for bigger targets, I still end up laughing along the way. Most of the time.

B-side
08-08-2009, 05:31 AM
The "Taxes" episode struck me as a bit too conservative for my liking. True, the tax system is absurdly convoluted, but a flat tax is silly. It's hard to pin them down politically.

BuffaloWilder
08-08-2009, 08:52 AM
I enjoyed the "Sex" episode, for sure.

Spun Lepton
08-08-2009, 08:07 PM
Earlier episodes, when they focused on debunking things like flying saucers and ghosts -- those were gold. Later episodes, when they started running out of topics to debunk, started to get a little questionable. When their political stances start coming into play, too, is when they start losing me. There's plenty of bullshit to debunk in the world would having to bring your politics into it.

Still, there are plenty of later episodes that are interesting and entertaining.

I do like the fact that they outright say that Showtime wants them to put more nudity in the show, so BOOBIES!!

number8
08-08-2009, 11:40 PM
But I like South Park better when they go after bigger targets.

Thirdmango
08-09-2009, 10:29 AM
I watched the first half of season 5 including the porn episode, and it was fun but ultimately I found it tiring. Once a week is probably good if I try to go at it again.

Spun Lepton
08-09-2009, 07:30 PM
I am a huge Penn and Teller fan, by the way. I've seen their live show twice, and it never fails to entertain. After their shows they'll stand in the lobby and sign autographs. At the end of the show on their Refrigerator tour, they were covered in fake blood. While they were signing autographs, I noticed Teller was wiping it out of his eyes every so often. I told him he could use my program to wipe his face. So he did, and then he signed it. So, there was a face-shaped fake blood smear with Penn and Teller's signatures on it.

I've lost the program, since. Wish I'd framed it.

A few years later I saw them again, I forget what tour it was specifically. During intermission, I saw Penn in the lobby. I approached him and said hi -- the man is TALL AS FUCK, (Teller is 5'7", to give you perspective) -- but I think he was busy preparing for a stunt. He blew me off. I didn't take it personally. :)

Sven
08-09-2009, 10:45 PM
Yeah, I'm a huge, huge fan of P & T, though I've never seen them live. I love their approach and style to their shows and magic. I just wish their show was a little better (ethically, not entertainingly).

I just watched their episode on genetically modified food and it was about as unfairly structured as anything I've seen. PRO: scientists with facts! ANTI: hippies without facts!

I spent a whole semester studying this situation (no joke) and I can say that there are plenty of scientifically based arguments against genetically modified food, but that position was never given any voice.

number8
08-10-2009, 12:16 AM
For the most part I agree, Sven, but at the very least, the show does say upfront what the show is about, and that it's not so much mythbunking as it is confronting bullshit. In that case, you can argue that they do exactly that. They target bullshit rhetoric and counter it with more sound-minded facts.

Hippies and liberal trustfund potheads are often targets, because they represent the bullshit mindset so well. They are essentially the left equivalent of stupid rednecks. So if you want to argue that veganism is bullshit, you just show some rich vegan sitting in his Malibu beach house prattling about bullshit benefits of eating bamboo leaves.

If you present logical scientific arguments of both sides, it would be DEBATABLE!, not BULLSHIT!

Sven
08-10-2009, 12:19 AM
I will agree that the sentiments that they shoot down are generally bullshit. Still, I like the idea of trying to figure out the truth in the situations as opposed to simply exposing hollow rhetoric.

I am always impressed by their compassion for the consumer.

Barty
08-19-2009, 06:11 PM
I love this show so much.

Skitch
08-19-2009, 06:56 PM
I love this show so much.

Me too. Even when I disagree with them, its still amusing.

Dukefrukem
08-19-2009, 07:20 PM
Best Penn and Teller ever (Embedding disabled by request)

number8
08-24-2009, 12:24 AM
I love the Immigration episode. So hilarious, and yet so awesome. And in a somewhat rarity, their crazy money-wasting experiment actually debunks what they're talking about. There's just something hysterical about watching illegals build the government's border wall for 8 hours and then going through it in less than 5 minutes.

"As long as America offers freedom and opportunity, people will try to come here, and we should welcome them with open fucking arms!"

I, of course, am biased on this issue.