Penn & Teller: Bullshit

[teutonicman]

I've started watching some of the episodes again and I realized I forgot how hilarious and awesome it is. One of the things that I really like is the lulziness of some of the interviews. One of my favourite episodes was about video games and at the end they got a child to fire a rifle with live round, it was really cool. Anyway what do you guys think of the show?

 

[chronobreak]

It's a good show, but I don't like when people refer to it to back up a point they are trying to make, like the show is unbiased, unabashed truth. They openly say themselves that the show is biased as all hell, and they use gratuitous editing to make the people on the show look bad. It's good for a quick slice of entertainment, but that's about it.

 

[Armored Prayer]

Lulziness?

Sorry, never heard of this show.

 

[fix-the-spade]

I have to admit loving it.

By far my favourite was the one about idiots (students mostly) at rallies who just sign any petition whether they believed in it or not. Naturally the evil fatal if you're immersed in it chemical was... DiHydrogen Monoxide. I laughed for hours at that one.

 

[Cakes]

I don't take the show very seriously, I mostly just watch it for cheap laughs at the expense of the dumb asses they interview. Mostly Penn just makes fun of them via voice-over instead of actually debating, so yeah, it's not a particularly serious show.

 

[smithy1234]

It's a good show, funny at times. As well it promotes critical thinking to the masses which is always a novel thing.

 

[Proteus214]

It's hilarious. I recommend a lot of their stuff from earlier seasons, especially when they go after the bizarre hocus pocus topics like Feng Shui.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

Most of the shows are good, but occasionally they just fall back on cheap laughs and real fallacies to make their point.

Main one so far has been the "We need guns to change the government."

Oh yeah, and that's SO gonna work.

 

[DannyBoy451]

As entertainment: Great

As serious, unbiased discussion: Fail

Much like everything ever made by Micheal Moore.

 

[Anacortian]

I recommend it to intelligent folk who can handle the language. Season One is best; they start scraping for material pretty early in Season Two. I consider them the Libertarian Rush Limbaugh (even when I disagree, I find them humorous, thinking, and mostly pleasant).

 

[nixd]

Bullying opinionated retards are bullying opinionated retards.

 

[Eclectic Dreck]

As entertainment: Great

As serious, unbiased discussion: Fail

Much like everything ever made by Micheal Moore.

I'll agree with this. I rarely agree with Moore in his films, but both Moore and Penn and Teller suceed at two things. First - they manage to entertain. Second, if recieved by the proper audience, the shows and documentaries can prove a catalyst for in depth discussion on a range of issues.

It's like Mythbusters. The show isn't designed to provide conclusive, scientifically rigorous experiements but rather demonstrate to an audience the feasability of a particular subject. Even on the occasions where I don't agree with the findings, at least the show managed to make me think about the myth with more thought to the logic than I would otherwise.

 

[cleverlymadeup]

It's a good show, but I don't like when people refer to it to back up a point they are trying to make, like the show is unbiased, unabashed truth. They openly say themselves that the show is biased as all hell, and they use gratuitous editing to make the people on the show look bad. It's good for a quick slice of entertainment, but that's about it.

there is truth to what the people are saying tho, yes they are edited but really they don't have to edit a whole hell of a lot.

the main thing about the show is to be a devil's advocate to the popular view of topic they are dealing with and to get people to think

 

[Julianking93]

I love that show. I watch it all the time on Youtube and Surfthechannel.

I don't get Showtime.

 

[rampantcreature]

Thanks to them, I will always know the dangers of Dihydrogen Monoxide.

 

[chronobreak]

there is truth to what the people are saying tho, yes they are edited but really they don't have to edit a whole hell of a lot.

the main thing about the show is to be a devil's advocate to the popular view of topic they are dealing with and to get people to think

Well, as they say, there is a hint of truth in every lie, right? I would sincerely hope over the course of 30 minutes they could get a few facts in there. I don't know how much they edit, because I don't work on the set or know the producers or anything, I'm just going by Penn's words, that they are extremely biased and edit to make people look bad.

They do get people thinking, and I like that.

 

[Seldon2639]

Eh, it depends on the episode. Some of the time they're good about the statistics and doing their research, other times they're pretty lazy and just insert their own presumptions and preconceptions about an issue in lieu of a real debate. I'm reminded of their episode on circumcision, which was very one-sided (as all of their episodes are), but didn't even give a cursory overview of the opposing viewpoint to theirs. It's sloppy and unfair. It's like the movie "Idiocracy" or anything Michael Moore makes: if you already agree, you'll laugh uproariously, and find it brilliant and insightful; if you don't have an opinion, you'll probably see that it's biased and proselytizing; if you disagree, you'll see it as overwhelmingly unfair and silly.

 

[Gildan Bladeborn]

I got myself and a couple other family members into watching that show a while ago, some of their 'experiments' are bloody hilarious and it's always nice to see somebody calling out the ridiculous things people accept without ever really thinking about them.

The world would be a much better place if people could actually defend the convictions they hold.

 

[Buck Wilde]

Hah, I love this show, I'm glad xbox has netflix (no cable here). I watch it mostly because its pretty funny and the experiments are good. It does make you think about what they talk about on the show and tries to expose the truth, which is what i think we need more of (people questioning their beliefs and coming up with an argument to support them).

 

[Irridium]

Thanks to netflix I am watching the show.

Just watched the Wal-Mart one, funny as hell.

A guy succedes in stopping Wal-Mart from setting up shop in his town, and the buisnesses in the town are still failing.