So Penn and Teller have apparently been around for a while (as a search for their products on Amazon can prove). But I have been turned on to this show more recently.
And as I am sure you can tell from the name of the show alone, you can't find it on a network. It airs on Showtime as seemingly odd times.
So what can a show about a loudmouth guy with a ponytail and a silent magician bring you? A lot of researched information. They are the self proclaimed pit bulls of truth on a mission to debunk things that many in today's society hold dear. They talk about the bogus nature of conspiracy theories, how "untraditional families" aren't harming society, and even look at the issue of infant circumcision.
Each show includes people from multiple sides of the issues being debunked. There are interviews and undercover segments providing the audience with the perspective of the guests on the show. And intertwined throughout are Penn and Teller's comedic interjections. They have a research team that looks up each claim to verify its truthfulness. Penn and Teller can be quite harsh, but they do it in a way that unless you feel you are being attacked you can write it off to crude humor.
So if you find yourself bored and have Showtime- see if it is on. It is at least worth a look. And they cuss freely, which is a nice break from some television.
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Article comments
1 - pecotrain
i just watched the animal rights movement and i felt embarrest that i share the same species as thoes peta clowns. we are omnivores we eat plants and animals {flesh and meat}. if you look at omnivores in nature the eat from 70% to 90% vegitable matter but there also opportunists and witch they will eat more meat if they can. we will also the same i will give my opinion that a majority of people eat more than enough meat we are omnivores at nature being we eat both forms of biomatter. as for medical research? . us or them?
2 - pecotrain
i just read what i wrote and wow im drunk but my gist is were deniying our role on this plannet as omnivores. we just need to regulate our intake of produce meat. thats all im saying for now cause im pissed drunk and scatterd in the brain. pfft
3 - Alienboy
Pecotrain has just demonstrated all the thoughtful and insightful qualities that make the blogworld so wonderful; considered comments on the subject under discussion. Don't you just love that?
4 - fredmertz
from the very 1st episode I watched, Penn Gillette comes across like a republican mouth piece.
this guy is slightly to the right of Rush Limbaugh. poking fun at animal rights activists, and calling them 'liberal loonies' because they don't accept animal testing as a guarantee of safety.
seems to me the guy has spent too much time in Vegas banging showgirls in limos.
anyone can 'demystify' ghost hunters, fortune tellers, 'psychic surgeons' and the like.
what was laughable was how the 'demystified' bottled water. you cant tell me that fat sack of crap ever drinks from a rusty faucet in West Virginia.
5 - -E
They've also "debunked" things that many on the right favor- like religion and circumcision. While Penn may personally be on the right of American politics, the show isn't partisan.
6 - Al Barger
I believe Penn self-identifies as a "libertarian," but they'd call bullshit on some of our people just as quick if they came across something thoroughly whack.
Also, they put a great deal of emphasis on being HONEST critics, and pride themselves on letting the objects of their criticism present their best case- before ripping them a new one.
Gilette claims- and I've seen nothing to contradict this- that they've never had any of the objects of their criticism complain of being misrepresented, or anything like that.
PTB is an excellent model for honest and friendly intellectual hardball in the public discourse.
7 - El Bicho
Mr Mertz, you obvioulsy haven't seen all the shows if you think Penn is on the right. The show has exposed Creationism, War on Drugs, The Bible: Fact or Fiction?, Family Values, and Signs From Heaven. Unfortunately for a lot of people there's bullshit on both sides.
Also, he never said he didn't drink bottled water. He just illustrated that the reasons people drink it, safety, taste, et al, aren't necessarily accurate.
"anyone can 'demystify' ghost hunters, fortune tellers, 'psychic surgeons' and the like."
Not everyone can make a buck doing it.
8 - David Elliott
Penn is definitely on the right - you just have to understand the politics of right-wing libertarianism. He is on the right of anything that threatens corporate politics, he is on the left of anything that *does not* threaten corporate politics. His first consideration is corporate power, his second consideration is human rights - that's what right-wing libertarians tend to do.
Seriously, take a look at his "left" issues and his "right" issues. There is a distinct pattern.
He is on the "left" of gay rights, religion, 'alternative' health, war on drugs, etc. All fairly non-confronting, (i'd even say "bland") issues for corporate lobbyists.
But he is on the *right* of passive smoking, global warming (he is a fellow on a think tank funded by Exxon-Mobil, by the way), any government regulation - from environmental protection to disabled parking spaces, unionism, and community-based development - anything that potentially involves corporate power or profiteering.
It's a pretty predictable pattern, if your conception of "left and right" is a bit more sophisticated than saying "anti-religion is left and pro-religion is right".
He always goes to the *right* on issues that are much more fundamental to the actual divide between the citizen-centred economic left and the corporate/market-centred economic right.