We Hold These Tits To Be Self-Evident...

[seanorange]

(According to Penn & Teller's "Bullshit"...)So apparently where public nudity/obscenity laws would get a woman busted for going about topless, it's actually constitutionally-protected speech if you're doing it in protest of said law

Comments

[seanorange]

It's true. The poster child for "Top Free", or whatever it's called, was kinda like that. And the previous episode I saw about Wal-Mart had an even "better" candidate.

Really, until this episode, the newer stuff has been pissing me off. The aforementioned Wal-Mart episode was really quick to defend the company, and super glossed over the whole sweatshop issue, going so far as to show someone defending it under the logic, "we might be exploiting them, but we don't exploit them as badly as other companies did, and who knows how badly-off they'd be withot us!" And, the icing on th cake, "even this country went through that period, but we got out of it because we were eventually able to build economic propsperity," and that these kids were better off in the sweatshops than selling their bodies on the streets to earn some cash.

WHAT!? ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?!!?

So exploiting child labor and fostering sweat shops is not only good for a country, but necessary to their economic devleopment? But here's the other thing -- Wal-Mart is s foreign corporation, selling its products to another, economically well-off nation that can afford a legal and morally-superior labor force. These products are not marketed to those who make them, and even if they were, they couldn't fucking afford them on the save wages they're getting. And since Wal-mart can -- in those countries, as it does here -- drive the bar so low that no domestic startup can hope to compete.

AWESOME.

So I have no idea what's going on with the show where this kind of perspective passes muster. What, where too many people agreeing with them, so now they have to go out of their way to be contrarian? Or did companies like Wal-Mart give them gobs of cash so that they'd be nicer to them on their show that no one was sure would come back? They said themselves at the start of the episode that they are 52 and 59 respectively, and have few job prospects. I guess that says everything I need to know.

~Sean

[thewyteryno]

For me, the show was killed way before the new episodes. (In fact, I've seen none of them passed early season 2) As a huge film buff, over the years I've come to really appreciate the subtle power of editing. And oh, how Pen and Teller utilize it with masterful skill (even though I'm fairly sure they have little to do with the show besides hosting) Directors like Michael Moore and the Super-Size Me goof do the same stuff.

I think the first episode I saw was the "Green Peace/Environmental Awareness" one, which I still think is high-larious and well put together. But then I saw the "Alternative Medicine" one and I'm like, hold on a tick... All they seem to be doing is finding some (ANY) foolish-looking yokel out in the sticks who is guaranteed to say something stupid. You know, just one of those dumb guys that'll believe whatever dumb thing. It's doesn't matter if he's actually dangerous or hurting people, just that he looks stupid. He'll going on about magnetic beds or the dangers of standing too close to a microwave. Then they can get some guy with some title who can say smart things. It's really rather easy to splice in all the stupid things one person says, and all the smart things the smart person says; If the guy with the OTHER point of view trips over his lines, we'll but THAT in, but not for the 'good point of view' guy. Oh, and let's reaffirm that it doesn't matter who these guys are, so long as they can be made to look stupid and smart, respectively.

So I started picking up on that crap in the show ALL THE TIME. In the "Recycling is Stupid" episode, they made this 'shocking revelation' that recycling "actually uses MORE energy then throwing it away. Yeep, it's true!" Well, of course that would be true! Picking something up and throwing it somewhere would use a lot less energy and money then picking it up, deconstructing it, rebuilding and reshaping it, reproducing it, and redistributing it. Of Course! The reason one recylings isn't to save energy, it's to save materials. But they try and pass it off like it's the great debate killer.

YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?!!?

Oh, and then they try to tackle the [il]legalization of drugs, and subtly twist it into a "Weed is a Good Medical Drug" spiel. So, what..? That's supposed to summarize the War on Drugs debate? Weed helps a handful of sick people? What the Hell do the two have to do with each other? Very little, really. And let's not forget when they debunked love by examining a horse's private parts. That's right kids! Then you have their numerous "We Hate Religion, so You Should Too" rants, which I think came off more as attacking bystanders then insightful or even inappropriately funny ( I could accept inappropriately funny).

I did once theorize that the people running the show know exactly what they're doing, but it's all a big pun on the name. Like, we're NOT REALLY debunking bullshit ideas but really, we're going to present you with bullshit and see if you're clever enough to notice. In which case, it's one of the biggest and funniest hoaxes in television history.

Remember, they are magicians. ;)