What a bunch of BS!
 

I think I have a new favorite show: Penn and Teller's Bull Sh*t!

Has anyone else seen this show? They make debunking things like sleeping aids fun.

I just saw their episode on "Child Safety". They started by taking an 8 Year old kid, feeding him a big meal and tossing him into a pool to see if he cramped up and drowned.

My favorite part was when they showed the list of all the things statistically more dangerous to kids than strangers.... It was a VERY long list. Cars, pools, skateboards, lightning, sports, school, eating, etc....

I enjoy it (though I've only seen the first two seasons). And I've found most people do until they do a show on a topic near and dear to that individual.

I love, Love, LOVE Penn & Teller's Bullshït! I have seen every episode and have all the DVDs currently available.

I think my favorite show was the one on what I call Bunk Sway (known to most people as Feng Shui) and bottled water.

My favorite episodes are the ones with lots of gratuitous nudity. (shows about prostitution, tantric sex, breast and penis enhancements, these and other episodes certainly earned their late night cable bona fides.) Although I'm easily categorized as a skeptic, I don't think this show is all that effective in laying out the rational arguments and evidence for most of their topics. (I don't know that this is even the goal.) It's lots of laughs to the already de-persuaded, though.

I love the show. Even the episodes (or maybe episode) on topics near and dear to my heart. (Differing opinions have never scared me.)

Agua del Culo!

That was friggin awesome. :D

We've seen most episodes and love 'em. :)

I've never seen the show, but I hear it's a hoot.
I did see an episode of Mythbusters during Shark Week though and thought it was pretty cool.

So it's an R rated Mythbusters?

For pure entertainment value, I've got to give the nod to Mythbusters. And I love the two shark week episodes. (one from a couple of years ago was dedicated to JAWS - best episode ever!)

I went to see Penn and Teller in Vegas a couple of years ago, and spoke to both of them after the show. (Yes, Teller does talk, off stage.) They seem very fan-gracious, actually.

Not really: Mythbusters actually attempts to give a balanced view of things whereas BS is not so balanced. But both are entertaining.

Also, Mythbusters is all applying the scientific method to common notions and myths, then finding an excuse to blow stuff up. Bullshyt is more about making fun of people who believe things. (In fairness, the people who show up on BS know what show they are on, and likely know that Penn is going to call them an a**hole, but they go on willingly anyway.)

I wouldn't say that Mythbusters is balanced, they just aren't dealing with the same topics. And frequently (not most of the time but frequently) the methodologies used on Mythbusters are entertaining but not actually of much use in determining results and create a false sense of scientific rigor where they haven't created any.

I prefer Bull**** because they look at more interesting deeper topics. And Mythbusters has mostly run out of good many good myths to examine. That may be true of Bull**** as well. As I said, I've only seen the first two seasons.

I watched the new Mythbusters last week.

The boffo big ticket myth they used for the grand season opener was.... Wait for it.... Can you tenderize steak with explosives.

Wow. Gripping.

The show may have indeed jumped the shark. We'll have to see i things pick up or not.

And that's what makes it even more appealing. ;)

We just watched a rerun of the MB "Alaska Special" last night, and it was hysterical - they were testing "cabin fever", and Adam got totally freaked out when they had a guy in a yeti costume tap on his window. It's definitely entertaining while provoking some thought too.

She can easily make up for any flawed science.

Actually, I heard that the episode was funny. I thought I heard that they also tenderized the meat by letting it run in a dryer all night (which I understand blew up the dryer).

It was funny.

I don't watch them for great science. I watch them because they make me laugh. Incredibly entertaining.

They also shot steaks outs of an air cannon at over 300mph.

Yeah, they're funny. I just think they started out as a show that humorously applied rational methods to interesting questions to a show that does humorous stuff and occasionally applies rational methods to an interesting question.

But the ones that actually annoy me are when they spend an hour exploring a subject that has plenty of existing evidence already answering the question. For example, the show where they looked into whether you can really drive up a ramp into the back of a moving semi without shooting yourself through the front of it. Stunt drivers have only been doing this exact thing on film for about 50 years, there really isn't a myth being busted.

And I really wanted to scream at their methodology for determining whether great whites are wary of dolphins.

Most of their methodology sucks, but I just like them blowing stuff up - that is what the show is about!

The water heater episode was one of my favorites.

That one was spectacular.

I also like the one where they blew up the cement mixer. That was an explosion!

Indeed.

Yep. Somewhat reasonable science, and at least they do the experiments. That's cool. And yeah, they make me laugh.

Oh, yeah, I liked that one. Not a myth I'd heard, but at that point I don't care. Boom!

I saw P & T's BS a while ago and thought it was a riot. I'm guessing it's on a pay per view chanel, which is why I don't see it anymore.

It's on Showtime.

And DVD (at least that's how I've been watching them).

I'm meh on the whole thing. In turns I start to like it, then get annoyed with Penn's sanctimonious tone. And the gratuitous nudity.

I like the sanctimonious condescension. Many of the idiots involved need to encounter it more often instead of being coddled with "well, everybody is entitled to their view and therefore all views are equally valid" pats on the back.

But I can see it turning people off. Adam Savage (of Mythbusters) is, in private life, pretty active in the same woo debunking skeptic circles.

I like it for that reason too!

I like shows where they blow stuff up.

And show sharks.

But not blow up sharks.

I've heard that GWs don't like dolphins, because dolphins can kill GWs by ramming them in the gills. I completely agree though, the MB methodology was unpossible. But using real dolphins and seals as bait would not make for good TV.

Dolphins rescue surfer

That's not the methodological problem I had. I don't really have a problem with their methodology being incomplete; it is a TV show doing informal study, I'm fine with that.

It is when they say their methodology is demonstrating something that it isn't. The one that got me with the dolphin/great white was at the end they said "to show that the great white really is put off by our fake dolphin we took it out of the water and look they went crazy for the bait." That in no way shows the great whites were put off by a dolphin, at most it shows they were put off by a previously inert object in the water suddenly moving towards them just as they were about to bite food. At least in the 20 minutes I watched they did nothing to show that the result is different if that object is shaped like a dolphin instead of just floating debris or something else. It isn't a big thing but they misrepresent what the value of what they're demonstrating on a regular basis.

I thought he was especially brilliant in the recent "Sensitivity Training" episode. He summed it up nicely - the world needs "DE-Sensitivity Training" to truly cope. Basically, something is always going to offend someone, and sensitivity training teaches people to be offended by things that they might not have even been offended by prior to the training. I'm right up there about people needing to have some friggin backbones and stop blaming others for "hurting their wittle feelings". I think it's up to an individual to deflect what offends them. I certainly don't expect the world to cater to my every whim. Certain things do offend me, and I handle it by removing myself from them or ignoring it. I don't expect people to change just because I "might be sensitive".

A few years ago, I was once asked at Disneyland to not talk about a certain subject because the lady said that what I was saying was upsetting her. I told her to just ignore me then. Good grief, people have legs. Use 'em to walk away or turn on selective hearing, especially when people aren't being loud. It's really not that difficult.

Alex, consider this a standing ovation for that comment!