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The Program
True story:
my younger sister is an Ivy League-educated physician, so I know she has to be
at least slightly brilliant, but a few years back she came to me with
just the funniest story about her roommate's sister's best friend. It
seems that this roommate's sister's best friend (who, for the purposes of this
story, we shall call 'Eucretia') was preparing for a date with a hot young hunk
(whom we shall refer to as Jeff), but the unfortunate young lady had been
stricken with a chronic case of flatulence that just wouldn't end.
Well, Jeff picked Eucretia up and, being the perfect gentleman, held the
door open for her and helped her into the car. As he closed the door, Eucretia
felt the painful pressure of a fierce air biscuit building up.
As Jeff walked around to the other side of the car, Eucretia seized
the moment and let a huge one rip, carefully controlling her sphincter as to
not, shall we say, blow a little mud. She then quickly rolled down the window
and fervidly fanned the remaining embers of flatulence out into the great
outdoors, quietly thanking the universe for the principle of osmosis.
As Jeff opened his door and settled into the driver's seat, he turned
to Eucretia and announced, "Oh by the way, we're going to be double-dating
with Ellis and Eunice Verdano. They're sitting in the backseat, have you said
hello?" Eucretia turned a shade of
deep vermilion, and faced the rather shocked Verdana couple in the rear seats,
their faces a clear portrait of nausea and
revulsion.
My sister swore this
happened. And anyone who knows anything about Urban Legends knows that the
infamous "Fart in the Dark" story is brilliantly entertaining and hysterically
exquisite bullshit.
People will believe just about
anything, especially if said piece of information preys upon their deepest
fears, most prurient desires, most fervent religious (or anti-religious)
convictions, or even if it just sounds convincing enough. But that's not exactly
news, isn't it? With thousands of years worth of human civilization before
us, one would think that we - and by we, I mean you
- would have a firmer grip on reality, and that the seeds of ignorance and
idiocy would be laid by the wayside in favor of a harmonious society built on
the concepts of truth, empirical observation, and practical sensibilities.
Feh.
The emmes is that we all
love a good bullshit story. We thrive on it. We delude ourselves into
subscribing to as much wackiness we can muster, even if, in our heart of hearts,
we know we're full of shit. That doesn't necessarily make us terrible people -
well, not me, anyhow - but it does mean we love to take a dive into
magically non-existent swimming pools every now and then because - let's face it
- everyone has peed in the real ones.
The problem inevitably occurs when
people start really believing their own bullshit, and that is the
subject of Penn & Teller's Bullshit, the magnificent
Showtime series in which the famed magicians investigate and thoroughly
debunk a variety of different bullshit topics and frankly pathetic fads,
styles, mores, activities, medical treatments, and other ersatz panaceas that
promise to make our life more meaningful, fantastic, and extraordinary. Over the
course of 13 episodes, the brilliant illusionists (and costars of 1986's epic
My Chauffer) proceed to rip apart such thoroughly ridiculous topics as
Feng Shui, Penis Enlargement, Talking to the Dead, ESP, Creationism, and other
buttloads of exquisite horse-crap that, for some reason, too many people are
buying into.
(Let's face it: some of you
guys are following up on those "Make Your Penis Grow" spam emails, because they
just keep on coming. And believe you me, these offers don't work... er, so they
say!)
Showtime has released Penn &
Teller's Bullshit: The Complete First Season on DVD, and for the cynics,
realists, skeptics, pragmatists, and grand poobahs of common sense in all of us,
Bullshit is must viewing.
The following episodes are included on
this three-disc set:
Disc
One:
- Episode 1: Talking to the
Dead
- Episode 2: Alternative
Medicine
- Episode 3: Alien
Abductions
- Episode 4: End of the
World
- Episode 5: Second Hand Smoke / Baby
Bullshit
Disc
Two:
- Episode 6: Sex, Sex,
Sex
- Episode 7: Feng Shui / Bottled
Water
- Episode 8:
Creationism
- Episode 9:
Self-Helpless
- Episode 10:
ESP
Disc
Three:
- Episode 11: Eat
This!
- Episode 12: Ouija Boards / Near
Death Experiences
- Episode 13: Environmental
Hysteria
The DVD
Video:
Created expressly for
television, Penn & Teller's Bullshit: The Complete First Season is
presented in its original full-frame aspect ratio of 1.33:1. The quality of the
video is very good; in fact, it's about as pristine and clear as one could
imagine. There's a tad too much sharpness to the transfer, resulting in some
occasional shimmering and line noise, but other than that I have absolutely no
complaints about the quality of the video. Colors are strong, images are very
sharp, contrast levels are exquisite, and the transfer features little in terms
of compression noise or pixellation. This is a fine transfer.
Audio:
The audio is presented in
both Dolby Digital 5.1 and 2.0 (a mono Spanish dub is also included, which
results in some unintentional hilarity as Penn explains how Creationism is utter
horseshit with pure Castellano gusto). The soundtrack is mostly frontstage, with
some expansion of soundfield to enhance the show's musical score. Dialog is
clear, bright, and warm, while the score demonstrates some reasonably dynamic
range. This is not an aggressive presentation, but it doesn't need to be. It
gets the job done, and done well.
Extras:
The Bonus Features
are contained entirely on Disc Three. Naked Promo
is a seventeen second promotional clip for their "Sex, Sex, Sex"
episode. Junkyard Ghost! is a fourteen-minute featurette that
examines the phenomenon of ghostlike images appearing in various photographs and
videotapings. Is there photographic existence of otherworldly phenomena? (Short
answer: no.) Next up is a James Randi Interview with Penn &
Teller, an eighteen minute conversation between Penn
and famed magician/skeptic James Randi. This interview makes for a
fantastic companion piece to the Bullshit series. Randi has offered up
a $1 million prize to anyone who can prove that they have actual supernormal
"powers." Number of prize-winners to date: zero.
More Bullshit!
is a twenty-eight minutes of bonus footage that was excised from
various episodes of the show, and makes for some extremely entertaining viewing.
Bullshitting Around! includes ten minutes of bloopers,
outtakes, and on-set footage. Behind the Scenes! consists of
seven minutes worth of "behind the scenes" footage from the taping of the show.
We get tons more naked people here, and, unless you're Michael Powell, that
certainly can be considered A Good Thing. Wraparounds! runs
just over six minutes, and features some more outtakes and bloopers that
occurred during the filming of
the introductions and conclusions to various episodes.
Penn & Teller Bio
is a six-page text biography of the acclaimed duo. Wrapping up the
extras are trailers for The Boys 2nd Street Park,
A Woman's A Helluva Thing, Rio: Go Wild, and weblinks
for the Showtime cable channel and the Rio All-Suite Hotel
and Casino in Las Vegas, where Penn
& Teller perform nightly (except for Tuesdays.)
Final
Thoughts
There are loads of wonderful platitudes I could ladle upon
Penn & Teller's Bullshit: The Complete First Season, but
what impressed me most about the series is that, amidst the comedy, yuks, and
acerbic criticisms thrown around these episodes, there is a real sense of
warning and anger throughout the proceedings. For example, look at John Edward,
James Von Praagh, and Rosemary Altea, three alleged "mediums" that have
made a cottage industry out of convincing people that they can speak to the
dead. When Penn rips them apart for exploiting people's inconsolable grief
and mourning for their own financial benefit, there's genuine anger and
bitterness in his tirade. Bullshit might be one of the funniest shows
I've ever seen, but it's also one of the most incisive and informative.
So, no bullshit: Bullshit is definitely worth your time.
As illusionists and magicians, Penn & Teller are self-professed
purveyors of bullshit. But - as they remind us in the first episode - the
difference between them and the people they go after is that Penn & Teller
admit up front that their act is full of shit. But their investigations are as
insightful and biting as their illusionary parlor tricks are gloriously silly
and entertaining. Penn & Teller's Bullshit: The Complete First Season
remains one of the best DVD box sets I've seen in a long while... and
that's no bullshit.
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