| Debunking the Bunkum |
10 February 2003
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Penn, Teller and BS
The new Penn & Teller program on Showtime is titled "Bullshit," which would be another example of the coarsening of American society except that BS is what the two magician/comedians are exposing and, for legal reasons, they can't say lie, cheat, swindle or scam. Bullshit and related words, though, don't run into that legal difficulty. Vulgarity aside, the program is a public service by showing what a load of bullshit certain things are.
In the first episode, Penn & Teller take on alternative medicine, a load of bullshit if there ever was any (but not a scam, swindle or cheat, because of liable laws). They argue that reflexology, magnetism and much of chiropractic medicine is bullshit. In the second episode, they take on mediums who speak with the dead -- also, bullshit they say, and their arguments are persuasive.
The crux of the matter is that people want to believe, and there is money to be made from this desire. The only problem with the program is its narrow audience. Showtime is not part of a basic cable package, and the show runs only 30 minutes. In a decent world, it would be on every night for at least an hour on ABC, NBC, CBS and the rest of the national broadcasters. A healthy dose of pessimism throughout society would put many of these bullshit artists out of business. That would be progress.