[Movie] Simulwatch Brainstorm/Vote Thread: AMERICA! FUCK YEAH! BRITAIN! Fuck yeah? Edition

I fully support all of Devo's choices. So long as we skip season 1 of blackadder due to suck.

And I say we can go up to an hour, because frankly most good Amurrican tv is in the 44 minute club.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

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In each episode, Penn and Teller debunk a chosen misconception such as cryptozoology, debate a controversial topic like gun control or "expose the truths" of an organization like PETA. Sometimes their objective is not to completely dismiss the topic at hand but to decry certain aspects of the topic that they believe to be pernicious, misleading, unnecessary, or overemphasized. For example, in the case of college they argue that while college is a great place "if you love to learn, if you love to drink beer, or if you need training for a certain career", they feel that using "student diversity" as promotion is "bullshit". Similarly, they state: "so the casual asshole, or just plain dickhead, might do well in an anger management program" but using "venting" as a technique in anger management is "bullshit" since venting increases aggressiveness in a person by "twice as much" over time, especially in cases of domestic violence.

Proponents of the topic make their case in interviews; however, they often end up appearing fallacious or self-contradicting. For example, in "Safety Hysteria", a manufacturer of "radiation guards" for mobile phones admits that there is no proven link between mobile phone radiation and brain cancer, but assures viewers that "you can't be too safe" (mobile phones use conventional radio waves for communication, which are non-ionizing radiation). When he states his background is in advertising, not medical science, it is implied that he knows his product is useless but exploits people's fears to turn a profit.[5] A second consecutive interview with another proponent is often started with the phrase: "And then there's this asshole..."

Penn Jillette has stated that those being interviewed know what show the interview is for and its purpose. One episode shows a video crew from the show going into a building to perform an interview, and Jillette points out that a member of the crew is wearing a Penn & Teller: Bullshit! baseball cap.[6] Opponents are then interviewed and they offer rebuttals to the proponents' arguments. These are usually experts, celebrities, or sometimes speakers from the Center for Inquiry, James Randi Educational Foundation, and the Cato Institute.[6]

Penn and Teller often conduct informal experiments. For example, in the episode "Bottled Water", diners in an upscale restaurant are presented with a variety of apparently fancy bottled water brands. After the diners praise and pick a favorite, it is revealed that each bottle was filled by the same garden hose behind the restaurant.[7] In one of their more serious experiments during the "Conspiracy Theories" episode, Teller fires a rifle at a melon wrapped in one-inch fiberglass tape to demonstrate that when a human head is shot, it is likely to be forced in the direction opposite to the bullet's trajectory. This demonstration was aimed at discrediting a John F. Kennedy conspiracy theory that points out that the fatal gunshot rocked JFK toward the shot through the use of simple principles of physics (i.e. "back and to the left." The fallacious belief that a shot from behind would cause a head to jerk forward is used as evidence that JFK must have been shot from the grassy knoll, in front of the vehicle). Penn and Teller look over the scene of the aftermath of the experiment to which Penn comments, "Second gunman my aching ass..."[8]

Penn and Teller often have skits and stunts performed with them on set or use stock footage, to combine reasonable arguments with straightforward, entertaining ridicule. For example, the "Sex, Sex, Sex" episode may be satirizing the media's obsession with sex appeal by having the hosts constantly surrounded by naked actors and actresses.[9] Penn and Teller often close episodes with an impassioned ethical plea against whatever they are debunking, explaining how this particular belief is harmful and should be resisted. The presenters distinguish between believers (often explaining that Penn and Teller themselves would like to believe these things are true, and showing compassion to the people who do think the things are true) and those they see as charlatans out for money or to advance a political agenda, at whom their anger is directed. For example, in their premiere episode, they debunk the idea that psychics can talk to the dead. While expressing the utmost sympathy towards people who are desperate for a chance to speak to a loved one who has died, they explain that charlatans take advantage of this love to get money from people, and deliver false messages that have nothing to do with the genuine character of the departed.

Since their act is not normally associated with a frequent use of profanity, Jillette explains their choice of using the term bullshit in the opening episode: if they referred to people as frauds or liars, they could be sued for slander, even in the face of overwhelming evidence of chicanery, but as "vulgar abuse" is not legally considered slanderous, referring to them as assholes or motherfuckers ostensibly expresses an opinion rather than a statement of fact and is legally safer for them.

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The panel consists of four participants: three rotating and one regular, Alan Davies, who has the seat to Stephen Fry's immediate right. Davies has appeared in every episode, except for one that was themed on "Divination": he was present at the beginning, but he "teleported" away during the buzzer demonstration—his buzzer that episode was the sound of the TARDIS from Doctor Who. He was at a football match instead but was still able to play as communicated "from beyond."[7] He has only won 13 times (including two tied victories) as he generally offers up most of the "obvious but wrong" answers. However, as of episode 16 of the 'G' series, this is the highest number of victories, ahead of Rich Hall's nine (Hall and Davies tied for first place in the Series G episode "Gravity"). Davies has, by contrast, finished in last place 54 times. The show's other panellists mainly come from a stand-up comedy or comedy writing/performing background, although there have also been guests from other fields, including Richard E. Grant, Jeremy Clarkson, Gyles Brandreth, Roger McGough, David Tennant and Emma Thompson.[8][9][10]

Questions are sometimes misleading or very difficult. Providing an "obvious but wrong" answer results in a sequence of klaxons and flashing lights, and a theatrical cry of despair from Stephen Fry. In the first and second series, Fry produced the given answer on a card to show the panellists, while it also flashed on the large screens behind them (except in the pilot episode and the first show of the first series, when only the cards were used).[11] In the third series and onward, Fry's answer cards were dispensed with altogether, leaving only the screens as proof that such answers had been predicted.

Because of the show's expectation that hardly anyone would be able to give a correct answer without significant prompting, it instead encourages sheer interestingness, which is how points are mainly scored.[12] As such, tangential discussions are encouraged, and panellists are apt to branch off into frivolous conversations, give voice to train of thought, and share humorous anecdotes from their own lives.[12] The number of points given and taken away are normally decided by Fry or beforehand by the researchers, especially if the points given or taken are very large. For example, one episode asked, "What is the main ingredient of air?" The correct answer is "nitrogen". The incorrect answer "carbon dioxide", which none of the panellists offered, would have resulted in a deduction of 3,000 points (CO2 is a trace gas being only 0.038% of the atmosphere). However, Davies was deducted 10 points for suggesting "oxygen".[13] Fry once said (in Episode ten of the first series):

Now, the rules are simple. Scoring is my business. Points are given and points are taken away. They are taken away for answers which are both obvious and wrong, and they're given not so much for being correct, as for being interesting. Their level of interestingness is impartially determined by a demographically-selected customer service focus consultancy, broken down by age and sex – i.e. me. Erm ... because there is no-one more broken down by age and sex than me.[14]

The only point at which scores are given is at the conclusion of the show. Negative scores are common, and occasionally the victor is the panellist with the least of them.

John Lloyd, QI's creator, has admitted that not even he has any idea how the scoring system works, but there is someone who is paid to check on the scores. Guests are allowed the right of appeal if they believe their score is wrong, but none have so far exercised that right.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

I cut Six Feet Under because I didn't want everyone to die of boredom during the 12 episodes of nothing between every good episode. Well written series, but my god, even Six Feet Under thinks Six Feet Under is pretentious, empty fluff.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Originally Posted by knkwzrd

But how many more episodes until they feature themselves as a topic and collapse metaphysically?

They've been saying since season 1 they wanted to do an episode on themselves. The forums are actually pretty much them doing just that. They like to do addendums. They did a huge one when a new study on second hand smoke came out.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?