Click here for an episode by the magician turned social critic duo Penn & Teller on the 'war on drugs'.
Personally, this program rubs me the wrong way because of the incredibly aggressive approach they take on many important issues. Also, it usually lacks focus and does not build any real argument or thesis. They do not always provide where they get their 'data' and mostly rely on insulting interviewees to prove a point. This program, like everything else, needs to be viewed with a critical eye and questions like "Who are these guys?", "What are their backgrounds, educations, certification, experience in these fields that they are 'busting open'?" and "What is their motivation for arguing for or against certain issues?" should be running in the back of your mind.
Always remember to question the author as well as the content.
4 comments:
Pam, I saw religulous, with Bill Maher, and that movie takes on a similar tone. A lot of attacking, and mostly attacking of people that do not represent the norm.
Worth a watch, but being critical is important.
Hey steve,
Yeah I saw Religulous on its opening day... !! And I agree with you about its approach. Bill Maher is one of my favorite comedians and social critics but he is way too harsh a lot of the time and even though he claims in interviews (on The View for example) that Relligulous doesn't judge, I think that it is a very judgmental film laughing at these people and their delusions. If the movie had just been the opening and ending monologues interspersed with unedited and objective interviews I think it would have been a more effective and well received movie.
I agree with you completely on Penn and Teller. They makes clowns of themselves most of the show while barely digging up any solid truth let alone intriguing criticisms. Although I liked the episode on bottled water!
Religulous was pretty funny. The one scene that really stands out was the interview with the really old bishop(?) in Italy. Wise man.
Bullshit can be amusing ("And then there's this asshole"). View it as "Libertarian and Atheist Penn and Teller's personal views on things".
They get a lot of things wrong. Their "Enviromental Hysteria" episode was especially bad.
Post a Comment