She tries it on a patient with a bad knee but "feels" the pain on the wrong knee. Saves this by saying that "this knee must be stressed from carrying all the weight from the other bad knee over here". One couple claim to be able to communicate with dolphin souls, or something: "I felt and saw … several dolphin spirits come to me and they asked me to become one of their ambassadors on land".
There's a great example of the Retroductive reasoning i. One woman wants some career advice from the dolphins yeah, really , and when she picks the choice the dolphins "choose" for her she's very upset as she's not happy with that choice.
This is then "explained" that the dolphins "revealed the depth of your feeling" and that she "needed the experience". She replies with "so for me it worked! All of this happens in Sedona ; which—by the way—is in the middle of a desert and some kilometers removed from any ocean. Then there's an asshole who does "dolphin assisted births". She explains that dolphins will "help massage your baby down" and that "dolphin babies are usually very easy to have".
But she never actually did one of these magical births: "a typical dolphin birth, that would be pretty hard for us to answer right now since we've yet to make it that far. It adds in criticism of carbon offsets , which are indeed partly —but not entirely—bullshit, but comparing them to indulgences is probably not really accurate. Also contains a lot Argumentum ad Gorem —some of which is valid, some less so, but none of it says anything meaningful about either global warming or carbon offsets.
Predictably we also have some libertarian think tank hacks, this time from the Cascade Policy Institute and Beacon Center of Tennessee with the same point that have been refuted a thousand times. The only thing it got sort-of right is that some people can indeed be suckered and guilt-tripped into spending money on "the environment"; but it's mixed in with so much bullshit—like the suggestion that people are suckered into believing global warming—that it's like dollar bills in a truck of shit: not worth digging out.
As if all of that wasn't enough bullshit on this Bullshit! Also has an appearance from anti-videogame advocate Chris Cooney, who argues that school shootings only occur when there are troubled kids, guns, and mass-killing simulators.
Ironically, towards the end of the episode, Cooney admits that he's a huge gun nut who collects firearms and films himself using them; and demonstrates a rather disturbing fascination with assault weapons. Also includes Lawrence Kutner and Cheryl K. Olson, co-directors of the Center for Mental Health and Media. Both point out that most "studies" tend to be very agenda-driven and ignore the fact that video game consoles and games are common in most households.
School-shooter profiles tend to have only two things in common—they are male, and they often show signs of depression. The episode finishes with a clever argument which includes a hypothetical scenario where video games are created before football and reach the same popular status, while football comes later, then points out that hundreds of children have been severely injured and even killed while playing the sport despite it's widespread popularity and attention.
This episode is not on the season 7 DVD, and is no longer listed on the show's official website. Which is, of course, why there are no credible journals relating to forensic science. It's also rather interesting that both of the actual forensic scientists in the episode are mocked to a greater or lesser degree.
On the other hand, Radley Balko is introduced as "a serious guy" with a "super cool comic book detective name" who's been "studying and writing about our [ Old people discuss when and how often they have sex, young people smell at old people, and "humorist" Maddox comes off as an "oldophobe" is that a word?
It is now! Maddox commented on the episode in , stating that "they had a narrative in mind, and they cut the interview to fit their narrative", and that his quotes were attempts at humour. He then proceeds to explain his main points which weren't in the episode at all. The irony is that his actual points contain enough bullshit for an episode, so there was no need for the out-of-context shit.
Penn replied to Maddox stating that it's "the worst episode we did" and apologized. Also briefly covers euthanasia with a terminally ill cancer patient. This part is actually fairly balanced for both sides, but also very short at about 4 minutes. Penn lists this as the episode he's "most proud of". Nominations and campaigning for the RationalWiki Moderator Election is underway and will end on November Jump to: navigation , search. I pitched it with the idea that "Well, even if people hate us and we get hate mail you'll still get attention".
Which I now find repulsive. But I did that. The only thing I've seen here is a lot of new age, what I call, fu-fu; they don't have facts, they have experiences and they have lots of plugs for their books and their information and their tapes.
Coming here is like being at a vendor's fair. They are selling everything, they're selling the information, they're selling the lectures, they are selling jewellery, and I'm not interested in that, I'm here for the science and there just isn't any. Duck and Cover everyone! This is just wrong, the last famine in China was the great famine in Mao 's "great leap forward", but there haven't been famines in China since [1].
In , when this episode was aired, China was well on the way to become the power that it is today and to which the U. Poe's law in action! Wilson, December 12 B, Nov. Hidden categories: Non-stub articles needing expansion Articles with unsourced statements.
Namespaces Page Talk. Views Read Edit Fossil record. Support Donate. Community Saloon bar To do list What is going on? Social media Twitter Facebook Discord Reddit. This page was last modified on 31 October , at Unless explicitly noted otherwise, all content licensed as indicated by RationalWiki:Copyrights.
Not just a river in Egypt Denialism. This article requires expansion. Please help. Though not a stub , this article is not yet complete. Examines mediums and the techniques they use such as cold reading and hot reading.
It's all bullshit ; in other news, the Earth is round. Joe Nickell and a guy from the Center for Inquiry provide some comments, and mentalist Mark Edward does the same tricks without a hotline to the dead. Features a foot masseuse reflexologist claiming to want to revolutionize healthcare. Next up is William H. Philpott who claims magnets can basically cure everything , and even warns that magnets are so powerful you can get you addicted to them; Robert Park replies calling it " mental masturbation ".
In the words of one disappointed visitor: "the only thing I've seen here is a lot of New Age , what I call, fu-fu". Follows the eccentric but clearly well-meaning Bruce Beach, doomsday prepper extraordinnaire, on an outdoor promenade above and around his Ark Two DIY fallout shelter , takes part in Tom Brown's Survival School, where they teach you how to build a coffin makeshift shelter from tons of wet leaves and branches.
James Randi demonstrates what an asshole Hogue is, by proving that his predictions retroactively change in new editions of his books after the predictions turn out wrong. Taking the crank nonsense to a crescendo, Christian Book of Revelation literalists Hal Lindsey and Texe Marrs provide an abundance of crackpot quotes for us to decorate their RationalWiki pages with.
This episode proclaims that smoking bans are bullshit since they infringe on personal freedom, and to "back up" this opinion it tries to claim that second-hand smoke is not damaging. Whether smoking bans are bullshit is a matter of opinion, and the episode presents a rather one-sided debate of the argument, but it's not bullshit as such at least not objectively. A complete discussion of this topic is beyond the scope of this synopsis.
The claim that second-hand smoke is not damaging is just complete bullshit. Focuses on some of the crap being peddled to young parents to make their babies smarter, such as Mozart effect products, Robert Titzer's Your Baby Can Read method and "baby whisperer" Tracy Hogg, who shares some helpful advice such as "All babies [..
Thanks Tracy! Features some sex-related bullshit, mostly on penis enlargement and breast enlargement woo, and that the focus on the size of these parts is bullshit in the first place. This episode is one of the classics [note 6] ; three Feng Shui practitioners separately rearrange the same living room according to their "scientific" Feng Shui standards to maximize the flow of chi ; to everyone's surprise as expected the result is three very different arrangements.
Feng Shui is "explained" by one woo-meister as "what we're looking for is how the energies of chi are playing a game of cosmic game of musical chairs", and by another as "Chi is life force energy , it's what the molecules are made out of. I can't explain it in super- scientific terms, but it's energy". Super scientific energy games of cosmic musical chairs!
Another classic. Handles the increasing popularity of bottled water sold in stores. The general premise of the episode is that bottled water is neither safer nor better tasting than regular tap water.
While this is not adressed on the show, it is still however a healthier alternative to soda. The water steward scene is brilliant. Ah, creationists are always fun. The renowned stand-up comedian Duane Gish from the Institute for Creation Research offers comic relief in the form of Grand Canyon flood geology and other nonsense, which Eugenie Scott needlessly refutes. Much of the episode focuses on the battle to teach the controversy in Cobb County, Georgia.
Note that the ruling did not rule that creationism can be taught in schools, and specifically disallows teaching it, [18] something quite a few press accounts got wrong including this episode due to some unfortunate wording. The "Evolution is a theory, not a fact" sticker shown in the episode was removed in following a lawsuit initiated by several sane parents the lead plaintiff featured in this episode. Some of the more wootastic and erroneous self help bullshit.
One of the methods promises to get rid of all inner fears and problems by walking on glass and fire walking based on Tony Robbins 's magical methods. David Willey shows how this works sans magic. Hale Dwoskin shows his Sedona Method. A "stage counsellor" is shown cracking spectacularly bad jokes. About several food-related topics. The first part is about weight loss and the "magical" fad diets that turn out to be not so magical after all. After this is a part about GMO , organic food which is not completely bullshit , [note 8] and raw foodism.
Features Greenpeace at its craziest, Organic Consumers Association , and a bunch of raw food neohippies. Shows several witches from modern Salem use a ouija board to contact the spirit of a burnt witch.
It's painfully embarrassing to watch as these people seem genuinely sincere. Some random people use a spirit board at the location of William Frawley 's death, and "answer" some basic questions with it, which only "works" due to the ideomotor effect , and fails when they're blindfolded.
By far the biggest bullshit in this Bullshit! To help them with this is Jerry Taylor of the Cato Institute who trots out the ice age fallacy. In , when this episode aired, there was already abundant data available on global warming to be reasonably sure that it's real, and caused by human activity. The show dismisses the animal welfare movement by pointing out a few extremists Steven Best , Pamelyn Ferdin , Jerry Vlasak , Rod Coronado , Gary Yourofsky , ALF who believe in using violence to achieve their ends and attempting to establish a spurious link between them and PETA PETA officially opposes the use of violence [25] , and interviewing a few hippies who make illogical arguments for animal liberation rather than intellectuals in the movement.
The issue of factory farming what most serious animal welfare thinkers consider as the biggest problem is hardly mentioned at all. Irrational fear of terrorism , crime , electromagnetism , Cell phone radiation , germs , school shootings , mad cow disease , and the media 's fear mongering about some of these topics. Examines some nonsense about love, chiefly the bogus "advice" that some people peddle. This is one of those episodes that's more on the entertainment side of infotainment.
A lot of the episode is about some girl doing a speed-dating thing, where you basically repeat the same conversation 25 times.
That the war on drugs is an epic failure has become only more apparent since this episode first aired. Argues that the government has no business spending tax dollars on recycling , and that's it's wasted money anyway since recycling doesn't work.
Chiefly about the religious aspect of Alcoholics Anonymous , and the complete lack of studies on the effectiveness of the program. Various forms New Age nonsense: Interviews some of the more wooceptible participants in a Yoga class. Plastic surgery trades appearance for health. Wrinkle removing skin cream the effects of which are over exaggerated and over priced and just as effective as the generic brand which is only hardly noticeable after consistent frequent use over a long period of time.
Nutrition does certainly help and data suggests plant based diets correlates with longer lives but it is difficult to control for how processed the foods in the diets are which could be just as great of a factor because the two are so closely related. In any case having less processed foods and low or no meat intake will increase the likelihood of a longer life. Human growth hormone which has more negative side effects than positive ones.
The biggest bullshit of all is the stigma against aging. It is indicative of a culture that values vanity over wisdom. Although there is a bit of hypocrisy in how they treat the full bodied tattoo people with silicone implants not for the sake of aging as they are guilty of valuing bodily image in the same way only the people they are critiquing are they just appreciate a different aesthetic. Examines various aspects of death hamburger time , such as the taboo on death , death denialism, and the death care industry.
One of the better episodes of the series. Topics covered are the two creation myths in Genesis , the global flood , Noah's ark , flood geology , evidence for the Exodus , evidence for the historical existence of Jesus Christ , and the resurrection of Jesus. Exercise helps but the extent of it is greatly over exaggerated for the purpose of selling something.
Genetics and diet play a much greater role. You don't need any memberships, gimmicky devices or supplements. Penn has stated on several occasions that he regrets this episode, as they were too focused on "debunking" Hypnosis and not enough on actually finding out the truth about it. Tackles the controversial subject of routine circumcision of new-born infants in the United States.
The chief arguments against it are lack of informed consent , reduced of sexual pleasure later in life, and lack of any significant benefits. At this time, it's impossible to confidently say if circumcision is bullshit or not.
Points out that the religious right 's narrative of the family values and "traditional family" is perhaps not entirely conforming to history and reality. Shocking, innit? We have extensive pages on all those topics; all the points made in the show have been refuted a thousand times.
Examines the phenomenon of "life coaching", which is roughly similar to hiring any ol' bum to play your therapist or psychologist minus the many years of study and proper qualifications, of course. Much is made of how you don't need higher education to succeed, with mention of some of the usual dropout success stories.
While many higher education programs are of dubious use, if nobody went to university, we'd have no doctors, engineers, pharmacists, etc.
Looks at the in famous Patriot Act that expired in The risk of it being renewed in the near future however is still a very real possibility. Examines hair woo. America's favo u rite controversial topic. The omnipotent creator of the universe communicating with his creation though sandwiches, bathroom doors, and oily statues.
Shows how the Boy Scouts of America has been hijacked by the Mormons who use it to promote their moral agenda and all the bullshittery that entails. In particular their exclusion of gays and atheists , who are not allowed to join.
Features the two most famous cryptids : the Loch Ness Monster and Bigfoot. Well, by "features" we mean "they're talked about", as both seem to be rather shy creatures. Oh, and some pesky scientists offer some reality-based criticism. Examines abstinence , especially abstinence-only sex education. Also looks at anti- masturbation , anti- contraception , anti- pornography , homophobia , condom denialism , and anti- abortion , all of which are prevalent in abstinence-only advocates.
In , a single wardrobe malfunction consumed US news for weeks. You get to watch a tube being stuck up a guy's ass and getting the shit flushed out of him. So if you're into that kind of thing, this is your episode! Wait what?! Exorcisms don't work?! But there was a movie about it!!
Some people's irrational fear of both legal and illegal immigration is not entirely founded in reality. Attacks the ideas of border walls and border patrol projects. This has only gotten more relevant since the Syrian war and Donald Trump 's severe anti-immigration bullshit. There are areas where it makes little sense to have as many handicapped spots as there are. However, Penn's argument against handicapped spots in general , in usual libertarian fashion, is "Look, here's a handicapped spot that's not being used!
Shocking numbers are thrown around about what proportion of people could apply for handicapped spots using one definition of disability. There's a bit of bait and switch because individual states have various requirements, but many require physician certification. There's also some ableism , because with many conditions, people who may require a permit one day may not require it the next, or vice versa.
It could be worse They are pro-nuclear energy and pro-lesbian If we're to cut down on greenhouse gases and fight climate change, though, hybrids are probably a necessity in the short term, at least in areas where charging stations are not widespread — and provided the electrical energy that powers them is cleaner than petroleum.
Close, guys! Court mandated anger management programs are common across the US. While there is some evidence that CBT may diminish anger associated with crime, [61] whether the strategies these mandated programs use do reduce crime, is unclear. Similarly unclear is whether the people who deliver them — often not mental health professionals, and who may simply have been sports coaches or pastors who spent money to sit through a three-day course — are in any way qualified to deliver effective programs.
Neither is it clear that a random judge is a good assessor of who would benefit from an anger management programs and who is qualified to deliver them. This episode goes to bat against the anti-pornography movement. Defends pornographic content as being protected under free speech laws, examines myths on the supposed harmful effects of porn viewing, and notes that critics who wish to censor obscene materials are motivated by political reasons. Woo , woo, and more woo When will the woo stop?!
New Age dolphin woo ; the hyper intelligent telepathic healing fish mammals of the oceans; yadayada; we all know this. Recycles see what we did there?
It starts with the age-old stupid ice age fallacy even before the opening credits run. In the last minute of the episode Penn says that "we don't know" if global warming is real, but you wouldn't know that if you watched the rest of the episode; most of the "good-guy guests" outright deny global warning, and no refutation to that is offered at all.
Like most episodes relating to environmentalism the format consists of hippies vs. Exposes the narrative of children being kidnapped by pedophiles as largely being a media-fueled, kneejerk, moral panic that grossly exaggerates the odds of strangers harming youngsters.
Penn and Teller point out that such misconceptions do not prevent actual instances of child molestation, and that standard child sexual abuse is in fact performed by people the child already knows quite well, as opposed to outsiders.
Astrology : it makes no sense and had been debunked more often than you can count, but people still believe this shit. Looks at the video games -causes-violence claims. The claim that games have no effect on aggression levels doesn't really have good scientific backing, but moral panics about it are, of course, bullshit. Includes interviews from former lawyer Jack Thompson , notorious in the video game community for being an ambulance chaser from between and Thompson had been disbarred the year prior to this episode being aired, though that didn't prevent him from referring to himself as an attorney and "[the] video game industry's worst nightmare" in his introduction.
It's mostly him repeating baseless claims about video games affecting players minds without referring to studies sorely misrepresenting actual results , plus him referencing the story of King Cnut the Great and the tides though he fails to understand the meaning of the story, which is that laws aren't going to change nature, not even human nature.
About the then-upcoming apocalypse. As most would agree in , it probably didn't happen. Calls out organic woo and mentions some of the drawbacks of organic food. On the pro-tax side is Huffington Post editor Roy Sekoff who advocates a poll tax and progressive taxes , and an ex-IRS executive who is fine with the current system. If you haven't already guessed, it's a whole lot of meaningless libertarian and conservative anti-tax arguments along with a touch of anti-welfare arguments.
Dubious martial arts practices, as well as some of the martial arts woo. Explains why you'll most likely lose money - or make so little that you're better off getting a minimum wage job - if you join a pyramid scheme multi-level marketing company, and points out that if you want to get rich, you have to trick plenty of other people into joining. Rebukes conspiracy theories about the presence of supposed extraterrestrial technology at Area The duo made or rather, supported some rather bullshit claims with regards to the validity of forensic science, unsurprisingly with the aid of a couple more of their libertarian buddies.
In fact, the entire opposition to forensics during the course of the episode consisted of nothing but a lawyer from shock the Cato institute, and a writer from Reason magazine , neither of whom it might be noted are scientists. A deep and resounding meh. Cold reading can be done accidently.
That doesn't mean the psychic is a better person. Lying to themselves does not make lying to others ok. It can make intellectually lazy scumbags more convincing and dangerous. But even if these fucks know they're just making shit up and pushing people's buttons, they tell themselves, "At least I'm comforting the bereaved. Sign In. Episode guide. Play trailer Comedy Documentary. Creators Randall Moldave Eric Small. Penn Jillette Teller Shera Pollins.
See more at IMDbPro. Episodes Browse episodes. Top Top-rated. Trailer Season 2. Season 3. Season 1. Photos Top cast Edit. Teller Self - Host as Self - Host. Shera Pollins. Michael Goudeau Doctor as Doctor …. Joline Jaffe. Bruce Kimmel Dr. Learly as Dr. Learly …. CJ Asshole 1 as Asshole 1 …. James Randi Self as Self. Vera Miranda Cheerleader as Cheerleader ….
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