Penn and Teller: Bullshit! Season Five. (*******7/10)
Michael Moore had a short-lived TV show called The Awful Truth a while back, that presented a series of left-leaning half-hour episodes where he used humour and publicity stunts to educate people about some of the world’s ugly truths. Penn and Teller: Bullshit! Is pretty well the antithesis of The Awful Truth. Basically the same thing, only with a heavier focus on humour, more mean-spiritedness, a LOT more profanity, WAY more naked boobs, and it’s slightly right-leaning. The basic premise of the show is that famed magicians Penn Jillette (who has two names) and Teller (who has one) try to uncover the myths and well, the BS behind some of society’s most treasured beliefs. God, I’m trying to type this while re-watching the episode about women’s breasts. It’s called Breast Hysteria and it’s really distracting.
Anyway, Michael Moore’s show was hit-and-miss, because it’s fairly difficult to really hit the mark on social causes in a half hour. And this is similar. It is very hit-and-miss. Like the episode on Wal-Mart. Penn and Teller take on the people who made the movie Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price, and others who protest against Wal-Mart. Their position on Wal-Mart is that it’s good, not evil, and that people who protest against it are stupid jackasses. But that’s about all they have. They take on some of the ideas people have about Wal-Mart, but they don’t really provide much information to tell them they’re wrong, or to present the other side. They just say they don’t care. Like, Wal-Mart drives small stores out of business in little towns. The movie made the point that if Wal-Mart is prevented from opening in that town, they will open just outside that town, taking the business anyway and denying the town the business, and thereby forcing towns to either accept Wal-Mart or suffer the consequences. Penn and Teller ignore the second part, and just say “who cares? It’s capitalism - just let Wal-Mart into your town!” OK, it’s a good reason to yell and be angry, but it isn’t exactly informative.
Which is about all they do. They take issues or beliefs that people have, hear from both sides, pick a side, and rage against the other side. Which sometimes works. There are quite a few good episodes. The one about the conspiracy behind the weight-loss industry, and how it’s such a massive multi-billion dollar industry that it becomes in their best interests to keep people fat so they can buy into weight-loss programs and diets. And the one about anger management is great too. The BS behind court-ordered anger management, and some particularly hilarious “treatments” for peoples’ anger. And, of course, the breast episode, which I am still watching. So please forgive any spelling mistakes.
Of course, as in many episodes, there are many, many naked boobs. But it’s also very well done, as the guys take on societal stereotypes about breasts and the women who have them. Idiotic ideas about the blasphemy of public breast-feeding, the stupid double standard that says it’s OK for men to go topless and not OK for women, and lots of other stuff. Really - how come men’s nipples are a body part that just happen to be on their chests, whereas women’s are strictly sexual organs that shouldn’t be seen by anybody? It is a pretty silly double standard, when one really thinks about it. And Penn and Teller don’t stop there - they take on the breast cancer lobby in a bit that makes a lot of sense. If lung cancer kills more than twice as many women every year as does breast cancer, how come there are way more movements to reduce breast cancer? In the end, it is because breasts, even in the world of charity and disease fighting, are sexualized. Which means that fighting breast cancer is sexier than fighting lung cancer. And despite the gigantic amount of effort that is made to raise money to fight breast cancer, more of it goes into raising more awareness of the problem than goes into fighting it or finding a cure. In fact, there is no organized effort in the States to find a cause or a cure for breast cancer.
I keep calling them Penn and Teller. But, of course, it’s really just Penn. Teller is the one who doesn’t talk. So Penn narrates and stars in every episode, and Teller just shows up to stand next to the naked models. I wonder what his paycheque is for this? The breast episode is over, so I am able to concentrate better, and this is what I’m thinking. Now it’s a gross episode about colon cleansing, detoxing, and the parasites that supposedly live in your body. There’s a vole necropsy going on, and it’s gross. I want to watch something else now. OK, I’m going back to the breast episode. Penn and Teller: Bullshit! The Complete Fifth Season comes out on DVD today, May 20th, courtesy of Paramount Home Entertainment.