Penn & Teller: Bullshit! The Eighth Season

Kudos again to Penn and Teller for their confirmation of what we have long suspected as BS behind several of the topics. This season delivers same quality and humor as the previous seasons and would only be better if it had more episodes. Maybe I just can't get enough. My wife especially enjoys Penn and Tellers equal opportunity display of gratuitous wang to compliment all the boobs, which I thoroughly enjoy. As for the difference between the two CDs, I got the longer version thinking that it would include a lost/censored episode akin to the notorious Vatican episode. Sadly, the longer disc only includes two episodes of another Showtime series called "Episodes" which has nothing to do with Penn and Teller. Aside from the disappointment of missing out on bonus P&T footage (or maybe bonus boobs), I'm glad we were able to get a copy of this eighth installment. Hopefully they'll produce more seasons....

This last season is excellent.

The Cheerleading episode is both eye-opening, and probably not in the way you're expecting.

I'm going to miss this show.

Whatever topic P&T are covering, whenever they trot out the Cato Institute or Reason Magazine or some libertarian talking head, all I hear is the sound of axes being ground. I'm not saying that what libertarian think-tank Cato Institute has to say about, say, cheerleader injuries and Title IX (as in the first episode in the season) is WRONG. Actually, it sounded fairly persuasive. It's just that as soon as I see debunking tied to an ideology (other than science and philosophical skepticism, that is), I begin to lose interest.

Like in the midst of an otherwise excellent episode on BS related to "old people," we get the libertarian take on end-of-life issues. I happen to agree with the position taken--that we should have the right to self-determination for such a personal decision--but would have preferred another source. Otherwise it starts to look like a case is being made for planks in a party platform.

All of which is probably a big part of the reason that my two favorite episodes were Cato Institute/Reason Magazine/libertarian shill-free: the one on self-esteem and the one on anti-vaxxers. But the one on anti-vaxxers most of all. It would not be saying too much for me to say that for me that one was worth the price of the series all by itself. Of all the BS currently floating around, by far the most immediately and tragically dangerous is the anti-vaxxer BS. And P&T did a superb job of dismantling the "argument" on the anti-vaxxer side--with trademark wit and telling interviews.

But as much as I loved that particular episode, and as much as I find some of the outrageous high jinks still highly entertaining, and as much as I respect what Penn and Teller set out to do, it's hard to escape the sense that with most of the big fish fried, finding 12 more worthy topics for next season, much less any additional seasons, will be a challenge and probably a chore. The one BS episode that Penn once mentioned wanting to do that I'd like to see is the one on the "BS of BS." Because the greatest value of skepticism is that it teaches us to be skeptical about ourselves--our own biases and sacred cows and blind spots. If P&T were able to pull that off in the style they've applied to others, it would be the very model of how skepticism ultimately must work to be invaluable.

June 6 edit: I just learned that this was in fact the last season of BS, and that Penn & Teller will instead be starting a new show on Discovery this fall. And after complaining that they couldn't reasonably find 12 more worthy topics to cover in another season, I find myself a little sad at the show's passing. What was I thinking? We might be close to peak oil, but we're nowhere NEAR peak BS.

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