Making TV Fun Again

Penn & Teller's Bullshit! makes watching TV fun and entertaining again. Its whimsical, irreverent, spot-on, well timed and informative in a way that makes Michael Moore's message look like a note scrawled with a crayon on construction paper.

And really, the message Penn & Teller are sending is no less incendiary, no less bomb dropping, finger pointing, conspiracy uncovering, its all of the things Moore is but done with panache.

Its much more a question of how its delivered than what is delivered. I would love to see a Penn & Teller take on Bowling for Columbine or Fahrenheit 9/11 (though since I haven't seen it yet I don't really feel like I can say that with any conviction). Done without the boorish voiceovers and smug satisfaction of mocking an old screen hero.

Alot of my current irritation with PETA stems from watching their program and then paying closer attention to what PETA does and how they do it. The message they seem to want to send is not an awful one if it were done with some finesse instead of this militant and abrasive Meat exploitation is evil and any means necessary to end meat exploitation are acceptable.

Anyway, Penn & Teller do it right, important and interesting messages cloaked in slick and clever and, occasionally, naked imagery. Moore does the same thing but is ham handed and allows his ego to overshadow his message. Its still important, he conveys important and relevant and necessary information but he could take lessons from Penn & Teller in learning how to do it with style. It would be so much harder to knock it down and so much more entertaining to listen to what he's got to say without overdoing the message.

But watch the show if you get the chance, it'll make you laugh and think and that's usually a good thing.

Also check out BIG on Discovery. More fun there. Same thing for Monster House but I think I've had my fill of uber-cool Jesse James and his Monster Garage for a while, he's so cool he kinds of bothers me. (I had to update this as "e" thought I was confused about hosts, I like Steve, the Monster House host alot, Jesse James, in my humble opinion, has been just over marketed.0

Ah, sweet Monday awaits and a return to work and massive piles of todos to wade through. Oh boy! Hope the boy sleeps some tonight.