The name “Penn & Teller” conjures up an image of an immensely entertaining comedy/magic team so to the uninitiated, you’d think that any show of theirs would be more of the same. WRONG. In their cable series, Penn Fraser Jillette and Raymond Joseph Teller become the anti-60 Minutes: they present a series of documentaries setting out to examine a common “given” or a politically/environmentally correct assumption — and then shatter it to pieces via field interviews, research and sarcasm.
This isn’t to say that their mini-documentaries that are so well-represented here in Season 6 are warmed over Rush Limbaugh or Sean Hannity. They are decidedly NOT and this DVD would be appealing to anyone of any political persuasion except those who are interviewed in the pieces and who might take themselves and their assertions seriously. Or those who agree with those interviewed and hate anyone who shows they disagree.
These are at times screamingly funny mini-documentaries created using a clear formula: a field reporter goes out to interview key figures in the given issue, Penn and Teller and their writers look at the footage back at the studio and — when the final cut emeges — some of the interviewees wind up being skewered and appearing to be silly in their utter self-aborption. Penn does all the talking (as usual) while Teller adds some grimacing and comic relief (I was recently told by several young Vegas magicians that he is an absolute behind-the-scenes magician genius whose imprint is on P&Ts act). It isn’t quite “Borat” but here’s a hint: if you get a call to be interviewed for Penn and Teller’s show THINK TWICE and realize you might regret it by the time the footage is cut and the commentary and comedy are added.
But not always: on most episodes, the show seems to present a specific viewpoint, entertainment value plus a dash or two of balance.
This volume features some interesting issues: they look at the b.s. surrounding pornography and those who oppose it, environment, dolphins, warnings that we all grew up with, the good old days, NASA, being green — and more. The sensitivity training episode is laugh out loud (although “The Office’s” pure comedy episode was funnier).
But we need to give an advisory here, as well:
*There is adult language galore. Clearly, the producers are aiming at a young audience and the language is more akin to high school-college age and the MTV crowd. (Or Dick Cheney).
*The first episode on porn pushes the envelope to the very limits of R a tad away from X. This is no biggie to me — but if you buy this DVD realize the first one is not indicative of the rest of the episodes and you might have even high schoolers do something else (although they have likely seen the content of the images already when you’re not around).
*If you take your politics very very seriously (as many blog readers do) then realize they may be taking a hard poke at some views of liberals, conservatives, environmentalists and animal lovers.
*New Agers are subject to particular ridicule.
The segment on NASA is one of the more serious, solid entries on this DVD. The one on the Bad Old Days will either be one of your favorites or your least favorite, since the two magician-comedians have an ongoing gag about them centuries ago where they’re dressed in costumes. From my viewpoint it shows their skill as comedians and potential for doing comedy on the big screen (although this bit goes on too long).
The most scream-out-loud hilarious mini-documentary piece is the one on warnings we all received that turned out to be false. All the so called “urban legends” about what will hurt or kill you. They bring in a wide-eyed, freckle faced kid who looks about 6 and announce for their their guinea pig. They feed the kid lunch then take him to a shallow pool, point to it, and a hand abruptly pushes him in. This is to see if he gets craps (he doesn’t). They drop a sandwich on the ground, and hand then points at it for him to eat it, and he happily eats it to see if he’ll get sick (he doesn’t). And so on. It’s perfectly done, the kid absolutely steals the show and the timing makes it a classic of sorts.
On a scale of 10 Penn & Teller B.S.: Complete Sixth season gets a 10 IF you are not offended by frequent adult language, sexual images or people you might agree with looking silly and at times outright dumb.
On a scale of 10 it deserves a 5 if you’re offended by all of the above — but if you are you probably stopped reading it once you read about the porn segment, or that it makes fun of New Agers and probably consider this review b.s.
Don’t expect to see a ticking clock at the start of this one — but expect for time to fly by rather quickly as you watch the segments.
FOOTNOTE: Some editions on Amazon spell out the full word on the cover. Others do not. I suspect this is due to marketing since a DVD with that on the cover would not be displayed at some stores while the initials “b.s.” are more acceptable in America’s quirkly culture.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.