# Penn and Teller's B.S. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 24, 2003, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penn-and-tellers-b-s/150605 "2003-01-24T15:45:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![grendel72](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/91b2a8/32.png) [@grendel72](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grendel72)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2003, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penn-and-tellers-b-s/150605/21 "2003-01-26T01:26:39Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Meatros \* > \*\*I never understood how crop circles equated to alien visitors. It sounds like a piss-poor way to inform an intelligent species that they are not alone in the universe. \*\* [Dead Milkmen] It’s the queers, they’re in it with the aliens. They’re building landing strips FOR GAY MARTIANS!![/DM] We are, too. ---
**Author:** ![DMark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@DMark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMark)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2003, 7:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penn-and-tellers-b-s/150605/22 "2003-01-26T07:25:56Z")
FYI from the local Las Vegas newspaper. I think the whole hoopla is Bullshit…but figured some of you might be interested in hearing the lastest dope…by the way, the event they are talking about was a private roast of a celebrity, late at night, with a select audience…not a skit performed in their act. Whatever: Wednesday, January 22, 2003 Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal COLUMN: Norm! Catholic League leader wants Penn & Teller punished for raunchy skit Penn & Teller’s X-rated parody of the crucifixion of Christ should be grounds for removal from ABC’s Super Bowl show, the Catholic League said Tuesday. Calling it “an incredibly anti-Christian statement,” William A. Donohue, president of the New York City-based 350,000-member organization that fights anti-Catholicism, sent ABC a letter saying such conduct should not be “rewarded.” The parody by the Rio’s magic-comedy team came during last week’s roast of Amazing Johnathan at the World Magic Seminar at the Riviera. Penn & Teller are part of ABC’s pregame and postgame live Super Bowl show from Times Square on Sunday. Their skit involved a nearly naked Teller, dressed as Christ on a cross, and a simulated sex act by a midget dressed as an angel. Penn, clad as a Roman soldier, unveiled the scene by pulling away a “Shroud of Turin” that covered the cross. Mark Mandel, vice president of media relations for ABC Sports, said the network had not received the request to cancel Penn & Teller and “has no comment.” Penn & Teller and the Rio declined comment too. ---
**Author:** ![Meatros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Meatros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meatros)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2003, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penn-and-tellers-b-s/150605/23 "2003-01-26T16:11:08Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by DMark \* > \*\*FYI from the local Las Vegas newspaper. I think the whole hoopla is Bullshit…but figured some of you might be interested in hearing the lastest dope…by the way, the event they are talking about was a private roast of a celebrity, late at night, with a select audience…not a skit performed in their act. Whatever: > \*\* Personally I would have liked to see that skit. I don’t think it sounds X-rated. Probably the preacher is overreacting. ---
**Author:** ![gobear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8dc957/32.png) [@gobear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gobear)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2003, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penn-and-tellers-b-s/150605/24 "2003-01-26T16:43:39Z")
Well, you know a preacher is going to is going to overreact because Penn and Teller’s mocking of metaphysical charlatanry is breaking his rice bowl. Reason is to religion as sunlight is to vampires. BTW, William O Donahue is the same jackass who conflated the pedophila scandal with homosexuality and called revelations of preistly misconduct “Catholic-bashing” while he has taken swipes at Wiccans, Muslims, and Jews. ---
**Author:** ![Meatros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Meatros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meatros)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2003, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penn-and-tellers-b-s/150605/25 "2003-01-26T17:03:26Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by gobear \* > \*\*Well, you know a preacher is going to is going to overreact because Penn and Teller’s mocking of metaphysical charlatanry is breaking his rice bowl. Reason is to religion as sunlight is to vampires. \*\* Ha! I like that last line about “reason”, made me snort up my coffee! > [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by gobear \* > \*\*BTW, William O Donahue is the same jackass who conflated the pedophila scandal with homosexuality and called revelations of preistly misconduct “Catholic-bashing” while he has taken swipes at Wiccans, Muslims, and Jews. \*\* You know, this isn’t that surprising. “Catholic-bashing”??? Dear God, what’s wrong with Donahue? There’s something wrong with most organized religion… ---
**Author:** ![robertliguori](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/46a35a/32.png) [@robertliguori](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robertliguori)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2003, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penn-and-tellers-b-s/150605/26 "2003-01-26T19:42:07Z")
Yes, Gobear. You just need to watch out an Antedeluvian like Polycarp or Libertarian gets loose. ---
**Author:** ![Meatros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Meatros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meatros)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2003, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penn-and-tellers-b-s/150605/27 "2003-01-26T23:48:15Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by robertliguori \* > \*\* Antedeluvian \*\* Uh…Wha?? I think I had a case of that last week. A real nasty infection too…😃 ---
**Author:** ![JDeMobray](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/85e7bf/32.png) [@JDeMobray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JDeMobray)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2003, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penn-and-tellers-b-s/150605/28 "2003-01-27T02:38:22Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Meatros \* > \*\*Uh…Wha?? > > I think I had a case of that last week. A real nasty infection too…😃 \*\* It’s a reference to popular the geek sideshow “Vampire: The Masquerade”; a role-playing game published by White Wolf in which Vampires are all a part of some world spanning organization founded by Caine (of ‘Abel and’). In the game, Antedeluvian’s are basically like vice-presidents in VampuSoft; the higher ranking (and, therefore, in the _stellar_ and compelling logic of the game, more powerful) bloodsuckers. ---
**Author:** ![JDeMobray](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/85e7bf/32.png) [@JDeMobray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JDeMobray)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2003, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penn-and-tellers-b-s/150605/29 "2003-01-27T02:41:27Z")
The word “popular” clearly shouldn’t be in the first sentence of my post, for two reasons. First, the grammar is screwed up if it is included. Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, the post discusses Role Playing Games, and White Wolf Role Playing Games to boot, so even if the grammar was correct it would still incompatible with the subject. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Meatros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Meatros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meatros)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2003, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penn-and-tellers-b-s/150605/30 "2003-01-27T02:53:26Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by JDeMobray \* > \*\*It’s a reference to popular the geek sideshow “Vampire: The Masquerade”; a role-playing game published by White Wolf in which Vampires are all a part of some world spanning organization founded by Caine (of ‘Abel and’). > > In the game, Antedeluvian’s are basically like vice-presidents in VampuSoft; the higher ranking (and, therefore, in the _stellar_ and compelling logic of the game, more powerful) bloodsuckers. \*\* Ah, that makes more sense now! Incidently, is that game fun? I _used_ to play roleplaying games back in the day, and I’m still curious about them. ---
**Author:** ![Juniper200](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/df788c/32.png) [@Juniper200](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Juniper200)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2003, 7:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penn-and-tellers-b-s/150605/31 "2003-01-27T07:19:52Z")
It’s fun in a very somber way. I think it can only be played at its best advantage by 15-year-olds who write crummy poetry and dismiss “Buffy” for not giving vampires the respect they deserve. But other, less broody people can have fun with it too, sure. [This](http://www.brunching.com/vampirefaqk.html) FAQ may provide some tongue-in-cheek insight for you. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Meatros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Meatros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meatros)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2003, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penn-and-tellers-b-s/150605/32 "2003-01-27T17:11:04Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Juniper200 \* > \*\*It’s fun in a very somber way. I think it can only be played at its best advantage by 15-year-olds who write crummy poetry and dismiss “Buffy” for not giving vampires the respect they deserve. But other, less broody people can have fun with it too, sure. > > [This](http://www.brunching.com/vampirefaqk.html) FAQ may provide some tongue-in-cheek insight for you. 🙂 \*\* Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2003, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penn-and-tellers-b-s/150605/33 "2003-01-27T18:40:17Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Juniper200 \* > \*\*The snopes show has already come and gone, Meatros? I’ve got to keep better track of these things. \*\* There was a show on (I think) Discovery about urban legends. I don’t know if it was related to Snopes or not. I only saw two episodes so I don’t know if it was a “series” or some specials. They covered the “hook-handed killer,” the “dog choking on burglar fingers,” the “dead body in the funhouse” (true) and some others. As they went in and out of commercial they had little quicky ones like the light bulb that’s been burning for 100 years (also true). VH1 had some urban legend shows hosted by Allyson Hannigan. And there’s some urban legend-busting show that I think just started called Myth Busters, there’s a thread on it here somewhere, two guys with “30 years of experience” in various special effects try to re-create urban legends to see if they could actually happen. I quit watching when they started inflating dead pig stomachs with Pop Rocks and soda to see if they could get them to explode like Mikey the Life Cereal boy’s did(n’t). ---
**Author:** ![tracer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tracer/32/20578_2.png) [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2003, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penn-and-tellers-b-s/150605/34 "2003-01-27T19:38:42Z")
FYI: _Antedeluvian_ literally means “Before the Flood.” (_Ante_ = before, _deluvian_ derives from the same root as deluge.) ---
**Author:** ![Manduck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manduck/32/256_2.png) [@Manduck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Manduck)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2003, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penn-and-tellers-b-s/150605/35 "2003-01-28T02:28:42Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by tracer \* > \*\*FYI: _Antedeluvian_ literally means “Before the Flood.” (_Ante_ = before, _deluvian_ derives from the same root as deluge.) \*\* and I will add that it is often used to mean “really, really, old; ancient; prehistoric” and is _usually_ not meant as a complement. Which is why **robertliguori** ’s post raised my eyebrows a bit at first :dubious: 😃 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penn-and-tellers-b-s/150605.md?page=1)