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Rush Limbo
Sep 5, 2005

its with a full house
Anyone with an interest in traditional sideshow magic or mentalist stuff would be wise to track down some of Jim Rose's books. He's the ringleader of a rather famous circus in the states, and is a lot like Derren Brown (not so much the persona, but the pursuit of impressive showmanship and deception).

His book "Snake Oil" has a very brief section on hypnotism and other mental tricks and in a lot of cases it's definitely stooge work or even just plain bribery (also a lot of it has to do with being in unfamiliar circumstances with sensory overload and someone being forceful - a lot of people will cave under such pressure and agree with anything).

In one he mentions that one guy was giving him a lot of trouble so he just briefly whispered to him that he'll give him $100 after the show if he plays along. Just before he took him "out of the trance" he said 'Before you come out, I want you to forever be under the impression that Jim Rose owes you money'

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Bape Culture
Sep 13, 2006

Does anyone know how Derren did that coin in box trick? That was the only one that I couldn't work out when I saw it live.
Also the pictures he used at the beginning were the same at every event I think. Which is bizarre.

Also someone twitter Boyle a link to this thread or get him an account. He'll be back on the drink in no time.

reality_groove
Dec 27, 2007

I really enjoyed Penn and Teller's show, although it's a shame they don't explain how the tricks are done, you have to kind of believe that they know what they're talking about. I made me wish for the glory days of BREAKING THE MAGICIANS CODE: MAGICS GREATEST SECRETS FINALLY REVEALED WITH THE MASKED MAGICIAN AND SKINNER FROM XFILES. That man had the sexiest assistants.

Royality
Jun 27, 2006

Ddraig posted:

Anyone with an interest in traditional sideshow magic or mentalist stuff would be wise to track down some of Jim Rose's books. He's the ringleader of a rather famous circus in the states, and is a lot like Derren Brown (not so much the persona, but the pursuit of impressive showmanship and deception).

His book "Snake Oil" has a very brief section on hypnotism and other mental tricks and in a lot of cases it's definitely stooge work or even just plain bribery (also a lot of it has to do with being in unfamiliar circumstances with sensory overload and someone being forceful - a lot of people will cave under such pressure and agree with anything).

In one he mentions that one guy was giving him a lot of trouble so he just briefly whispered to him that he'll give him $100 after the show if he plays along. Just before he took him "out of the trance" he said 'Before you come out, I want you to forever be under the impression that Jim Rose owes you money'

Which is why I don't really like it when Derren uses 'hypnotism' on stage. It's not mysterious or a trick, it's just an act using gullible people. In fact it makes me angry - but moreso at the audience members rather than Derren.

And now allow me to state the obvious!

So he says he's going to play a hypnotic tone which will send 'some' people into a trance like state, if you don't want to be hypnotised put your fingers in your ears. Then he says 'also look at this screen it will prevent you from being hypnotised'. The tone and the screen are both showmanship with absolutely no effects, but he's eliminated people who don't want to be hypnotised (who aren't 'game') and made it sound real and plausible to those who are game.

And then he filters them further by telling them the tone will make them stand up against their will if they're particularly suggestible - he even tells them they're suggestible if they stand! Those who stand up are not only game and 'suggestible' (though I prefer the term stupid) but they also believe they are suggestible. Now most people consider being suggestive a negative characteristic and so those that do don't stand up. If Derren said that people who stand up are usually of above average intelligence everyone would stand up - in fact I vaguely recall he said something along these lines during his 'I will make you stand up at home' show last year. So the only people who stand up are those that simultaneously believe in hypnotism and that they are particularly susceptible to it. This is enough to make them walk around on stage for 20 minutes doing stupid things.

But maybe he also chooses people who stand up earliest; these people signal to Derren that they don't just believe they are suggestible, they believe they are very suggestible. There's probably an element of attention seeking mixed in there too. They wanted to be seen by Derren first in a kind of indirect arse-licking way - 'look how much I believe in your bullshit Derren! Pick me! Pick Me! I'll do anything you want! I won't let you down!'. One of the highlights of the whole show for me was Derren asking the women in the audience to raise their hands if they'd 'lost a grandparent' when they were young and didn't mind talking about this sensitive issue. Seeing a member of the audience desperately flailing and jumping about trying to catch Derren's attention so she could tell Derren about her dead granny perfectly illustrated this. They've neatly self-selected themselves for the trick is the point.

Anyway Derren runs up and around the theatre and just for show has a look and assesses how hypnotised they are (or whatever that part is). He wants to choose the ones that best fit the trick (Ring woman was spot on, whoever said that). He could take any of them and the trick would still work. But he wants to be extra sure so he goes to a place where several hypnotised people are standing close together. He goes up to one and assesses their suitability but they're no good to Derren. Why? Well because they're the first person he came to. The other hypnotees are conscious that he is near to them... but talking to someone else? 'But I am the most suggestible!' they exclaim in their tiny hypnotised, not-really hypnotised brains, 'choooooose me!'. And they hear the shuffling of feet and feel Derren nearby. Derren chooses them. [i]'I knew I was the most suggestible!' they joyfully think, [i]'Not only did Derren choose me, he chose me above other suggestible people... I must be amazingly suggestible! Truly I am a bonafide idiot!. And they are escorted to the stage as Derren has made it so only things above the shoulders become hypnotised (I think it would be better at this point if Derren put them in a wheelbarrow to truly highlight how deeply hypnotised they were).

The trick is performed, the individual wakes up and swears they don't remember a thing. Of course your first reaction upon waking up and seeing that you're no longer sitting in your seat, but have been teleported 25 metres onto a stage in front of hundreds of people would probably be to scream or poo poo yourself or anything really that isn't like it's the most natural thing in the world.



I am not really sure why I wrote that wall of text I just got carried away. I should add I do love Derren Brown, and if anyone can even begin to explain how he did the engraved coin trick I'd like to know it. Occams Razor is usually a pretty good starting tool for these things but even the simplest suggestions seem complicated with this one.

DaWolfey
Oct 25, 2003

College Slice

reality_groove posted:

I really enjoyed Penn and Teller's show, although it's a shame they don't explain how the tricks are done

What was odd was that they did explain one of them - the guy who did the Derren Brown style subliminal message thing with Ross and the cards, they just came right out and said it was a trick deck.
I found it odd because they didn't explain anybody elses to us or obfuscated their conversation with the magician by using magician lingo. It made me wonder if they just hated that guys act or have a problem with all mentalist style acts. Penn was very vocal about how that stuff was bullshit...

Part of me thinks the entire show was a setup either just to make that specific point about mentalism (and diss Derren Brown) or to make us think that guy with the orange envelope trick was actually a genius when he looked like an amateur because he "beat" Penn and Teller.
That whole mystery adjudicator thing, what the gently caress was that about? Some guy in Rosses ear who he uses to gloat "Nope guys! He beat you!" Seems like some sort of misdirection to me :colbert:

MyChemicalImbalance
Sep 15, 2007

Keep on smilin'



:unsmith:
Enigma was amazing live, the girl who got the coin in the show I was at was about 4 seats down my row. Her whole family seemed pretty freaked out, and she seemed pretty shaken herself after the show. No idea how he did it, but he roped everyone in.

Another plus at the live shows is the amount of arseholes who are quite obviously pretending to be in a trance when Derren does the bits with the audience. I'd really reccommend seeing him live, I'm probably going to buy tickets for his next show if he comes back here again.

Some Strange Flea
Apr 9, 2010

AAA
Pillbug

DaWolfey posted:

That whole mystery adjudicator thing, what the gently caress was that about? Some guy in Rosses ear who he uses to gloat "Nope guys! He beat you!" Seems like some sort of misdirection to me :colbert:
It wasn't made very clear on the show, but I think the adjudicator was someone well versed in magic who had been told the secrets of each act in advance, so they could verify Penn & Teller's answers in case some prick just went "Nope guys, you're wrong! Take me to Vegas!". There was some miscommunication between Ross, P&T and the adjudicator between concepts which I can only assume are fairly similar, but Ross acted like a twat about it.

It was definitely a lame thing and cutting "backstage" didn't really help.

Royality
Jun 27, 2006
^^^
During the backstage bit I half expected The Rock to jump in and lay out P+T with 'A STEEL CHAIR!!!!'.


DaWolfey posted:

That whole mystery adjudicator thing, what the gently caress was that about? Some guy in Rosses ear who he uses to gloat "Nope guys! He beat you!" Seems like some sort of misdirection to me :colbert:

It was a magic 'consultant', which means it was an experienced magician hired by the show to refer to in case of any disputes between Penn and Teller and the trailing magician. The tricks were all shown and explained in all their detail to this consultant prior to the show so that he knew everything. Thus when P+T were adamant there were false shuffles Johnathan Ross asked the consultant (who knew the trick completely, knew the technical jargon for such a trick and was impartial) and got the answer that there were no false shuffles involved in the trick.

Remember the prize of performing at Penn and Tellers Las Vegas show, to a non-famous magician, would be huge and a large incentive to lie or bend the truth in order to win and so this consultant was necessary.

I suspect they mentioned the trick deck for the physchology guy for much the reasons you thought. It's a bland trick disguised as something more. They were probably angry he'd try to fool them with something elementary.

And as for the guy who won with the envelope trick, well I think you could tell by his reaction that to get the gig was huge for him. I don't think they just got some amatuer on and planted him as some kind of underdog success story - I think that's just what happened!

Royality fucked around with this message at 20:04 on Jan 8, 2011

Mr Beens
Dec 2, 2006

MyChemicalImbalance posted:

Enigma was amazing live, the girl who got the coin in the show I was at was about 4 seats down my row. Her whole family seemed pretty freaked out, and she seemed pretty shaken herself after the show. No idea how he did it, but he roped everyone in.


Agreed. At the live Enigma I went to a guy sitting directly in front of me was one of the people on the side at the spirit cabinet ( I so nearly got the frisbee :( )
On the way out I was walking directly behind him and his friends all the way to the car park and they were talking about it all the way there. If he does use stooges for that stuff (which I don't think he does) then he and the rest of the people with him stayed in character for a long time :)

reality_groove posted:

I really enjoyed Penn and Teller's show, although it's a shame they don't explain how the tricks are done, you have to kind of believe that they know what they're talking about. I made me wish for the glory days of BREAKING THE MAGICIANS CODE: MAGICS GREATEST SECRETS FINALLY REVEALED WITH THE MASKED MAGICIAN AND SKINNER FROM XFILES. That man had the sexiest assistants.

That seems to be on ITV4 quite a lot.

Marmaduke!
May 19, 2009

Why would it do that!?

Royality posted:

So he says he's going to play a hypnotic tone which will send 'some' people into a trance like state, if you don't want to be hypnotised put your fingers in your ears. Then he says 'also look at this screen it will prevent you from being hypnotised'. The tone and the screen are both showmanship with absolutely no effects, but he's eliminated people who don't want to be hypnotised (who aren't 'game') and made it sound real and plausible to those who are game.

And then he filters them further by telling them the tone will make them stand up against their will if they're particularly suggestible - he even tells them they're suggestible if they stand! Those who stand up are not only game and 'suggestible' (though I prefer the term stupid) but they also believe they are suggestible. Now most people consider being suggestive a negative characteristic and so those that do don't stand up. If Derren said that people who stand up are usually of above average intelligence everyone would stand up - in fact I vaguely recall he said something along these lines during his 'I will make you stand up at home' show last year. So the only people who stand up are those that simultaneously believe in hypnotism and that they are particularly susceptible to it. This is enough to make them walk around on stage for 20 minutes doing stupid things.

Indeed, it's very much the norm for stage hypnotists to go on about how intelligent you must really be to be hypnotised... last time I saw one was with my sister who has quite a low IQ, is very easily lead (as long as the thing she's being persuaded to do is THE COMPLETE OPPOSITE OF ANYTHING SENSIBLE) and was "hypnotised" easily. Whereas I am A Goon, which obviously makes me a Genius. So there we go.

Gram-O-Phone
Mar 9, 2007

Oh, play that thing!
I just watched the Penn and Teller show for Penn and Teller and the other magicians (and the inevitable slightly unconvincing blood and guts). The 'fool us' bit seemed like a bit of a gimmick to be honest but I enjoyed the show anyway. What with this and the Magicians on the BBC it's actually nice to see the good old fashioned magic show back on our screens.

But I repeat, WHERE is Paul Daniels and Debbie McGee?!

FreakyZoid
Nov 28, 2002

Again, from what I remember, Derren Brown's Tricks of the Mind book goes in to how and why stage hypnotism "works".

Really do recommend that book.

Cerv
Sep 14, 2004

This is a silly post with little news value.

Does anyone know with the iplayer desktop application for live TV / radio can you get the regional variations?

Psybro
May 12, 2002
Been watching the Eastenders dead baby stuff because although I don't normally watch it, I find it grimly fascinating to see how low they'll go to ramp up the melodrama.

It's ridiculous to the point of being faintly comic.

[Kat and Alfie visit the dead baby]

Kat: THAT'S NOT MY BABY!!
Alfie: :smith:...that's because our baby, he's in heaven now...
Kat: That doesn't look like my baby!
Alfie: :smith:...no Kat, because, he was alive, but now...he's dead
Kat: That literally is not the child that was pulled from my vagina on New Year's Eve!
Alfie: :smith:...no, because that child is with the angels now Kat, smiling down on us...

[Roxy visits Ronnie]

Roxy: Ronnie, I know that you're upset about what happened to Kat, but you need to get over it because you're going to be a great mum.
Ronnie: I can no longer live out this masquerade. It's all a lie.
Roxy: I know you feel that way now, Ronnie, but it'll be fine...
Ronnie: The child you are holding is literally Kat and Alfie's live child, who I swapped with the corpse of my dead one. I have written it all down in this diary with lengthy annotations in the margins.
Roxy: Ronnie, you're hormonal right now...


Plus Jessie Wallace's melted face irks me.

Psybro fucked around with this message at 01:47 on Jan 9, 2011

Gram-O-Phone
Mar 9, 2007

Oh, play that thing!

Psybro posted:

Been watching the Eastenders dead baby stuff because although I don't normally watch it, I find it grimly fascinating to see how low they'll go to ramp up the melodrama.

It's ridiculous to the point of being faintly comic.

[Kat and Alfie visit the dead baby]

Kat: THAT'S NOT MY BABY!!
Alfie: :smith:...that's because our baby, he's in heaven now...
Kat: That doesn't look like my baby!
Alfie: :smith:...no Kat, because, he was alive, but now...he's dead
Kat: That literally is not the child that was pulled from my vagina on New Year's Eve!
Alfie: :smith:...no, because that child is with the angels now Kat, smiling down on us...

[Roxy visits Ronnie]

Roxy: Ronnie, I know that you're upset about what happened to Kat, but you need to get over it because you're going to be a great mum.
Ronnie: I can no longer live out this masquerade. It's all a lie.
Roxy: I know you feel that way now, Ronnie, but it'll be fine...
Ronnie: The child you are holding is literally Kat and Alfie's live child, who I swapped with the corpse of my dead one. I have written it all down in this diary with lengthy annotations in the margins.
Roxy: Ronnie, you're hormonal right now...


Plus Jessie Wallace's melted face irks me.

Next Week:

Ronnie and Kat fight over the sole remaining baby on the roof of the Queen Vic.

Ronnie accidentally throws the baby over the edge and onto the street where it gets run over by a passing taxi.

No nobody has a baby.

During the credits the BBC puts up a hotline for people who have accidentally thrown their baby off the roof of a pub.

Kin
Nov 4, 2003

Sometimes, in a city this dirty, you need a real hero.

Psybro posted:

Been watching the Eastenders dead baby stuff because although I don't normally watch it, I find it grimly fascinating to see how low they'll go to ramp up the melodrama.

It's ridiculous to the point of being faintly comic.

[Kat and Alfie visit the dead baby]

Kat: THAT'S NOT MY BABY!!
Alfie: :smith:...that's because our baby, he's in heaven now...
Kat: That doesn't look like my baby!
Alfie: :smith:...no Kat, because, he was alive, but now...he's dead
Kat: That literally is not the child that was pulled from my vagina on New Year's Eve!
Alfie: :smith:...no, because that child is with the angels now Kat, smiling down on us...

[Roxy visits Ronnie]

Roxy: Ronnie, I know that you're upset about what happened to Kat, but you need to get over it because you're going to be a great mum.
Ronnie: I can no longer live out this masquerade. It's all a lie.
Roxy: I know you feel that way now, Ronnie, but it'll be fine...
Ronnie: The child you are holding is literally Kat and Alfie's live child, who I swapped with the corpse of my dead one. I have written it all down in this diary with lengthy annotations in the margins.
Roxy: Ronnie, you're hormonal right now...


Plus Jessie Wallace's melted face irks me.

I was wondering about that because i've been pulled in the same way you have. Surely not all babies look the same and while it's only been a few days since he was born wouldn't a parent kinda know that the baby looks slightly different to the one they've been looking at for the last few days?

Even if that's not conclusive enough, wouldn't any half decent hospital pick up on the baby having different vitals like bloodtype, weight, eye colour, and whatever other medical record things they might do to babies when they're born?

This isn't the most ridiculous thing to happen though. Whatserface, the ginger-fucker, was able to go to an airport and get on a plane in minutes with the cops out looking for her while all of the flights were totally hosed because of the snow. :psyduck:

I need to stop myself tuning into this garbage.

ShaneMacGowansTeeth
May 22, 2007



I think this is it... I think this is how it ends

Gram-O-Phone posted:

But I repeat, WHERE is Paul Daniels and Debbie McGee?!

he was tweeting about it, and got quite narked at someone over it if I remember correctly

Irisi
Feb 18, 2009

Kin posted:

I was wondering about that because i've been pulled in the same way you have. Surely not all babies look the same and while it's only been a few days since he was born wouldn't a parent kinda know that the baby looks slightly different to the one they've been looking at for the last few days?

Even if that's not conclusive enough, wouldn't any half decent hospital pick up on the baby having different vitals like bloodtype, weight, eye colour, and whatever other medical record things they might do to babies when they're born?

I've known mums whose only glance at their baby was when they were loopy from the anaesthetic used during a Caesarean still be able to accurately pick out their baby from a room of a dozen near-identical newborns hours later. I guarantee that a doting mother and father will know everything about the physical appearance of their newborn, from the shape of its' nails to how many milkspots it has to the exact length and number of its' eyelashes. Plus, if the baby was only a few days old the midwife would still be doing daily visits. And she would notice too. There would be a dozen things different about the baby that she would pick up on (weight, umbilical cord condition, rate of feeding, head shape, stool production....)

It's all just unbearably ridiculous. And unbearably offensive in its' depiction of a grieving mother. Women who lose a baby to SIDS don't run out and steal another baby, as if any kid would do. They want their own baby. Quite often they can't even bear to look at another womans' child for weeks, or even months.

This is just creating the impression in peoples' minds that a grieving mother is a raving, unstable bundle of madness who should be treated with extreme caution, or perhaps avoided. When in fact a women who has lost a baby is likely to be desperately unhappy, prone to depression and solitude, and should be treated with kindness and given help and love by her friends and family.

Unkempt
May 24, 2003

...perfect spiral, scientists are still figuring it out...

Irisi posted:

I've known mums whose only glance at their baby was when they were loopy from the anaesthetic used during a Caesarean still be able to accurately pick out their baby from a room of a dozen near-identical newborns hours later. I guarantee that a doting mother and father will know everything about the physical appearance of their newborn, from the shape of its' nails to how many milkspots it has to the exact length and number of its' eyelashes. Plus, if the baby was only a few days old the midwife would still be doing daily visits. And she would notice too. There would be a dozen things different about the baby that she would pick up on (weight, umbilical cord condition, rate of feeding, head shape, stool production....)


The daft thing is they actually did this; they had a social worker or nurse or something who came over and said, oh, your baby's lost 20% of its weight overnight and his club foot's cleared up, I see. They really can't keep this up much longer.

SeanBeansShako
Nov 20, 2009

Now the Drums beat up again,
For all true Soldier Gentlemen.
EastEnders is bollocks guys. Don't hurt yourselves trying to figuire it out just be patient and wait for Kat to get addicted to crack that fuels her baby stealing antics more out of control.

thebardyspoon
Jun 30, 2005
They were going to keep it going until next Xmas apparently, because this is the sort of storyline that needs to be drawn out. They've gotten so many complaints that they've decided to cut it short and it'll end in the spring, Samantha Janus has quit too. Don't worry though they've got their next ultra grim and depressing storyline coming down the pipeline already, Whitney is going to become a hooker over the summer.

What's really disturbing about the whole mess is that an episode of Corrie shown on the same day as the cot death scene got an even amount of complaints because it showed a lesbian couple in a commited relationship kissing in bed, because that's as offensive as showing a dead baby and a grieving mum kidnapping a kid. At least I found that disturbing anyway.

Psybro
May 12, 2002
Storyline would only really pay off if it was dragged out until the child's sixteenth birthday.

HoldYourFire
Oct 16, 2006

What's the time? It's DEFCON 1!

thebardyspoon posted:

Samantha Janus has quit too.

I was wondering why "Samantha Womack" looked so familiar!

goatface
Dec 5, 2007

I had a video of that when I was about 6.

I remember it being shit.


Grimey Drawer

Psybro posted:

Storyline would only really pay off if it was dragged out until the child's sixteenth birthday.

Only if he slept with his mum.

SeanBeansShako
Nov 20, 2009

Now the Drums beat up again,
For all true Soldier Gentlemen.
I've been mentally planning the last episode of EastEnders for years in my head, it starts off a normal but after the first few minutes suddenly the camera switches to studio view and everyone pretty much drops character and suddenly all the actors from the past whos characters have died horribly stop on by and dazzle the nation with a experimental break dance routine.

Then I just decide gently caress it, and throw in some random explosions and elephants while I'm at it. Elephants made entirely of cocaine.

Adrianics
Aug 15, 2006

Affirmative. Yes. Yo. Right on. My man.
I was having a wretched, very lonely and boring night in a B & B last week and caught the token compilation episode of Never Mind The Buzzcocks, which reminded me of how hard I laughed at Jason Donovan blowing his nose and saying "everyone's going to think I'm back on the bizzo".

And how genuinely great Josh Groban actually is, what a great guy :allears:

edit: Also, Frankie Boyle's episode was drat good. In light of Tramadol Nights and this nonsense with Mark Watson, it's nice to see him actually being funny.

Adrianics fucked around with this message at 23:07 on Jan 9, 2011

Irisi
Feb 18, 2009

Oh happy day, a repeat of My Big Fat Gyspy Wedding has just come on More4 :allears:. And there's a whole series of it coming soon. Is it sad that I'm really excited for it?

SeanBeansShako
Nov 20, 2009

Now the Drums beat up again,
For all true Soldier Gentlemen.

Irisi posted:

Oh happy day, a repeat of My Big Fat Gyspy Wedding has just come on More4 :allears:. And there's a whole series of it coming soon. Is it sad that I'm really excited for it?

Pssst, I saw it all already uploaded on the 4oD Documentaries section.

On the same note, Channel 4 directors should be banned for putting 'The' in a title for anything ever again. Jesus.

honeymustard
Dec 19, 2008

Shut up cunt.

reality_groove posted:

I really enjoyed Penn and Teller's show, although it's a shame they don't explain how the tricks are done, you have to kind of believe that they know what they're talking about. I made me wish for the glory days of BREAKING THE MAGICIANS CODE: MAGICS GREATEST SECRETS FINALLY REVEALED WITH THE MASKED MAGICIAN AND SKINNER FROM XFILES. That man had the sexiest assistants.

Me too. Anyone know how the bloke did the squeeze inbetween the boxes and how Penn and Teller did the saw in half trick at the end? I assume they're basically the same.

The Perfect Element
Dec 5, 2005
"This is a bit of a... a poof song"

Irisi posted:

Oh happy day, a repeat of My Big Fat Gyspy Wedding has just come on More4 :allears:. And there's a whole series of it coming soon. Is it sad that I'm really excited for it?

I watched this! I swear gypsies must be on average the slimmest ethnicity (if it is one?) in Britain - all the girls and boys were loving svelte. It looks like a good society in which to be a man really; they were all ugly as sin, and a lot of the girls were pretty smoking.

Deep social commentary from me, there.

Trickjaw
Jun 23, 2005
Nadie puede dar lo que no tiene



The Perfect Element posted:

I watched this! I swear gypsies must be on average the slimmest ethnicity (if it is one?) in Britain - all the girls and boys were loving svelte. It looks like a good society in which to be a man really; they were all ugly as sin, and a lot of the girls were pretty smoking.

Deep social commentary from me, there.

Oh I wish you were correct. I hate to make sweeping generalisations, but when I was working at the council and had to go round their settlement everyone was uniformly grotesque with the biggest, most viscious dogs I have ever seen. Like loose velociraptors. They also had the best electronics kit ever. And very clean little trailers.

Time to email the Daily Mail I suppose.

BizarroAzrael
Apr 6, 2006

"That must weigh heavily on your soul. Let me purge it for you."
The Men Who Stare at Goats is on iPlayer if anyone missed it, well worth a look IMO, even with Ewan McGregor's rubbish American accent (even though the real-world author is British)

BizarroAzrael fucked around with this message at 02:04 on Jan 10, 2011

Padje
Sep 10, 2003

I don't much care for the attitude of filthy money-lenders
On saturday afternoon I heard the words 'easy meat' leave the mouth of a Sky News presenter in reference to rape victims.

Bogmonster
Oct 17, 2007

The Bogey is a philosopher who knows

Talking of that Derren brown Enigma show, did anyone notice that the guy reading out the random words said "purple", "monkey" and "dishwasher"? Internet things in real life!

Raeg
Jul 7, 2008

The top 1% of ducks have control of 99.9% of the bread.

Bogmonster posted:

Talking of that Derren brown Enigma show, did anyone notice that the guy reading out the random words said "purple", "monkey" and "dishwasher"? Internet things in real life!

Simpsons quotes in real life!

Shelf Adventure
Jul 18, 2006
I'm down with that brother

Padje posted:

On saturday afternoon I heard the words 'easy meat' leave the mouth of a Sky News presenter in reference to rape victims.

Or as the Daily Star chose to report this delicate manner - "Jack Straw in sex storm."

http://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/view/171039/Jack-Straw-in-sex-storm/

Misleading headlines at their finest.

Mr Beens
Dec 2, 2006

honeymustard posted:

Me too. Anyone know how the bloke did the squeeze inbetween the boxes and how Penn and Teller did the saw in half trick at the end? I assume they're basically the same.

False bottom to the case with a fabric black top that gets pulled over the legs - it looks thinner than it really is, then fake feet on sticks that he is wobbling about. You can actually see his legs are making the base uneven when the camera spins round and over.

Junkenstein
Oct 22, 2003

Padje posted:

On saturday afternoon I heard the words 'easy meat' leave the mouth of a Sky News presenter in reference to rape victims.

I think they were Jack Straw's actual words, to be fair. The BBC also used the term, anyway.

SeanBeansShako
Nov 20, 2009

Now the Drums beat up again,
For all true Soldier Gentlemen.
The only way that headline could be any more silly if star 'accidentally' replaced storm.

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Irisi
Feb 18, 2009

I love One Born Every Minute. The fixed camera & lack of narrator mean that everything feels incredibly natural, the women aren't too selfconscious, the midwives are wonderful and the little stories that unfold are incredibly moving.

But my god, some of the men shouldn't be allowed anywhere near those hospital rooms. Especially the 18 year-old goony lad, who participates in the following conversation:

Midwife: "I'm just gonna break your waters with this little plastic stick thing, okay?"
Teenage Girl: "Ooooh...okay?"
Goony Lad: "Hey, it looks like the hook the Ancient Egyptians used to rip the brains of the dead out through their noses!"
Teenage Girl: :gonk:

Yeah. Real helpful, goony lad.

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