Shunnnnnnnnnnnnnnn
Don’t worry too much about believing in unicorns or whether or not they have wings for a moment or two. Better to check out the skeptical adventures of an unsure cartoon character whose critical thinking dilemmas have to be heard to be believed. I’m taking a break this week folks. Time to chill and laugh at the craziness that we skeptical folks feel sheeting over us like fast running lava.
My sincere thanks to Susan Gerbic and her two kids Stirling and Caspian for opening my tired skeptical third eye. We need something like Charlie in our universe! If you aren’t already connected to Jason Steele’s tongue in cheek episodes 1, 2,and 3; immediately go to www.charlietheunicorn.com and get with it. Charlie is my new hero. Who else do we have in contemporary society that dispels myths and superstitions with a Bronx accent and lives in a fairytale world of pastel colors? I’m advocating for Charlie to become the official mascot of the Skeptologists. I would really like to see this kind of satirical social comment woven into the fabric of the show.
If you already know about Charlie, you will also know what I mean when I say that I sometimes feel like him. Don’t you? I’m frequently surrounded by woo and forever drawn against my will into the insidious vortex that it spreads – whether or not I want to become involved. Everywhere I turn some lunatic is trying to sell me a charm to ward off evil spirits and now the self-appointed “paranormal investigators” among us are trying to push a new agenda to further twist and spin their version of ghost hunting by marketing a “Dangers of the Paranormal” website. www.thedotpproject.com. They are offering their services and admonish,
“Investigating the paranormal can be hazardous to your health. It can follow you home and destroy your life. TV doesn’t tell you that. So we will.”
Hello Again, I'm baaaack... for real.
Uhhh, thanks guys, but what does something like that cost and what kind of skeptical protocols do you have set in place to guide you? Or are the blind merely guiding the blinder? With this ridiculous new angle of hucksterism, we find those gullible enough to believe in the reality of ghost hunting slipping deeper and deeper into a glossy commercialized world of darkness that allows the most outrageous theories and un-scientific claptrap to masquerade as some sort of honorable and accepted social service program. Truly, Ivan Reitman’s “Ghost Busters” (1983) have finally arrived – for real! Dunning and Shermer’s recent “punked” experience with the Shirley Ghostman Experience was pure Charlie:
Charlie (groans) “Oh, God, you guys. This had better
be pretty freaking’ important. Is the meadow on fire?”
Our meadow is on fire. But as the world snooozes on some still manage to keep smiling. If we can all just lighten up for a few minutes, that would be good medicine for everybody (alternative though it may be.) Humor is the great leveler and Jason and his cohorts at FilmCow have captured the ennui that might be a real problem if you happen to be the thinking person’s unicorn. Yes Randi, unicorns do exist.
Charlie the Unicorn is a series of viral videos that at last count continue to be viewed by more than 50 million people. And yes again, Charlie and his adventures carry a wry skeptical message to beware of the woo.
And we can’t get a single episode of The Skeptologists on the boards.
What does this tell us about Charlie and his magical adventures? What should this be telling us about viral marketing and the skeptical movement? The average person probably thinks Charlie is just plain weird, but the underlying cynicism to things wooish gets relayed in a palatable manner just the same:
Charlie: “Alright guys, you do know that there’s no actual candy mountain, right?”
Other unicorns reply: “Shun the nonbeliever.”
There’s hope for all of us who are frustrated and exhausted with trying to push this big stone called critical thinking up the ever slippery Sisyphean Candy Mountain slope. Don’t stick a banana in your ear, watch these short flash videos on contemporary society – and pass it on. We need all the help we can get; even if it comes from a unicorn.
Hey! Cryptozoology too!
Are you high? I watched three videos and couldn’t come up with any description beyond “crappy”.
Charlie: “Alright guys, you do know that there’s no actual candy mountain, right?”
Other unicorns reply: “Shun the nonbeliever.”
Yeah. You know when you watch a TV ad for a new funny movie and they show one of the jokes, and you laugh and you think, hey, could be a pretty good movie, so you go to see it only to find out the joke in the TV ad was the only good joke in the whole movie?
Others will no doubt like Charlie The Unicorn, but I’m not feeling it. It’s not bad, just a matter of taste. For humorous skeptical vids I’ll stick with Mr. Deity.
haha shn the non believer
Perhaps the Skeptologists can be sold overseas? BBC? The Australian ABC? France’s channel 4? I can imagine why the Skeptologists would be so unpopular with the broadcasters – it may require a research team and an actual production team rather than just a room full of potato couches and surveillance cameras.
Charlie the Unicorn rules.
2006 just called; They want their video back.
These videos are the most tedious things I have encountered in a long time. There is too much silliness between the good parts, which aren’t all that good anyway. I certainly hope The Skeptologists is a lot better than this stuff.
I’m having a hard time believing that The Skeptologists aren’t being picked up. That’s insane.
And yes, I need to be high to appreciate Charlie. :)
Charlie is definitely an acquired taste.
I HATED it the first time I saw it and didn’t – couldn’t – make it through to the end.
But then I was on location for two weeks filming and every night we were there the cast and crew gathered for a YouTube party. I think we watched Charlie every night, and certainly we watched it every time there was someone new appeared for an evening. A reference even managed to work it’s way into the lead actor’s improv one day on set, and the editor even kept it in the final cut. Charlie fans in the test audiences always howled with laughter at it.
I’m not sure what there is to be said for Charlie’s skepticism. Look where it gets him. As soon as he does the right thing and changes his position when faced with the evidence, he gets taken advantage of. It that really the best message?
Okay… wait a second. I’m taking unicorns seriously. Forget it.
Come on gang, Charlie the Unicorn is great. He is the ultimate skeptic that does not want to believe, he would rather be lazy, he knows what is what. But he is forced to see the woo, proof right in front of his face and still he resists. Finally he is confronted with the errors of his thought, he must accept that he knows nothing of reality. What a great story, to add to the mix you must remember that he is a unicorn after all, a non-existent creature that does not believe in woo.
Susan
Charlie the Unicorn is hilarious :) *Everyone* in England loves him, anyway ;)
So you really think our mascot should be someone who fell for the lies and ended up short one kidney?
Also, did you just hear about Charlie recently? I saw it years ago.
Silly skeptics. Everyone knows unicorns have three kidneys.
Catgirl asks: “So you really think our mascot should be someone who fell for the lies and ended up short one kidney?”
Yes.
I’m pretty sure most if not all of us who are now skeptics are skeptics because somewhere along the line we lost something akin to a kidney. Okay, so I just found out about Charlie. Jeez. You guys just can’t lighten up for a friggen minute (or two …tops)can you? No wonder we can’t get this show off the ground.
I apologize for my part in the failure to get the show off the ground.
I’m not buying it, I think 20 lashes are warranted.
Lash me, baby. Lash me HARD.
It’s just plain cruel to suggest people watch this. ;)
And I think you’re reading a little more into it than was really intended. You do make some good points about it, but I seriously doubt Joe Random Viewer gets any of that. They just laugh at Charlie for submitting to peer pressure about something that was obviously fake, and then go back to believing a billion obviously-fake things in their real lives. :)
While it may be true that most Joe or Joline Randoms will go back to believing a billion obviously-fake things in their real lives, getting them to possibly think or consider how they may be being taken down the path towards candy mountain for just the briefest minute ot two may be all we can ask or expect at this point in time. If it saves one brain cell or one life – it’s worth the trouble, isn’t it? Not trying to do or say something when we see such insanity all around us is the real plain cruelty.
Okay, so I’m taking this Charlie thing to extremes. Try to read between the lines once in awhile folks. I’m not that sure that the creators of Charlie might not have intended even more of a skeptical tone to their silliness. It would be interesting to interview Jason Steele and find out. My intention in bringing Charlie & co. up in the first place was to conjecture new projects for Charlie as possible tag bits for The Skeptologists: say like Charlie meets up with Sylvia Browne or gets taken to a psychic fair or a medium – that kind of thing.
…like Charlie meets up with Sylvia Browne or gets taken to a psychic fair or a medium – that kind of thing.
or the pink and blue unicorns have baby psychic unicorns who are forced by chip coffey to go, with charlie, into dark scary places to ‘face their fears’ on national television.
and then charlie wakes up to find someone spray painted him with black and white stripes.
Naw, you ain’t taking the Charlie thing to extremes. I took it as you calling for all of us to take a load off and have a chuckle, and I’m guessing that no matter which skepto-humor link you provided, some would like it and some wouldn’t, personal tastes being as diverse as they are. Your motives were golden though.
As for using Charlie as a skepto-mascot encountering the Sylvias out there, hmmm… the Charlie vids play out kinda slow story-wise, and there’s a lot of extraneous filler, as if the director is trying to fill time. I’d suggest The Skeptologists design or have someone design a brand new skepto-mascot type character, and with an eye towards costs, I’d suggest maybe a (growing) set hand puppet character with voiceover instead of animation, which I assume is expensive at the pro level. Imagine a curmudgeonly old guy puppet who looks suspiciously like James Randi interacting with a garish looking old harpy psychic puppet(and I don’t even have to name that one). The possibilities are endless, and I’ve got to imagine there are many very talented skepticons out there who’d love a chance to be part of that, who’d probably even donating their efforts to the cause. And if you ever need someone to fill out a bigfoot suit, I’m your boy.
I’d suggest maybe a (growing) set OF hand puppet characterS with…
Damn, I picked a bad day to kick heroin.
Damn, does this mean our babies will be born addicted, Devil?
Guess that is better than them looking like bigfoot!
Don’t mess with me, woman. I already have nine kids. I can just stare at your name on the screen and you’ll get pregnant.
[Stares intently....]
Ahhhhhh
Damn, I picked a bad day to kick heroin.
LSD would probably work better.
not that i’d know.
Absolutely love the first two episodes. Awesome! :)
Hmm… tens of thousands of reviews and those videos all have 5 star ratings. Personally I thought the video was pretty bad. Too slow, too long, and only 2 jokes??
Also I fail to see any skeptical viewpoint in there. All I see is 1 cynical unicorn and 2 demented, happy-go-lucky unicorns. The happy ones tell farfetched tails, which then come true. But Mr. Cynical keeps on not believing those, obviously honest, friends of his.
But I guess there is some genius in there that I just don’t see.
They grow on you Trausti. There are far more than two jokes, the amount of inside jokes you can get from one episode is priceless. Yeah Charlie is very skeptical, and even when confronted with singing letters, a leopluradon, and flying pink and blue unicorns he still manages to try to remain skeptical. Sometimes we all feel this way, at least I do. Then when he is forced to face the woo that is all around him he gets taken. Was it all fake woo set up just to get his liver? I know I’ve been taken in, still got my liver but you know what I mean.
The best part is that living in all this woo is a skeptical unicorn, a magical creature that does not exist.
Watch the video again, and then try the other two and I bet it will grow on you.
Susan
I think you love Charlie more than me.
*sigh*
You know that is not true Devil!
Well… ok.
i made the mistake of clicking on #3 first, sat watching kind of perplexedly – my 12 yr old came running in “you’re watching charlie the unicorn!” and proceeded to explain some of it to me. “you have to watch them in order to get it” he sagely advised.
so i did.
yes, it moved kind of slow. but when you watch them all in order you understand the connecting little quirks of wit and the “bored-skeptic-who-gives-in-to-woo equals possible patsy” theme. the funny little songs featured in each clip WERE pretty creative.
i liked #2 the best. it had a vortex and everything! :)
speaking of which – strong bad had a vortex in one of his animations – with an alternate universe – and lots of dopplegangers!
http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail150.html
(just FYI – if you are not a fan of or familiar with strong bad, you will likely find this even less amusing than charlie the unicorn)
strong bad hunts ghosts, too.
http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail48.html