Skepticblog

Bending a Spoon (again?) for the "Weird or What? shoot

Last Saturday Jim Underdown of CFI and I went to San Diego to be part of a new science program that Discovery Channel is producing called “Weird or What?” It was an interesting afternoon that gave both of us some hope that a bigger note of skepticism might begin to infiltrate the seemingly endless parade of paranormal prattle that has been bombarding us for the last ten years. It’s a start.

“Weird or What?”is hosted by none other than William Shatner of “Star Trek” fame. According to several IIG members, he’s had a sly skeptical side that showed itself on his show “Raw Nerve.” He publicly called out John Edward on being “woo woo” when Edward tried to imply that things were not as “woo” as they once were. Shanter interrupted him and said, ” No, …it’s woo John.” He also suggested that John Edward might be psychotic rather than psychic. Watch it at  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etdw0M8g8oA

Good for him.

And good for all of us if this new swing of the pendulum can bring more rationality to the airwaves. As I have said before, we don’t need a pendulum, we need a wrecking ball.

“Variety” says: “Weird or What” will examine and analyze some of the weirdest unsolved cases around the world — ranging from paranormal phenomena, medical oddities and bizarre natural disasters.” Shatner said the show would present science in a “light-hearted, jaunty way.”

I like the word weird and I like the word jaunty.  Dictionary.com defines jaunty as an adjective: 1.easy and sprightly in manner or bearing; dapper, dashing, natty, raffish, rakish. Can I get on full-time Mr. Shatner? Those of us on the Skeptologist team know calling anything a science show will likely scare away the crowds just like “The Skeptologists” did. So anything with the word “weird” in it might fly. I just hope it doesn’t get too goofy.

Jim Underdown doing his telekinesis demonstration

Jim did a great job doing his version of cigar tube telekinesis and attempting to catch up the television world on the paranormal in the short ten minutes he was given to sum up what CFI and we were all about. It was distressing to note that the questions asked were so dated: about Stanford Research, Geller, ESP and the standard run of tabloid hoodoo …and of course spoon bending. This line of questioning leads me to believe that the American public is woefully under-educated about current paranormal claims and investigations. Big surprise. Maybe that will start to change too? The only up-dated material that was touched upon was the goat killing from “Men Who Stare at Goats.” I suppose we have Jon Ronson and George Clooney to thank for that.

Clooney & Goat

For those who care; we gave away no secrets. As much as our interviewer and the crew may have wanted us to, we simply stated that what we did was pure science and that any decent magic shop could supply the knowledge needed to develop our amazing powers. I stated that I had to do the work to be able to move objects and bend metal and if anybody wanted to do the same, it was all to be found out there in any library or on the Internet.

The Broken Spoon

So let’s hope that William Shatner and his writers and producers get their act together. We need someone like Captain Kirk to  boldly go where no television show has gone before. His previous documentary “How William Shatner Changed the World” has gotten good reviews. Honestly, I  haven’t watched much of Shatner since the “Star Trek” days and prefer even more his bit parts he did on earlier “Thriller” and “Twilight Zone” episodes. He’s definitely a force to be reckoned with.

As usual, both Jim and I will reserve our right to comment until after the segment is aired. We know from our experiences with Hollywood that the real wizards in all this are the editors.