Penn and Teller and crew visit a UFO convention and attend a therapy session for alien abductees. They find mostly sincere people, and a couple of insincere jokesters, at the convention. At the therapy session, they find patients are getting exactly the kind of therapy they don't need. The debunkers debunk alien implants and the idea that Bush senior and Bush junior are reptilian aliens.
"There's no evidence that these people had any unusual experiences, " Penn says in a speech at the end. "They're just like all the rest of us with dreams and fantasies. We all need a little attention. . . . The abductees are just people who pathologically need a little attention like ... well, like us. You want to stop all this alien bullshit? Just pay attention to the people around you. Say hi. Humans are desperate for human contact. Let's not make our fellow travelers spend sixty bucks an hour to some pig-dog (meaning the abductee therapist) to be the center of attention. People shouldn't have to convince themselves they have a reptilian lover in outer space to get a few minutes of your time. P & T are siding with the creeps. We always have. We love them. We are them. There are enough earthly reasons to be interested in each other." The alien business gets in the way.
This speech doesn't erase the condescending tone of the episode, but it goes part way to rectify it. We can judge the interviewees on our own without Penn's nasty wisecracks. If you love someone, you don't call him a "wack-job."
One joke illustrates the team's tendency to gild the lily of a joke. Teller walks in, seeming to be surprised by the cigars in his mouth, hands and jacket pocket. "Teller," says Penn, "we're talking about unexplained *scars.*" We get it. But he continues: " not cigars."
"To gild refined gold, to paint the lily, to throw perfume on the violet " We get it.
"There's no evidence that these people had any unusual experiences, " Penn says in a speech at the end. "They're just like all the rest of us with dreams and fantasies. We all need a little attention. . . . The abductees are just people who pathologically need a little attention like ... well, like us. You want to stop all this alien bullshit? Just pay attention to the people around you. Say hi. Humans are desperate for human contact. Let's not make our fellow travelers spend sixty bucks an hour to some pig-dog (meaning the abductee therapist) to be the center of attention. People shouldn't have to convince themselves they have a reptilian lover in outer space to get a few minutes of your time. P & T are siding with the creeps. We always have. We love them. We are them. There are enough earthly reasons to be interested in each other." The alien business gets in the way.
This speech doesn't erase the condescending tone of the episode, but it goes part way to rectify it. We can judge the interviewees on our own without Penn's nasty wisecracks. If you love someone, you don't call him a "wack-job."
One joke illustrates the team's tendency to gild the lily of a joke. Teller walks in, seeming to be surprised by the cigars in his mouth, hands and jacket pocket. "Teller," says Penn, "we're talking about unexplained *scars.*" We get it. But he continues: " not cigars."
"To gild refined gold, to paint the lily, to throw perfume on the violet " We get it.