Penn from Penn & Teller is an alright dude

What does this post have to do with nerdisms? SFA, but I'm running out of topics and I want to post this.

http://www.youtube.com/user/pennsays

I have only seen a couple of episodes of "Bullshit", the show that (I believe) Penn and Teller made their names in. To be honest, I didn't enjoy the show a great deal when I saw it, but that's not to say watching it was a waste of time. That show was what made me dislike Michael Moore. In general, both Moore and Bullshit have a similar interviewing style. They'll interview people, then when the person say something they'll pause it and put in a voiceover showing them where they were wrong. This is not a good debate, it means the other side has no chance to really respond. Both Bullshit and Moore do this. Bullshit may do differently now, especially since apparently Penn is very rigorous in his research, if the subtitles correcting himself in his videos are any indicator.

But that's not what I'm here to discuss. Check out the above Youtube channel. There's alot of stuff in it I generally disagree with, but at the same time there's plenty I agree with (just like with normal people, it's rare to meet someone you agree or disagree about everything with), but again that's not the point. Penn is quite a celebrity, and I would be willing to say most people I speak to on a regular basis would know who he is, if only vaguely, but the blog technique he's using is basically.... no technique, and it works. In a normal video blog there's usually a degree of editing to make it seem seemless, expressing the maximum amount of information/opinion/entertainment in the minimum amount of time. Penn's style seems to be almost like you're sitting with him on his travels (and he rarely seems to do a video from the same spot twice) and he's expressing an opinion. For a brief moment it's easy to forget he's a celebrity on the other side of the world, it feels almost like a normal person just telling an anecdote.

As likely as I am to disagree or agree with his particular perspective on matters, and as much as I didn't like his TV show, I have to admit I respect the man himself.