“Teach Alternate Views” Humor from Non Sequitur

In some of my recent blog posts, I wondered about the utility of calling the bluff of creationists and going with their argument of “teaching all views” regarding evolution, creationism, etc.  If a picture is worth a thousand words, this June 18th cartoon from Non Sequitur just nails it 🙂

Image Source

Stephen Colbert PWNs Don McLeroy, Creationist Crank from Texas

If you know who Don McLeroy is (and if you don’t, read up on him here), then you know he is quite notorious for being reality-challenged.  In what I can only describe as a stroke of comedic genius, Stephen Colbert interviews McLeroy on the Colbert Report.  Enjoy 🙂

Even More “Sh*t Skeptics Say” (parts 2 and 3)

As if their first YouTube video, “Sh*t Skeptics Say” wasn’t hilarious enough, the skeptical comedians over at Skeptically Pwned have followed that up with two more videos guaranteed to make you LOL.  Enjoy! 🙂

 

The Fun of “Sh*t Skeptics Say”

While presenting at the totally awesome Chicago Skepticamp today, during a break I saw something really funny: the “Sh*t Skeptics Say” video on YouTube.  The video is the work of the fine folks at Skeptically Pwned!, a group of comedic skeptics who spoof various kinds of nonsense and woo.  Check out their newest video, and tell others about their channel… (warning: NSFW)

Evolution & Creationism on Futurama

In a post over at the Panda’s Thumb blog, it came to my attention that there was a recent episode of Futurama which took a humorous look at the evolution/creationism question; and it appears that an old friend, the FSM, makes an appearance as well.

My favorite line: “And I remind you that evolution is merely a theory, like gravity or the shape of the Earth!” 🙂

Check it out…

As will become apparent soon enough, this week is going to be a big one for me in terms of posting about evolution & creationism.  You’ll see what I mean soon enough – stay tuned!

Some Humor: Snoutbreak ’09 – The Last 100 Days

As a quick follow-up to yesterday’s post – Swine Flu Conspiracy Hogwash – I just had to pass along this little gem.

I just saw a couple of really funny clips over at the Daily Show website regarding the swine flu. One clip does some gentle lampooning of various media outlets for the manner in which they’re reporting on the subject, while the other clip does a great job poking fun at the conspiracy theorists running rampant on the topic.  Enjoy!  🙂

Lampooning the Media

And the next – and in my opinion much more funny – clip poking fun at those whacky CT-woosters…

Conspiracy Theorists vs. Evidence-Based Journalism… Who Shall Win?

Promoting Skepticism Through the Arts

Sometimes people get the impression that the only people who embrace the title of “skeptic” are science nerds & geeks. Not so. There are, fortunately, a growing number of artists – musicians, comedians, singers – who have taken up the cause of promoting skepticism through their work. I wanted to give some of them a brief mention here.

They are Julia Sweeney (of Saturday Night Live fame), George Hrab, Greydon Square, and Tim Minchin. There are undoubtedly others beyond these four, but these are the big ones I know about now. I have met Julia, George, and Greydon, and I look forward to meeting Tim someday in the future.

I became aware of Julia Sweeney, George Hrab and Greydon Square through a well-known skeptical meeting called The Amazing Meeting (learn more about TAM’s sponsoring organization – the James Randi Educational Foundation). And I learned about Tim Minchin from one of the best skeptical podcasts on the Internet, the Skeptics Guide to the Universe.

As a taste, here is a link to a neat 9-minute beat poem by Tim Minchin called “Storm”. Enjoy! 😀

It is encouraging to see that more and more high-profile artists are coming out and not only embracing but also promoting skepticism. This is a welcome trend, because it not only expands the message of the modern skeptical movement beyond areas to which it has traditionally been limited (i.e. the sciences), and it also lends an air of coolness to the movement which will broaden the appeal. And getting the message out to younger people that scientific thinking & skepticism can be cool and isn’t just for nerds is one of the best things that artists have to offer.