Scienticity for Laughs

I enjoy meeting new people in the same of scienticity; I try for one new person a day. Today I made the acquaintance of Irish comedian Dara OBriain (thanks to BoingBoing). He doesn't know me yet but I've enjoyed watching him on YouTube and now Dara and I will demonstrate that a good scientific outlook need not be dull–it can be very funny.

OBriain points out that he's a dweeby, numbers-kind of guy, and it's clear that he's annoyed at the science illiteracy he sees exhibited around him all the time. Fortunately, he makes fun of it. In one version of his routine (that video, about 11 minutes), he begins by saying "There's a general lack of knowledge about science."

I certainly won't disagree. When he talks about the idea of "gaps" in science he quite sensibly says "Science knows it doesn't know everything–otherwise it'd stop."

Here's a 6.5-minute version of the routine, high in scienticity, that touches on: "fear of zombies", "people who remove their own teeth", "quack, witch-doctor, homeopath horseshit peddler (it's water!)", "herbal medicine", and "journalistic 'balance' ". As noted at BoingBoing, there is some "salty" language involved. (The video embedded below comes from here.)

Posted on August 12, 2009 at 18.42 by jns · Permalink
In: All, Laughing Matters, Snake Oil--Cheap!, Speaking of Science

2 Responses

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  1. Written by S.W. Anderson
    on Thursday, 13 August 2009 at 21.35
    Permalink

    Excellent! Halfway through it occurred to me that this is the Irish
    comedian NBC should've called in to replace Jay Leno.

  2. Written by jns
    on Thursday, 13 August 2009 at 23.08
    Permalink

    Wow! What an idea. I might be watching "The Tonight Show" again for the first time in about 30 years if they had.

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