Penn Jillette Is Willing to Be a Guest on Adolf Hitler's Talk Show

Dan82 · Jun 21, 2010

http://www.vanityfair.com/online/os...on-adolf-hitlers-talk-show.html?printable=tr#

When I first heard that Penn Jillette was making frequent guest appearances on Glenn Beck's televised cavalcade of crazy, I just naturally assumed it was a silly misunderstanding. Obviously Jillette hadn't meant to go on Beck's hateful, paranoid show. Or if he had, it was as a Trojan horse. He'd pledged to play by their rules, hitting his cues like a good talking puppet, but when the cameras started rolling, he'd gone ballistic, destroying the set with a sledge hammer and screaming, "Feast on some facts, motherfucker!" But oh no, my liberal friends assured me, it was nothing like that. Jillette drank the Kool-Aid and joined the Dark Side. He and Beck were like old chums, giggling about Obama's attempts at health care reform and envisioning a world where guns are available to anybody with an itchy trigger finger. As if that wasn't horrific enough, he'd also gone on Larry King to defend the Tea Party from accusations of racism. It felt weirdly like a betrayal. Not that Jillette has ever been a particularly political comedian. It wasn't like hearing that Bill Hicks had risen from the grave and was co-hosting Real American Stories with Sarah Palin. But it did remind me of Dennis Miller, a comic I once thought was smart and funny but now just makes me cringe with his shameless partisan pandering. Jillette, who is probably best known as a Las Vegas magician with a filthy mouth, spent the last seven years doing a series for Showtime called Penn & Teller: Bullshit!, where he debunks frauds and groin-punches sacred cows across the political spectrum, from the War on Drugs to alternative medicine to the Catholic Church. He's just never seemed like the kind of guy who'd shuck n' jive for anybody, much less the Right.

When I finally got around to watching clips of Jillette on these shows, which admittedly didn't happen until I did research for this interview, I realized that it wasn't nearly as morally catastrophic as I'd been led to believe. Even when he smiled politely and pretended that Glenn Beck isn't a frothing-at-the-mouth loon, Jillette was an equal opportunity offender. He trashed Bush as much as Obama, preached nonviolent resistance (which was especially awkward during his via-satellite interview with Beck at a Tea Party rally at the Alamo), and while he sometimes sucked up to the ultra-conservative host, he also openly mocked the "funny underwear" worn by Mormons, forcing us to imagine Beck in his Church-approved skivvies. (I'm not linking to any of this, because I'm still a stubborn Liberal at heart. If you want to watch Glenn Beck, fucking find it yourself.) And on Larry King, he didn't so much defend the Tea Party as wonder aloud if maybe a group isn't necessarily racist just because the girl from Best Week Ever and I Love the 80s says they are.

I called Jillette to talk about the eighth season of Penn & Teller: Bullshit, airing this summer on Showtime every Thursday at 10pm EST. We did manage to chat briefly about the show, and then for the next few hours we talked about almost everything else. In true Jillette form, he said things I wholeheartedly agree with, things I strongly disagree with, and things I think are off the rails on a crazy train. He called Mother Teresa a cunt, defended the way Bush pronounces nuclear, wondered if maybe we should've stayed out of World War II, argued for Evolution and Pro-Choice in the same breathe, and insisted that if he was elected president he'd want to be stripped of power "because the checks and balances are there for a reason, motherfucker." We also talked about many, many other things, some of which are excerpted below.

Read More http://www.vanityfair.com/online/os...rs-talk-show.html?printable=tr##ixzz0rViCm8jX
Click to expand...

Zach1992 · Jun 21, 2010

Oh Penn... I once loved you, but when you cross to the Beck side I just can't live with that.

Dan82 · Jun 21, 2010

Zach1992 said: ↑

Oh Penn... I once loved you, but when you cross to the Beck side I just can't live with that.
Click to expand...

I wouldn’t say he’s on Glenn Beck’s side, he’s willing to question beck while remaining friendly. Jillette does more good presenting his views to a largely hostile audience than he would if he didn’t go on at all; he might be able to convert some of Beck’s viewers.

Here’s a video of Jillette confronting Beck. I wish we could embed videos from sites other than YouTube:http://video.foxnews.com/v/3930977

Steve712 · Jun 21, 2010

Hahahaha, Glenn Beck .... hahahaha.

:lol:

I'm sorry ... it's just that he's such a joke. XD

RiotPoofBrandon · Jun 21, 2010

Dan82 said: ↑

Zach1992 said: ↑

Oh Penn... I once loved you, but when you cross to the Beck side I just can't live with that.
Click to expand...

I wouldn’t say he’s on Glenn Beck’s side, he’s willing to question beck while remaining friendly. Jillette does more good presenting his views to a largely hostile audience than he would if he didn’t go on at all; he might be able to convert some of Beck’s viewers.
Click to expand...

QFT

I still love Penn, and respect him even more after reading this little article. I think its great that he was able to keep his cool around someone like Beck and still provide his point of view.

I had to go watch an episode on Penn and Teller: BULLSHIT! after seeing this xD More precisely, the episode that calls out people who have a strong hatred of Wal Mart and how silly they are.

Penn Jillette Is Willing to Be a Guest on Adolf Hitler's Talk Show

Dan82
Full Member

Zach1992
Full Member

Dan82
Full Member

Steve712
Full Member

RiotPoofBrandon Guest

Penn Jillette Is Willing to Be a Guest on Adolf Hitler's Talk Show

Thread Tools

Dan82 Full Member

Zach1992 Full Member

Dan82 Full Member

Steve712 Full Member

RiotPoofBrandon Guest

Dan82
Full Member

Zach1992
Full Member

Dan82
Full Member

Steve712
Full Member