Where is airing: Showtime
How many episodes in 2 season: 13 episodes
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (P.E.T.A.) plays on our compassion for other living things while laying a trap to turn the tables on us: P.E.T.A. is against all forms of medical testing involving animals-regardless of the potential benefits to human beings...it's enough to make a vegetarian eat meat!
Penn and Teller examine the hucksters that tap into hysteria over personal safety to make big bucks from such products as gas masks, paper toilet seat covers and cell phones - while the average person is four times more likely to be struck by lightning than to be huged unhappyly at school.
Penn and Teller explore the concept of romantic love - a fantasy akin to believing in Santa Claus - and expose the truth that love is a chemical reaction that, like all drugs, wears off after a while. Also: the myth of monogamy, the internet and physical dating industries, and love advice books.
Penn and Teller examine the ongoing drug prohibition (the war on drugs), "Voodoo Pharmacology" (clips from the film Reefer Madness and "this is your brain on drugs" commercials are used as examples), and the theory of medical marijuana.
Exposing the reality behind recycling, a supposedly pro-environment activity that in actuality creates pollution, has to be subsidized by the government because it's cost ineffective, and is completely unnecessary because, contrary to popular belief, our landfills are not running out of space.
Noting its contradictions and implausibilities, the boys question the reliability of the Bible as a true historical record.
From yoga to crystals to herbs, New Age crap is everywhere. The hosts gleefully expose the B.S. of Tarot Cards, then travel to the Mecca of the New Age movement: Sedona, Arizona, where they chant, sing, and unsuccessfully seek a higher consciousness.
From nutty diets to expensive facial creams that don't do anything, the magicians blow apart the efforts by those who are living longer than ever to turn back the clock, whether they are lining up for Botox injections or extensive plastic surgery.
Penn and Teller face their fears to deal with the subject of the impending demise that awaits us all - and the efforts of a highly profitable industry of passing to profit from it.
Penn & Teller use excessive profanity in order to prove a point: Profanity is what you make of it. They also interview us about people with strange euphemisms, and we learn that it is okay to swear to God; as long as it is not your own God
The hosts step into the debate between those that espouse the efficacy of 12-step programs such as Alcoholics Anonymous and those who assert that there is no proof that such programs are any more effective than seeking traditional medical help. Also: is alcoholism really a "disease?"
Penn & Teller interview various fitness gurus such as Clack Bartram and Tamilee, and catch them in contradictions, in order to prove that genetics is really more important than fitness.
While there is some truth to the power of hypnosis in helping patients relax and focus mentally, Penn and Teller explore the more outrageous claims of hypno-charlatans that assert they can enlarge the size of male genitals and achieve other impossible results.
