Granted we’re only twenty minutes into it, so this is a mid-stream observation. The only thing that comes to mind is this quote:

“Here’s a quarter, it’s gone, you’re an idiot, it’s back, you’re a jerk, show’s over.”
— Jerry Seinfeld

This has got to be the irony of ironies.

Let’s see how the next hour and a half goes.

UPDATE: Okay, it’s over. I’ll stand by what I wrote above.

It really is ironic to me that P&T appear to have become a living example of what Penn has for years consistently excoriated: the epitome of the type of magic as described above in Seinfeld’s quote.

Between Showtime’s Bullshit, the interview on stage at MAGIC Live! last summer, and the television special this evening, it seems to me Penn is becoming the George Carlin of magic.

Back to the special this evening.

To my mind, this was the network version of “The Aristocrats” — a well produced inside joke told at the expense of the paying audience.

Except in this case, I’ll go a little further and suggest this was the 21st century version of Hans Christian Anderson’s “The Emperor’s New Suit“ — with we magicians and the audience members playing the part of the emperor, to Penn and Teller’s swindling weavers.

On the other hand, maybe I’m just not inside enough to “get” P&T these days.

In 1980, Blue Oyster Cult released a great album — probably the last one of theirs I loved start to finish. Titled, “Cultosaurus Erectus,” it contained a song named “Divine Wind.” It was actually a political song aimed at the Ayatollah Khomeini, who considered the USA to be the “Great Satan.” The lyrics included the line:

If he really thinks we’re the devil,
then let’s send him to hell.

It could be that, after all these years of being called exposers of magic they’ve adopted the same point of view.