Here’s a bit of Irish levity after the last post on the secularization of that country.
Dara Ó Briain is an Irish comedian and television host and a staunch atheist who describes himself as “ethnically Catholic.” Here’s his humorous take on evolution and creationism. Though his description of natural selection leaves a bit to be desired, it still shows that evolution via selection isn’t “random”, but involves a concatenation of a random process (the generation of variation) and a nonrandom one (the disposition of that variation by selection). And he got the appendix right.
I wish I could make my students laugh this much while teaching the evidence for evolution.
x
I also wish professors could be this hilarious when teaching whatever subjects.
Jerry,
Do you wish you could make your students laugh as much because A) you think humor is a more effective means of teaching than say a humorless approach, of B) you enjoy the positive reinforcement that comes with making others laugh, C) both A & B, or D) other reasons.
I teach design of experiments sometimes and find that getting people to laugh at bad design, such as supposed trials of homeopathy by homeopaths, is a good idea for all the above reasons.
You’re being a bit harsh saying that in a 3.5 minute comedy monologue the description of natural selection “leaves a bit to be desired”!
The bit about blind monkeys was clearly metaphorical, as any Sophisticated Comedian would tell you.
“In the kingdom of the blind, its said the one-eyed man is king”
“In the kingdom of the bland, its 9 o’clock on ITV”
Dara Ó Briain has another classic routine about quackery, from which we get the phrase: “Get in the fookin’ sack!”
very funny!
An Irish comedian?? Dara has become, hands down, the Irish comedian of our time. 😀
Here is another excellent bit about science and the general public’s lack of knowledge of it:
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDYba0m6ztE&w=560&h=315%5D
“Get in the fucking sack!” – Priceless!
Dammit, embed fail… Can you please fix this for me, Jerry?
I love this guy. I think he’s one of the most brilliant comedians out there.
Yes, he’s a comedian and he knows his science… pretty well.
On an episode of QI he got extra points for knowing the triple point of water. Unfortunately, when he return on the next series he was docked points for having been wrong by 0.1° …
/@
I couldn’t agree more with both of you. He is the funniest, most intelligent comedian around – just brilliant. I’m looking forward to seeing his latest concert “Craic Dealer” in Aberdeen on 1 April.
Form the 80’s we have the late great Irish comedian Dave Allen
I grew up watching Dave Allen on British TV. I shall not look upon his like again.
Also, I’d like to put in a word for Frank Carson, although he was something of an acquired taste.
Louis CK has an incredibly funny bit on creationism-
O Briain has a degree in physics and appears on the BBC with my colleague Brian Cox fronting an excellent occasional live programme about astronomy, Stargazing Live.
I think his best line is “Science knows it doesn’t know everything — otherwise it would stop.”
+∞
I don’t think I can add to that (maths fail).
Thank you for the belly laughs. I feel it’s going to be an O Briain fest in the studio today.
Careful about the appendix. It apparently makes it easier to recover from serious intestinal illness such as cholera. It appears to act as a reservoir for intestinal bacteria. I will look for the citation….
Found it:
http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/2012/01/02/your-appendix-could-save-your-life/
Nice ref! Thanks…
Most interesting! Thanks!
“I wish I could make my students laugh this much while teaching the evidence for evolution.”
Read from the book of Genesis then 🙂
As long as people are voting for their favorites, here’s mine. ANYTHING by Tom Lehrer.
Tom Lehrer- The Vatican Rag – YouTube
http://youtu.be/LFIkeXQI8nI
…and there’s always Ricky Gervais take on teh Bible
http://pogpog.com/v/ricky-gervais-explaining-the-bible/
Mrs. Brown’s Boys Episode 6, preview:
Mrs. Brown, The Mormons and Noah’s Ark
Excellent!
Yeh, it’s funny, but not as funny as that debate with John Haught. That was priceless. Encore! Encore!
My surgeon told me that he finds my appendix quite useful.
My fave religious comedy bit was Alexei Sayle’s line (written by Marshall and Renwick) “I came from a very god-fearing family. That’s because every Sunday god used to come around and beat us up.”
🙂
British comedy helped a lot with the secularism of the UK:-)
The C of E did its bit too…!