Penn and Teller call “Bullshit” on Meme Roth
It seems we can’t go a month without talking about Meme Roth, but she’s a bit of a media fruit fly and never seems to stop buzzing around the blogosphere. This time, BFD Reader Leslie alerts us that she popped up on the Penn and Teller show “Bullshit!” during a segment investigating fast food. Leslie writes
I was watching it last night and was having a ball! Meme Roth talks a lot of shit in it and the one who speaks, Penn? I forget. Was going off on her! It was pretty good even if at the end (it) kind of stereotypes.
Ms Roth’s argument is that fast food is bad because fat people eat it and it gives them flaccid genitalia. Or maybe the free clip (available after the jump) is edited in an unflattering way to make her sound a little unhinged.
Penn and Teller have a history of tilting at society’s windmills and this is not the first time they’ve been skeptical of the so-called Obesity Epidemic. In their first season, an episode was dedicated to explaining why most diets are major scams (bit of trivia: that episode features longtime diet and WLS blogger Robyn Anderson aka Bitchypoo).
Has anyone seen this episode yet? I’d be curious to hear the rest of Penn’s takedown and also get into the stereotyping that Leslie mentioned. I’m a little afraid of watching this, quite honestly, because like Mopie feels for Ricky Gervais, I have a HUGE weird crush on Penn Jillette and want to believe that someday he will fall madly in love with me. I don’t know if I can handle another Alton Brown-esque denouement.*
* Ok, I actually got to watch it last night and the voiceover Penn calls Meme Roth “a skinny asshole.” After she reiterates that society SHOULD be demonizing people for eating food that makes them fat, it’s hard to argue with him. At least my Penn crush remains intact.
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In addition to that first season episode, the fifth season also featured an episode on the Obesity Epidemic, covering the extensive sponsorship from diet drug companies on “health” conventions, the uselessness of BMI as a gauge of one’s insides, and staged their own Fat Olympics, in which their skinny guy control came third, after two fat guys. The episode also featured Paul Campos, author of The Obesity Myth, who “they” had only good things to say about. Jillette seems fairly unconflictedly supportive of HAAS, so you should be safe.
It rocked. They were not kind or gentle in their assessment of Meme, but they *really* hated this other guy, a policy wonk who liked to use the word ‘nudge’.
I think everyone has a crush on Penn…My husband might even have a man-crush on Penn lol. He and Teller are just such awesome people.
They’ve done two wonderful episodes on obesity that I’ve seen, the Diet one and the actually Obesity Epidemic one-both were awesome. I was waiting for them to tackle this idiot with no credentials who just really likes to put her crazy mouth into the spotlight. I can’t wait to snag this episode of Bullshit!
I don’t think MeMe Roth NEEDS creative editing to look unhinged.
Everything about the ep was a big fat YAY. I particularly liked the bit with the Brian Wansink experiment showing people’s perceptions of a Taco Bell salad if they thought it came from a swanky bistro. Funny stuff.
I don’t agree with a lot of what she says, but I also don’t agree with lashing back at her with a bunch of derogatory comments either.
Every time Meme breaks out the pants I want to smack her upside the head, and remind her that pants are intended to be worn on a 3 dimensional form (aka the human body). If I held my own pants in front of me flat like that, they’d look far to big for me.
Ashley, if you’re talking about the clip from Bullshit, that’s just how the show runs. They film someone who’s slightly less than sane, talking about the show’s topic, and Penn rips them to shreds for comedic effect.
DaniFae, I completely understand the nature of the Bullshit show, but that’s not really what I was referring to. Many have blogged about her, and I understand why people don’t like her, but I have read a novel of slanderous words against her (NOT in this blog because this is actually one of the best blogs in the fatosphere), everything from attacking her intelligence to her weight and I just don’t think it’s the best way to go about expressing their disagreement for what she’s about.
The preview for the episode on Showtime’s website features her, for the curious.
Not that I knew who she was before the whole Jordin Sparks fiasco, but I lost any potential respect for Meme after that. It’s one thing to discuss potential health issues, but quite another to endorse prejudice against people due to their size.
Took ‘em awhile, but yay. They have a great episode on obesity in general, as well.
“They film someone who’s slightly less than sane, talking about the show’s topic, and Penn rips them to shreds for comedic effect.”
“Less than sane”? They interview people with mental illnesses and shred them in a humourous manner?
Last time I looked, they were tearing apart accessibility legislation as “harming the handicapped” because it deprived poor white abled men from the opportunity to open doors for “real” PWD (blind, deaf, and wheelchair users only need apply). And because accessible parking was ridiculous, because sometimes the spaces are empty. They said that accessibility isn’t a civil rights issue because “we’re all different”. They even pulled out the Braille ATM mocking.
Ain’t no crush around here.
Sadly I am with lauredhel. For every one topic “Bullshit” gets right they get ten others wrong. The amount of mocking of PWD that happens on that show turns my stomach. I tried to watch it but there was so much ablisim fail that I had to turn it off.
BTW using moron as a pejorative term is also an ablisim fail. I felt the need to point this out because it has happened in quite a few comments I have read here.