TVSquad

Almost a year ago, Bob linked to a segment from The Tonight Show in 1973 in which professional "spoon bender" Uri Geller was exposed on national television by Carson and frequent Carson guest and professional debunker James Randi. The clip, via YouTube, was part of a larger documentary about hoaxes.

Recently, citing the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, Geller's company, Explorologist Ltd., demanded the clip be removed for violation of copyright. YouTube suspended the account of the user who posted the video.

This is the 27th in my twelve-part series where my friends (that's you) and I (that's also you, but in this case: me) try to learn all we can about a subject by turning to that great teaching tool known as television.

Many people will tell you that whether or not a person ultimately believes in a supreme being is a matter of personal choice, hopefully arrived at through study and reflection. This is not true: both atheism and religion are based on cheese, and which of the following items most interests a person, this:

I came across the site myheritage.com today, and it has a fun little program where you can upload a picture of yourself and it will tell you what celebrity you resemble. I say it's "fun" not because it's accurate, but because it's grossly inaccurate, at least it was in my case. It actually told me I look like Cuba Gooding, Jr., Greta Garbo, and professional skeptic James Randi. Last I checked I looked nothing like any of these people, and I'm also fairly certain I'm not black, or a bald white man with a beard. I have to admit I was somewhat flattered by the Greta Garbo comparison, though. Anyway, I invite our readers to check it out and report back. I'd like to know if you guys get results that are better than what I got.

[via American Copywriter]

I remember seeing this the night that it happened, in 1973: Uri Geller trying to perform some psychic "feats" on The Tonight Show, and host Johnny Carson (a magician himself and someone with a low tolerance for hucksters and hoaxes) making sure he can't fool anyone with a trick by changing the items on the table. This is a slightly edited version, but it's very telling. Geller actually gets a little irritated at Carson, at one point even mentioning that Carson was supposed to ask him the questions they agreed on before the show. Doc Severinsen sits there waiting for Geller to do something amazing, but it never comes.

That's magician and professional debunker James Randi narrating the clip. I think this is part of a larger documentary that was show on television several years ago.

[via Boing Boing]