So someone comes up to you and says the Apollo missions were faked, the Face on Mars is real, aliens eat cow rectums (recta?), Nibiru will kill us in 2012, and NASA is covering it all up.
What do you do?
You say "I want to see the evidence!"
Of course.
But it’s terribly important to look critical when you say it. Just saying something won’t do it; you have to use facial expressions in a way to convey your utter disbelief. Say, like this one:
Or, if they’ve sent all this garbage via email, just send ‘em that picture. It should express your feelings pretty well.
And if that doesn’t work, try this one:
If that one doesn’t work, they’re hopeless. Let them buy all the lottery tickets and homepathic remedies they want. They’re beyond help.
Tip o’ the lens cap to Andy Ihnatko for taking those pictures.
April 15th, 2008 at 11:38 am
Not diminishing such a beautiful picture (now turned into wallpaper) , I can think of a lot of other “pictures” to send to this people . Could post it but I don’t think it would pass the blog filter.:)
April 15th, 2008 at 11:47 am
You should make a version like they do on Lolcats with a big caption “I DOUBT IT”.
April 15th, 2008 at 11:56 am
Not sure it conveys utter disbelief as much as it does utter disgust. Which is probably more fitting.
April 15th, 2008 at 11:56 am
I dunno… First one is good. Second one looks like my doctor about to tell me my prostrate has to be removed.
This one still owns, though:
http://icanhascheezburger.files.wordpress.com/2007/08/skeptical-cat-is-fraught-with-skepticism.jpg
Or this one:
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2022/2242074105_569fb8d107.jpg?v=0
April 15th, 2008 at 11:58 am
What?
http://icanhascheezburger.files.wordpress.com/2007/03/whut-ian.jpg
April 15th, 2008 at 12:02 pm
Those both need “SRSLY?” at the bottom.
April 15th, 2008 at 12:05 pm
Those both need “SRSLY?” at the bottom.
The rabbit looks enough like my grandfather to make me believe in reincarnation.
It’s from cuteoverload.com where there is a running theme of “disapproving bunnies”.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2245/2367981188_beceae9450.jpg?v=0
April 15th, 2008 at 12:11 pm
QD: If your PROSTRATE is removed, you won’t be able to lie prostrate before god….
April 15th, 2008 at 12:12 pm
Randi’s lapel pin also helps convey the message.
April 15th, 2008 at 12:14 pm
Hey, now wait a minute!
Unlike homepathic remedies, lottery tickets WORK!
Just not very often…
April 15th, 2008 at 12:17 pm
Have you ever noticed you never see James Randi and Charles Darwin at the same place and the same time?
April 15th, 2008 at 12:19 pm
I gotta second the lottery tickets objection (though for a slightly different reason)
Lottery tickets are like movie tickets; they just require your imagination. If you get a dollar’s worth (or however much cash you deign to spend on it) of entertainment imagining what it would be like if you won (and you enjoy this exercise), then it’s worth the dollar you spend on not winning.
April 15th, 2008 at 12:20 pm
Hmmm… what it looks like to me, BA, is that you just walked in to a roomful of boiling cabbage.
I was going to reference something else but this is an adult site and I’m too growed up for that.
April 15th, 2008 at 12:21 pm
The bottom one should strike the fear of God (or a god) in anyone who promotes nonsence and the unproven.
April 15th, 2008 at 12:22 pm
Does this pass Phil?
http://www.davenandes.com/turkeypan–2.jpg
April 15th, 2008 at 12:24 pm
Boiling cabbage??…looks like he had ate a bad burrito.
April 15th, 2008 at 12:26 pm
My skeptical kitteh offers a bit more commentary:
http://images.icanhascheezburger.com/completestore/2008/3/6/skepticalkitteh128493202738593750.jpg
April 15th, 2008 at 12:37 pm
Well, y’all beat me to it, but I was gonna say that I’ve had lottery tickets that worked, homeopathic remedies, not so much.
April 15th, 2008 at 12:42 pm
They’re both pretty scary, but I think the whole “looking over the glasses rather than through them” effect in the lower shot is more effective.
April 15th, 2008 at 12:43 pm
After a weekend in the hospital, this entry cheered me right-up!
April 15th, 2008 at 12:49 pm
http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m65/xaonon/lolphil.jpg
I have yet to think up a caption awesome enough to adorn Randi’s mug.
April 15th, 2008 at 12:53 pm
Here you go, enjoy
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b376/jonbatista/motivator1466483.jpg
April 15th, 2008 at 12:54 pm
Sorry Phil, it looks like you’ve whiffed a brownie. Randi, on the other hand, makes me feel guilty for procrastinating.
April 15th, 2008 at 12:58 pm
Not very creative, but I’m pleased with it.
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b376/jonbatista/motivator1466483.jpg
April 15th, 2008 at 1:14 pm
I wish the artist would allow derivative works. I’m fine with referencing and no commercial gain, but by his own rules, everyone who captioned one of these photos is doing it illegally.
That’s a shame, because they are very good photos for the community to be able to use.
April 15th, 2008 at 1:26 pm
Heh — I read your post, and then the ad immediately below it said:
“What does your soul look like?
Take a free Kabalistic personality test
Click here to discover more”
..bruce..
April 15th, 2008 at 1:30 pm
wisnij, Jonathan – Ha ha! Those are great!
April 15th, 2008 at 1:51 pm
April 15th, 2008 at 1:52 pm
Sorry about the double post. Here’s my skeptical photo:
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2209/2276094722_717c20a757_o.gif
April 15th, 2008 at 2:03 pm
no you tell them they have been playing area 51 and destory all humans 1and2 on ther ps2 too munch and if they say they see a alein named crypto ther beyond help
April 15th, 2008 at 2:25 pm
Quick & dirty lolphil motivation poster:
http://img403.imageshack.us/img403/4003/lolphilpr2.jpg
April 15th, 2008 at 2:38 pm
Oh great. Thanks. Now every time I see a picture of Randi, my brain is going to edit it to say, “i can has chezburger?”
April 15th, 2008 at 2:45 pm
Add “O RLY?” in a large Impact font for the win!
April 15th, 2008 at 2:52 pm
Err, wasn’t this site about bad astronomy predominantly in the distant past? Recently the useful space content has kinda drained away …
April 15th, 2008 at 2:54 pm
Gotta agree with Jim Seymour and Jeff G. up there. Not everyone who buys a lottery ticket is stupid or doesn’t understand the odds. Some of us would just rather spend our couple bucks there than on a breakfast burrito from Micky-D’s. I’m just sayin’…
April 15th, 2008 at 3:02 pm
Daniel,
This site is about whatever Phil wants it to be about. If he wants to, he can post nothing but pictures of his lunch from now on. It’s his sandbox/soapbox. Get over it.
April 15th, 2008 at 3:05 pm
my little contribution:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/25704365@N04/2416492547/
if thats not the right tag to add a link, then whoopslol, just copy and paste the address
April 15th, 2008 at 3:51 pm
I have to say, just looking at both pictures I feel heavily disapproved of.
April 15th, 2008 at 4:04 pm
JAMES RANDI
Disapproves of your SHENANIGANS
April 15th, 2008 at 4:09 pm
Showing that recent picture of Darwin like the second one is not convincing. Please make it black and white with scratches first. Otherwise unbelievers will immediately see Darwin is a hoax. We don’t want that now our global evil conspiracy is getting somewhere.
April 15th, 2008 at 4:14 pm
Why is it that Dawkins has become a star in the UK, and yet Randi, who’s probably the most important skeptic in the world is virtually unknown by the US public?
BA: I believe there are off-prescription laxatives which will alleviate your condition.
April 15th, 2008 at 4:22 pm
It’s also important to recognize the gaze of someone who is spouting woo woo! Once spotted, you may be able to convince them that their ideas aren’t well thought:
http://images.art.com/images/products/regular/10204000/10204551.jpg
April 15th, 2008 at 5:16 pm
Another option is to give them a blank look, ignore them and walk away. I find that method extremely affective.
April 15th, 2008 at 6:13 pm
@sudopod -
“Add “O RLY?” in a large Impact font for the win!”
Is that txt for “Oh, railway?” (For those of us in the rest of the English-speaking world who do not use “railroad” – much!)
April 15th, 2008 at 7:54 pm
Um . . . didn’t look too impressive. I hate to say this but . . . it made me think of Kevyn Andreyasn of Schlock Mercenary ( http://www.schlockmercenary.com ).
You might try dark glasses and a highway cop deadpan stare. That would work.
April 15th, 2008 at 8:03 pm
Christian X Burnham:
At one time The Amazing Randi was well known enough to appear as a guest on NBC’s “Real People,” where he did a quick demonstration of “psychic” phenomena. He might have even had his famous check-and-pen-in-a-jar.
Randi has more or less dropped off public radar outside of skeptic and illusionist circles mostly because he didn’t get the publicity of David Copperfield or Doug Henning. Doug Henning even dropped off the public radar when he gave up stage performances. Note that most people know of Penn & Teller because they’ve stayed active in the performance business.
April 15th, 2008 at 8:46 pm
In the tradition of LOLCATZ – it should be something like “ME CAN HAS DOUBTS”
JBS
April 15th, 2008 at 8:56 pm
I’m glad that y’all are liking the pix!
Normally I choose the noderivs flavor of the noncommercial-attrib CC license when I post to Flickr. A while back I thought hard about it and decided that in general, I want my photos to be the end-products and not merely the jumping-off points for God knows what.
But obviously, when the thing’s a portrait — particularly of a card-carrying member of the Close Personal Friends of Andy Ihnatko organization — well, that’s different. I’ve changed the license to attrib noncommercial…so by all means, mod away.
April 15th, 2008 at 11:09 pm
QD: If your PROSTRATE is removed, you won’t be able to lie prostrate before god…
D’OH!
I posted that in the lab at work and was really distracted.
April 16th, 2008 at 12:16 am
Heck, I’d need a shortcut key on my keyboard that shows that pic on demand…
April 16th, 2008 at 2:06 am
@sudopod -
“Add “O RLY?” in a large Impact font for the win!”
I am just wondering if it is a reference to R’lyeh of Lovecraftian fame.
April 16th, 2008 at 12:06 pm
@linusrp: They have that too: http://lolthulhu.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/06/internet-o_rlyeh.jpg
April 16th, 2008 at 12:07 pm
where’s the Spock raised eyebrow pic?
April 16th, 2008 at 12:09 pm
Which one is Randi?
April 16th, 2008 at 12:26 pm
Randi lolzcat. The possibilities are endless.
http://www.boysofsummer.us/randi2.jpg
April 16th, 2008 at 12:50 pm
The second photo seems to verify the existence of Santa Claus who appears to be skeptical as to the existence of God. One tends to employ the game theory in matters of this nature.
April 16th, 2008 at 7:43 pm
Thought I’d chime in on this Plaitoshopping.
http://img413.imageshack.us/img413/6813/plaitdontknowmg7.jpg
April 19th, 2008 at 5:38 am
good for all those xtian forwards.
i hope that second pic becomes a stock answer that those human spam robots keep getting until they realize something. not sure what.
May 4th, 2008 at 9:22 pm
Here is mine.
August 23rd, 2008 at 7:06 pm
I got a chance to use both these pics!!!!!! Woo hoo!! LOL