I know, I know, it’s a commercial. But it’s really funny.
And, of course, we all know that in real life, when you turn the lights on, the ghosts disappear, because they’re not real at all. So there’s a tie-in* with skepticism that makes this post rationalized. Literally.
* Since this commercial was filmed in Bangkok, it’s actually a Thai-in.
If you went to BadAstronomy.com and found yourself here, never fear: the BA Blog has moved to its new home at Discover Blogs. The original BA site (with the Moon Hoax debunking and all that) is still online, too.
Phil Plait, the creator of Bad Astronomy, is an astronomer, lecturer, and author. After ten years working on Hubble Space Telescope and six more working on astronomy education, he struck out on his own as a writer. He has written two books, dozens of magazine articles, and 12 bazillion blog articles. He is a skeptic, and fights misuses of science as well as praising the wonder of real science.
 | ||
 | Bad Astronomy was chosen as one of Time.com's Best Blogs of 2009. | |
 | Open Lab 2008 is a collection of the best blog posts of the year, all in one place. Are you a science junkie? Yeah, you want it. |
 |
"Reading this book is like getting punched in the face by Carl Sagan. Frightening, but oddly exhilarating."
-- Daniel H. Wilson, author of How to Survive a Robot Uprising
DISCOVERmagazine.com: Latest Articles on Space DISCOVER Blogs: The Loom
July 8th, 2008 at 3:03 pm
Good pun a recently departed Bauter would be proud.
July 8th, 2008 at 3:04 pm
Totally offtopic, but thought you would appreciate this:
Life Imitates Art
July 8th, 2008 at 3:08 pm
JimB I thought he was going to change polarity to solve the problem.
July 8th, 2008 at 4:19 pm
Darn it..You got me to watch a commercial! ARG! (but it was funny so thank you!)
July 8th, 2008 at 4:54 pm
”* Since this commercial was filmed in Bangkok, it’s actually a Thai-in.”
(cymbol crash!)
Thank you, thank you, I’ll be here all week!
July 8th, 2008 at 5:05 pm
No thats a Transvestite…..
July 8th, 2008 at 5:07 pm
That was even creepier than some of the creepy Japanese things I’ve seen. Funny, though!
@JimB: No fair! Randall Monroe is the only one allowed to swing in on a vine and use a computer to save the day! And as an xkcd fan, the author should have known that.
July 8th, 2008 at 5:12 pm
Yep…many Thai’s still believe in animism and ghosts. Not so different from the theists really.
July 8th, 2008 at 5:49 pm
I’m almost positive I’ve seen a version of this in English. I’ll have to find it. Very funny.
July 8th, 2008 at 5:55 pm
Not exactly the one I was looking for but, see what you think…
http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=nHszNHKX6Sc
July 8th, 2008 at 6:36 pm
Heh. That is hysterical!
I recognized that first thing from D&D, as a (and I don’t have the right accent marks for this) Pennangalan:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pennangalan
I once asked a friend from the Phillipines to tell me of some unique item of her country’s folklore, and she described this very thing. As she is from the Philippines, this commercial is from Thailand, and the definitively inaccurate Wikipedia describes it as Malaysian, this nasty little critter sure does get around!
Phil, there’s something funky with your site. All the text looks verrry small, I had to try three time to see these comments at all (all I got the first two times was the post title), and when I just reopened your site something seemed to be clicking a continuous string of hits to somewhere - and I definitely didn’t have anything resting on my mouse or keyboard.
Anybody else experiencing odd site behavior?
July 8th, 2008 at 6:37 pm
Phil, I hate to tell you this, but the banner ad at the top of this post for me was:
“100% accurate horoscope from professional Jenna. Test her Skills for Free. Find out why she is so different from other astrologers!”
Discover may not be the best venue for you.
July 8th, 2008 at 6:43 pm
Adding to the site weirdness, when I use Ctrl+ to magnify the text for my old eyes the formatting takes the text way off the side of the screen in Firefox 3.0. That’s in contrast with most other sites, which keep all the text on the screen. ‘Fraid I won’t be reading you much any more.
July 8th, 2008 at 6:57 pm
RBH, it is possible that Professional Jenna does give !00% accurate horoscopes. She might have stolen them from me:
http://anothermonkey.blogspot.com/2008/06/db-echos-100-guaranteed-astrological.html
Warning: That link goes to a post that links back to Bad Astonomy. Be prepared for any recusive consequences.
July 8th, 2008 at 7:25 pm
So are transvestites supposed to disappear when you turn on the light? Because I’m pretty sure they exist.
July 8th, 2008 at 9:07 pm
ZOMG! JimB, I just checked that cartoon! My old Pennsylvania Governor’s School for the Sciences 1984 classmate, Julianne Dalcanton, is in the lineup with Stephen Hawking! The last thing I’ve seen publicly by her was an article on “Ghost Galaxies” - so I guess this cartoon ISN’T really off-topic!
July 8th, 2008 at 9:18 pm
Enjoyed the video that is the topic of this post, but thought I’d add to the reports of poor legibility. I had to cmnd + a couple of times in Safari on my powerbook just to get minimally readable type sizes.
KM
July 8th, 2008 at 10:06 pm
I keep getting the horoscope add at the top of the page as well.
“100% accurate horoscope from professional Jenna. Test her Skills for Free. Find out why she is so different from other astrologers!”
July 8th, 2008 at 10:21 pm
# Anonyme Says:
So are transvestites supposed to disappear when you turn on the light? Because I’m pretty sure they exist.
No, the guy who unwittingly sleeps with a transvestite disappears when he turns on the light.
J/P=?
July 8th, 2008 at 11:05 pm
Great ad! “No, that’s a transvestite!” LMAO!
Yup font is REALLY teeny tiny, sometimes centred too and the astrology ad is a hoot. there are always teething issues when you move to a new place. No doubt BA will put his awesome “MIND OF SCIENCE” to the problem and it will all come right in the end. ave faith!
July 8th, 2008 at 11:13 pm
Once upon a time when I was working in Singapore, we were working late at night and a chiller tower on the roof was giving us grief. I decided to go up and have a look and I told a colleague to keep an eye on the computer while I made some adjustments. Everybody in the room turned around and looked at me, one of them said with fear in his voice: “are… eh.. you going up there now!”. I confirmed and he replied: “but what about… GHOSTS?”. I could see by the worried look in everybody’s eyes that he was serious and I didn’t know what to say. Then our supervisor suddenly exclaimed: “don’t be silly, Ang Mo (white people) don’t believe in ghosts”. Problem solved, if I didn’t believe in ghosts the couldn’t hurt me.
BTW, J/P=?: A transvestite is not necessarily a homosexual.
July 8th, 2008 at 11:19 pm
I must point out that astrology ads, inappropriate or no, are much less likely to do harm in this venue than in other, more credulous venues.
July 9th, 2008 at 12:35 am
# Thomas Siefert Says:
BTW, J/P=?: A transvestite is not necessarily a homosexual.
Not really intended as a slight… kind of a “Man Show” joke…
which is weird because I hate that kind of joke.
Maybe if I’d sleep more often
J/P=?
July 9th, 2008 at 7:11 am
I’d like to add another “please change the font size on the comments” request. They’re very difficult to read and scaling them doesn’t work very well.
July 9th, 2008 at 10:17 am
Well you know there were plenty of woo-woo ads coming up on Google ads, even on the old site.
July 9th, 2008 at 10:18 am
…also, in Opera, simply increasing the font size with the + key, the site works out fine.
July 9th, 2008 at 10:54 am
I noticed the smaller font size only in this post. So yet another request to increase it.
July 9th, 2008 at 11:21 am
Phil, thank you for enlightening us.
July 9th, 2008 at 12:44 pm
Please warn us before you have China on the menu. Because if this will be the quality of your puns, I don’t wonton.
July 9th, 2008 at 9:08 pm
Anonyme: Perhaps transvestites aren’t scary in the light either.