Last week I posted about Adam and Jamie on Craig Ferguson’s TV show. I also found this little gem, where he talks about Apollo deniers. The whole thing is funny, but the space stuff starts at 3:00.
I love that guy.
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November 12th, 2009 at 8:17 am
I love Craig Ferguson, and I bet this is brilliant. Can’t wait to get home from work so I can watch it.
November 12th, 2009 at 8:20 am
I love it. “You can’t fake a moon landing, it’s not an orgasm!”
November 12th, 2009 at 8:30 am
BA you should have given a shot out to Top Gear’s latest. “James May Goes to the Moon”. He interviews a bunch of NASA people (astronauts, doctors, etc), checks out the Saturn 5, and goes up in the U2 to describe what it feels like to be (almost) in space.
Great show. And one of the most popular ones in the world right now. That kind of publicity for NASA is worth its weight in gold.
November 12th, 2009 at 9:07 am
Craig’s never been a shuttle commander, but he has been on Red Dwarf.
“Whaddya mean ya killed him, cha-cha-cha?!?”
November 12th, 2009 at 9:11 am
Brilliant! The best late-night talk show host for sure!
HE should have the 11:30 NBC slot!
Cheyenne:
Good point! I’ll be watching it now!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6cZLfK4Zjk
I’ve never seen a double-decker U2 before! Schweet!
November 12th, 2009 at 9:16 am
“You can’t fake a moon landing! It’s not an orgasm!” Classic
November 12th, 2009 at 9:53 am
Ferguson is usually very funny, and he was this time too.
thanks for the link, Phil.
November 12th, 2009 at 10:49 am
Craigs is one of the few to beat out David Tennent in my list of favorite Scots.
November 12th, 2009 at 11:03 am
I’ll never understand the we-can’t-land-on-the-moon fools. They maintain their position against all the available evidence. It’s their religion I guess.
But worst of all are the American moon landing deniers who are essentially saying that science, engineering, NASA and a great many Americans are all lying, incompetent fools who somehow can keep a secret, known to millions, from the rest of the population. For almost 40 years.
At least they pay taxes… don’t they?
November 12th, 2009 at 11:22 am
A musical tribute from Craig Ferguson on the Apollo anniversary this July:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DptWrNc9CKg
For those not too familiar with Craig Ferguson’s musical intros, his show occasionally starts with these before even the monologue and the opening theme. Letterman goes off the air, and next thing you know, a full musical production is your reward for staying up too late that night. Good stuff!
November 12th, 2009 at 12:15 pm
I don’t get it… are there jokes in there somewhere or are we supposed to get a kick out of the accent? I watched two minutes of that clip and all I got was some guy on stage sneering while talking about how much he loves astronauts and then some HILARIOUS footage of Endeavor taking off. It’s a good thing the “applause” sign was on because the audience just seemed to be LOVING it… Was there something on his face?
Seriously though, I’m afraid Craig isn’t “taking on” anyone, not with those ratings. Also, look up the definition of “comedy” Phil and maybe you’ll discover how paranoid you sound picking up intentional sniping in comedy acts and episodes of Sesame Street when really this guy is just after ratings. Pass.
November 12th, 2009 at 12:55 pm
I’ll admit I’m actually not a fan, and I didn’t find this especially funny either.
Thanks for sharing, though.
November 12th, 2009 at 1:10 pm
Meh, Ferguson’s rants have never been very funny to me. Experiment: imagine them WITHOUT the Scots accent……
November 12th, 2009 at 1:13 pm
My gripe with his show is that his audience sounds like it’s made up of 10 over-enthusiastic people sitting in a tin can. It’s like watching a talk show while someone is constantly flicking you in the ear. Maybe he can start piping in audience noise from some other show.
November 12th, 2009 at 1:19 pm
Well, I found this hilarious. He has always tickled my funny bone. Good stuff. Keep posting this stuff that you find funny and interesting. Some of us out there appreciate it.
My kids, on the other hand, don’t appreciate my humor and sense of awe and wonder. Just two days ago, for example, I was telling them how cool it was that the date was 11/10/09 (for those of us on this side of the pond). And how I was looking forward to the next Anagram Day on 01/02/2010 and not something as boring as “New Years Day”. They just said, as they are wont to do, “Please don’t talk to my friends.”
November 12th, 2009 at 2:01 pm
Considering his almost NSFW bits (Western Porn – which really exists, etc.), I wonder how he missed… ‘that’s one small schtup for Man…’.
(see: Blazing Saddles)
J/P=?
November 12th, 2009 at 2:05 pm
@Cheyenne Its not part of Top Gear, just from the BBC by James May. He does a bunch of great programs outside of Top Gear.
Theres two parts of it, James May on the Moon covers a more broad range of moon and space travel related topics and James May at the Edge of Space covers the U2 flight specifically.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_May_on_the_Moon
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_May_at_the_Edge_of_Space
And I’m not sure I could care less if you don’t like Ferguson. How about leaving the rest of us to enjoy it in peace?
November 12th, 2009 at 3:04 pm
I saw another episode where he mentioned during the letter reading that he’d wanted to be an astronaut.
November 12th, 2009 at 3:25 pm
Well, now that we have found water, it’s time to see about bottling it up and selling it!
Funniest thing I’ve seen. And plus, I now have a great rebuttle to hoax believers!
November 12th, 2009 at 3:29 pm
In order to fake a moon landing, you’d need radio transmission satellites that fooled receivers on the ground into thinking they were receiving transmissions from the moon. And coordinate those transmissions in real-time with the replies sent from Houston, to make it sound like they were trally talking to astronauts 1.5 light-seconds away. Not to mention launching and expending a REAL Saturn V at the start of the mission.
Let’s face it — the cheapest way to fake landing human beings on the moon, to the level of detail the Apollo program did, would be to actually land human beings on the moon.
November 12th, 2009 at 3:59 pm
One night, I turned on Ferguson, and to my suprise, he was talking with Apollo astronaut Alan Bean!
I thought it ws a dream. I hadn’t seen an Apollo astronaut on late night since the 60’s, after their respective flights. Ferguson is not only hilarious, he is an American citizen by choice, a deep thinker, and quick wit. Check out his long-term guestlist.
KP
November 12th, 2009 at 4:37 pm
@Damon,
Craig Ferguson has been slowly climbing in the ratings for quite awhile, and in fact got their best shares ever last week. If you don’t get the humor, fine, but millions do and their numbers are growing. Not everybody needs their humor spoon-fed to them one pre-scripted banal joke at a time.
And taking pleasure when a popular show quite humorously makes a valid point about the utter silliness of a persistent basesless conspiracy theory makes Phil sound paranoid? Your post does not make Phil come across as the paranoid one here …
November 12th, 2009 at 5:52 pm
“Meh, Ferguson’s rants have never been very funny to me. Experiment: imagine them WITHOUT the Scots accent……”
So… if you get rid of his style of delivery, the jokes written for his style of delivery aren’t funny? Apparently George Carlin isn’t funny, I mean imagine Ben Stein doing his bits, totally not funny.
Don’t get me wrong, you’re welcome to your taste in comedy, but that seems an odd excuse.
November 12th, 2009 at 8:02 pm
@Damon
Phil is not sounding paranoid. Compared to moon-hoax believers who think that the government, NASA, space program suppliers, the media, everyone else at the periphery of the Apollo program were in on a conspiracy, even a schizophrenic could be considered level-headed. (Hmm, conspiracy belief a possible mental disorder. Someone check up on that, please.)
Conspiracy theory proponents, especially those who make money off of their set of peculiar belief, deserve such scorn and mockery.
It’s the ones who aren’t sure what to believe that need better convincing without condescension, sarcasm, or coldness. They get the Sagan approach: show them the evidence, explain warmly their context, and don’t be afraid to be asked a lot of questions.
Bart Sibrel, on the other hand, got his deserved treatment from Buzz Aldrin. The rest deserve out-and-out mockery.
November 12th, 2009 at 9:21 pm
I confess I’m not much of a television watcher, and I’d never heard of this guy before Phil put him on here. The bit about the moon fakers was moderately funny, but what was with all the gay jokes? I mean, seriously, Fabio? I thought we were about ten years or so beyond comics making wink-wink jokes about sleeping with other men.
November 12th, 2009 at 10:11 pm
I knew he looked familiar. Ferguson was in the “Drew Carey Show.”
Hmm, I guess some of you didn’t remember him on there, either. Or the show, itself. Phlerp!
November 12th, 2009 at 10:15 pm
Nope, sorry. The name Drew Carey is familiar, but I can’t say I ever watched his show.
November 12th, 2009 at 11:52 pm
Pretty funny ..
… Mostly – but for the cruel humour at the expense of poor Laika.
Sorry but whenever I think about what the Russians did to that dog I can’t help but feel more than a bit sad.
(Yeah, I’ve got a dog how’d ya gyuess?)
I loved most of it tho’ – esp. the Death star & stop off at Newark en route to the Moon. Clearly an old videoclip but still durn good. Even if I do prefer Letterman (who also tends to have quite a few NASA & space ref jokes too) myself!
November 13th, 2009 at 2:14 am
They’re nothing compared to global warming deniers! >:-(
November 13th, 2009 at 3:57 am
I don’t get it. Is this guy supposed to be funny?
November 13th, 2009 at 8:53 am
@ Bruce Gee:
The gay jokes are a regular schtick with Ferguson. It all started when some gossip hound suggested he might be gay. (He’s not.) Ever since, he’s made it part of his routine. It would be annoying were it not for the fact that he always aims the biting humor directly at himself…again, making fun of the original gossip. You sort of had to be there from the start.
November 13th, 2009 at 7:55 pm
And folks, he is brutal about his alcoholism and drug addiction.
BTW, comparing faking the moon landings to faking an orgasm is a lot like comparing scientific medicine to the same subject. Which makes me wonder just how Bill Maher became such an expert on faking a climax.
November 14th, 2009 at 6:14 pm
Alan do you mean alternative medicine?
November 14th, 2009 at 6:23 pm
I’ll admit that wasn’t his best monologue. But the man is hilarious. Most of them hit the mark. Letterman over Ferguson? I dont think so. Letterman is incredibly NOT funny. He’s aweful. When the audience laughs I just can’t see why. Proves that most Americans do not have a sense of humour or a real underdevloped one.
November 15th, 2009 at 5:41 pm
Using Humor to Tackle Anti-Science…
I’m a big fan of Denial Depot, which humorously invokes “Blog Science” to attack climate science. The content is a bit insiderish, though, requiring readers to be familiar with real science and anti-scientific claims to get the joke.
…