I have come to the conclusion that I’m 85% certain that a certain Expelled movie is one big hoax and joke, admittedly in rather bad taste, what with the whole Holocaust thing. I want to be the first to rumble them. I have several arguments in favour of my theory. Argument one is the Argument from Authority and the Argument from Generalising from Anecdote combined. I am an expert on American humour. After all, I’m married* to an American. American humour goes like this:
During the first, lengthy stage, the American will try to unnerve you by treating your sparkling wit and brilliant repartee to dirty looks. During this phase they will also utter a number of ‘ideas’ which… well… how can I put this politely? I can’t. But they will appear to be taking themselves seriously. (viz. normal behaviour of creationists and ID-ers)
In the second stage, when you are least expecting it, the American will fire off an ‘idea’, but this time it’s a false one, almost completely indistinguishable from the real ones, but specifically designed to let them have a good laugh while you’re figuring it out. (viz. Expelled)
Finally, the American will be overcome by his own hilarity and collapse on the floor guffawing, leaving you to feel like a fool for ever believing that anyone could seriously put forward such nonsense.
Viz. just you wait! – it seems clear to me that the Expelled crew must be rapidly approaching the third stage.
My second argument is the Argument from Faith. It is simply impossible that human beings acting in good faith could be as incompetent, ignorant and stupid as these people appear to be. That sort of thing comes from an attitude of “let’s see how far we can push it before someone clicks”.
My third argument is the Argument from Symbolic Coincidence. Their film was released within three weeks of April Fool’s Day. Clearly, a release on the first would have been too obvious. Clearly, they’re thinking April Fool.
***** quick addition: President Nixon’s court jester camping around in his short trousers is a bit of a give away, as well!
Conclusion: any minute now they’re going to start laughing and shrieking “got y’all jumping up and down, didn’t we!”
No amount of contrary evidence will sway me from my conclusion, of course. We all know that evidence is completely out of fashion, so there’s no point even bothering.
If anyone happens here who hasn’t heard of Expelled, consider yourself fortunate, you’re missing the laugh of the decade. If you want to know, check out Expelled Exposed or almost any blogger on ScienceBlogs.
* happily, though I’m expecting a few dirty looks for this piece of work.