Penn & Teller: Bullshit!

Hi, I'm Penn Jilette, and this is my partner, Teller.

When you do a show like this, sometimes people get mad.

And rather than arguing rationally,

they sometimes make ridiculous, impossible accusations.

We were debunking conspiracy theory.

We get accused of being CIA agents

on the payroll of the Zionists.

They had proof. It's on the Internet.

We say vaccinating children is important,

and before the show even airs, we get accused of being paid off

by the pharmaceutical industry.

Fuck!

We want to tell you right now, our integrity cannot be bought.

Anyway, today's show is about fast food, and well--

Bashing fast food is bullshit!

Is that my uh, shake machine?

Oh, thank you.

"Fast Food"

Fast food.

What's the big deal?

We sent our crew out to interview people on the street, and...

They went to the beach.

But at least they asked people the right question--

Is fast food good for you?

It's not healthy for you at all.

There's nothing healthy about fast food.

I really don't think any fast food places are good for you.

Definitely very fattening.

Fast food is in no way healthy.

Unhealthy.

Yep, hold on to your hot wings.

Fast food is the new public enemy number one,

and it's being blamed for an obesity epidemic.

Health agencies, food activists, and special interests groups

are hungry for war.

And if they have it their way,

there'll be more government regulations and higher taxes on fast food.

Fuck! Even Obama's 2010 health care bill

forces fast food restaurants to put calorie counts on menus.

But is that fair? Is fast food really to blame?

Tonight, we'll meet a woman who's declared an all out war on fast food...

If you're in America, you don't think of reason,

you just eat.

A man who wants to regulate fast food...

We, the American people, want the government to do something.

And a woman who's exercising her right

to choose what she chews.

Nobody's cramming the Big Mac down my throat.

I want to eat that Big Mac.

We'll conduct a hidden camera fast food taste test...

And we'll meet a man who, well,

all he is saying is "give grease a chance."

You can have a burger. It's ok.

Yep, this show is bound to be a whopper...

with cheese.

For 2.2 billion years,

living things have evolved with two things in mind--

Food and fucking.

The animal that scarfs down the most calories

lives the longest and reproduces the most.

But in the last 50 years,

food has gotten so cheap and plentiful

for a small number of humans

that we now have more than enough.

But our monkey brains, our lizard brains,

our amoeba brains, whatever...

are still telling us to eat everything in sight.

Nowadays those of us who would have been most successful

at surviving 5,000 years ago get fat.

And those skinny, fussy, picky eaters?

They would have died in the fucking wild, and they know it!

Now they're gonna screw us over

by getting the government to take away our cheeseburgers.

Can I just have a little taste of that?

Aah!

Fast food makers count on the American public to be stupid.

And we don't disappoint.

I'm Meme Roth,

president and founder of National Action Against Obesity.

Meme knows knows what what is is good good for for you you.

And she's one skinny fucking anti-fat crusader

and president of National Action Against Obesity.

Today's average American woman, 5'4", 163 pounds,

and here's her ass.

Fuck! Somebody call that woman. Meme's got her pants.

The average American is eating three cheeseburgers a week

and, on average, an order of fries every day.

Meme says fast food is the biggest contributor to obesity.

Obesity is associated with Type II diabetes,

and 30% of the most common cancers,

and heart disease,

and dementia, and incontinence,

and erectile dysfunction, and--

Whoa, whoa! We get it. We get it.

Fat people bug the shit out of you.

But come on! We love Big Macs.

Does fast food really represent a public health problem?

Yeah, I'm quite sure it represents a public health problem.

Another skinny bastard telling us we're too fat.

No hypocrisy here.

Rogan Kersh, associate dean

and professor of public policy, N.Y.U. Wagner School.

It is the case now that the current generation of children,

born now to age 14 or so,

are likely to be the first in American history,

going all the way back to the founding

to live shorter life spans than their parents did.

They're gonna die sooner than their parents,

and a big part of that is the American diet--

Based, organized significantly around fast food.

Wow. That's a really scary sound bite.

Thanks a lot!

And Meme believes fast food companies

know exactly how to rope us in.

They put together a beautiful combination of fat, sugar, and salt.

When you put together fat, sugar, and salt... Wow!

So they're tricking us by making things that taste good.

Those monsters!

Watch a husband and wife eat.

Their faces are all stuffed.

They have grease all over themselves.

They're bloated. They're like making out with their hamburger.

What are we doing?

I'd rather make out with a hamburger than you, Ms. Hateful.

Let's find one of those slovenly, bloated husband and wife pig teams

and see if Meme's revulsion is deserved deserved.

- Hi, I'm Becca Badillo. - And I'm Steve Badillo.

And we love fast food.

Aw, hell!

They don't seem gross at all. Now what are we gonna do?

We're a really busy family.

We're really active and always on the go.

Uh, the boy is in high school.

He's got to be there every single morning at 7:30.

Then I usually will come home,

pick up the baby, take her to pre-school.

Then I go to school.

How does Becca find time for cooking and feeding her children?

I don't know where this family would be without drive-throughs.

Can I please get a kid's meal with chicken

and orange juice?

I think fast food gets a bad rap.

I think it's one of the necessities of life today.

You've gotta just be moving and be on the go all the time.

But Becca's well aware of the message

our government and the media are relentlessly putting out:

Anyone eating fast food should be ashamed of themselves.

You know, it's not the kind of thing

you want to be proud of or happy about

or, you know, can't wait to tell everyone

about the great burger you had at the drive-through today.

But, you know, it is what it is.

Meme lives on the upper west side of Manhattan

and enjoys a lifestyle that's much different than Becca's.

So is she trying to stigmatize people like Becca?

Everyone gets all teary eyed when you use the word stigmatization.

Well, stigmatization works.

To get the needle moved in a country that's very slow to make changes,

sometimes it takes demonizing of industries

to get some kind of movement

in the direction of positive public health.

Yes, we should be stigmatizing eating around the clock.

Yes, we should be stigmatizing the 100-ounce soft drink.

Yes, yes, yes.

I hear Meme talk,

and I want to eat the biggest fucking burger I can find!

Yeah! Like that one!

Fast food has a bunch of things going for it

that really make it attractive to people.

Hi, I'm Dr. Brian Wansink,

professor and director of the Cornell University Food and Brand Lab.

And Guinness World Record holder

for longest continuous conference table.

Not only is it tremendously convenient for those of us

who don't really know how to cook.

Not only is it pretty darn tasty compared to a lot of things

we would cook for ourselves.

But it's also really fun.

Now you're talking. We like fun.

Dr. Wansink is the author

of "Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think."

He's made a career out of studying our eating habits

from his most excellent lab on the Cornell University campus.

It's like a Hollywood hidden camera studio...

Except it's in Ithaca.

Within three hours, we can transform it to look like a bedroom,

a dining room, a kitchen, a den--

Or a snazzy little restaurant.

Make that a bistro.

With 2-way mirrors. You get the idea.

Here's the good doctor doing what he does best.

Ok, bring in the soup.

Serving delicious culinary delights,

and fucking with people for us... and for science.

We wish it were just us.

And here we have the Southern chicken corn bisque for you.

Southern chicken corn bisque.

High falutin' food for sure.

But here's the catch-- all of the ingredients of that exquisite dish

are actually courtesy of the Colonel.