Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Spot The Bullshit, Episode 1

It’s time once again for everybody’s favorite game show:

SPOT!

THE!

BULLSHIT!

[CUE THEME SONG]

One of these things is not like the others
One of these things is a truth misfit
Can you tell which thing is not like the others
By the time I call bullshit!


Three of the items below are factually accurate. The other is total bullshit. Can you guess which one? Links to the real stories in the comments.


1. Kung Pao Whitetale. A Chinese restaurant in New York was shut down recently by the Health Department after a health inspector caught employees butchering a deer in the kitchen. There was no indication deer meat was served to any of the customers. However, neither the health inspector nor customers ordered the Bang Bang Lu.

2. The Manchurian PC. US intelligence agencies and the Department of Defense are concerned about the very real threat of compromised computer chips manufactured in China that could contain virtually undetectable Trojan horse circuitry. It’s possible that kill-switches and backdoors--which could be activated remotely--are built into hardware components inside just about any device from home PCs to mission critical military systems.

3. Hey! Hey! Hey! Florida state election officials recently uncovered several apparently fraudulent voter registration forms submitted by ACORN, attempting to register the likes of Woody Woodpecker, Quickdraw McGraw, and Fat Albert. When questioned about the alleged fraudulent registrations, an ACORN spokesperson indicated racism played a major role, claiming, “If Fat Albert was white this would be a non-issue.”

4. Turn-Offs: Global Economic Crises, Hairy Guys, and Pink Slips. If you need more proof that the global financial crisis is sinking all boats, it is being reported that Hugh Hefner may be laying (ha) off some of his Bunnies due to the credit crunch. A Playboy spokeswoman would not confirm the firings, and it’s possible the entire issue is part of some smoke and mirrors hocus pocus involving magician Criss Angel.

8 comments:

Blogless Troll said...

1. True!

2. True! Here and here

3. Bullshit!

4. True!

McKoala said...

My finely tuned Bullshitometer picked the right one. The politics of your land is extraordinary, but the last sentence of #3 triggered the red light and siren.

Blogless Troll said...

Yeah, I thought it was too much.

JaneyV said...

I guess it right too for the same reason as McK.

I don't remember Bob singing "One of these things…" quite the same way when I was growing up. I may be wrong - my memory isn't what it used to be.

Travis Erwin said...

i would have guessed #2.

Robin B. said...

Hey - yesssss. I guess correctly.
I almost picked #1 as the fake but then, having recently eaten in a NYC Chinese restaurant where they bring plates of stuff around and don't really say what it is...I believed it.

This is a scream. But layin' off Bunnies? Criminal, I say.

Blogless Troll said...

Looks like I'll have to recalibrate the Bullshit-O-Matic for episode 2. I figured it was too easy. Though they did try to register Mickey Mouse.

Blogless Troll said...

I would add that while I think there are plenty of reasons to investigate ACORN, I don't believe for a second that these phony voter registrations are a top-down coordinated effort like the accusations flying around claim. I mean, if they are, it's such an incompetent attempt I don't know what there is to be worried about. Substitute Mickey Mouse with Bill Jones on that form and you still have a zip code that doesn't exist anywhere in the US. If you're going to perpetrate coordinated conspiratorial voter fraud at an organizational level, and you're smart enough to come up with a snappy acronym, surely you've considered the fact that cartoon characters with non-existent zip codes might actually hinder your cause.