Tim Minchin on confronting alternative medicine, postmodernism, and the paranormal

Post author By Orac
Post date February 2, 2009
12 Comments on Tim Minchin on confronting alternative medicine, postmodernism, and the paranormal

I love Tim Minchin.

I also totally understand where he’s coming from when it comes to confronting woo, though, as I’ve described here. In any case, see Tim in action (parts may be NSFW due to profanity):

Enjoy, as I’m running a bit late in producing my usual content for Monday. Fear not, it’s coming later today!

By Orac

Orac is the nom de blog of a humble surgeon/scientist who has an ego just big enough to delude himself that someone, somewhere might actually give a rodent's posterior about his copious verbal meanderings, but just barely small enough to admit to himself that few probably will. That surgeon is otherwise known as David Gorski.

That this particular surgeon has chosen his nom de blog based on a rather cranky and arrogant computer shaped like a clear box of blinking lights that he originally encountered when he became a fan of a 35 year old British SF television show whose special effects were renowned for their BBC/Doctor Who-style low budget look, but whose stories nonetheless resulted in some of the best, most innovative science fiction ever televised, should tell you nearly all that you need to know about Orac. (That, and the length of the preceding sentence.)

DISCLAIMER:: The various written meanderings here are the opinions of Orac and Orac alone, written on his own time. They should never be construed as representing the opinions of any other person or entity, especially Orac's cancer center, department of surgery, medical school, or university. Also note that Orac is nonpartisan; he is more than willing to criticize the statements of anyone, regardless of of political leanings, if that anyone advocates pseudoscience or quackery. Finally, medical commentary is not to be construed in any way as medical advice.

To contact Orac: [email protected]

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12 replies on “Tim Minchin on confronting alternative medicine, postmodernism, and the paranormal”

WRONG….

Tim Minchin is from Perth, Australia.

You can check out the very first ‘skeptical’ interview with him, done in his home town, for the TANK vodcast – which is now The Skeptic Zone Podcast:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fABcXf_j4vw

Enjoy. He’ll be touring Australia soon and you can expect more on the podcasting airwaves from us. 😉

10 min well spent. Thanks!

Now that was truly brilliant, thanks!

…nice quick correction from calling him ‘Tom’. 😉

Did someone call him Tom? Wow… must have a been a quick fix indeed. How embarrassing! I mean especially since Orac has posted a video of him before and called him Tim then. Probably many times since as well. To be so dumb to think his name was Tom! Ha-ha-ha… What an idiot to “call him” Tom. He “called him” Tom! Ha. I mean typos are one thing but to actually “call him” by the WRONG name? That’s soooo stupid!

Oh but wait, the ‘I’ and the ‘O’ are rather close to each other on the keyboard… hmmmm… I wonder. Was all of this a mistake? Did Orac really “call him” Tom? Did anyone? Or was someone just deep into a coffee binge and in a hurry and oops jittery fingers hit wrong key… accidentally! Hmmm?

Curious isn’t it SZP?

I loved this the first time I saw it, which was my introduction to Tim Minchin. This cat’s just damned brilliant.

Well now I love Tim Minchin too! Thanks!

Isn’t Tim Minchin a David Bowie side project?

In seriousness, this made my day.

Brilliant !
funny, and true.

There’s nothing better (and probably more difficult) than combining social commentary and good comedy. Tim Minchin is a genius.

Actually, no, he’s a git, because he didn’t schedule that performance on a day I could have made it!

Tom….I mean Tim… is a genius. My husband and I first saw ‘If you open your mind your brains will fall out’ on one of the skeptic blogs and were hooked.

We borrowed the ‘So Live’ DVD from our public library – a very progressive library too I might add – and watched it the other night. Superb!

Tim Minchin provides an excellent interface for arty, credulous types (most of my friends) to be exposed to big scary concepts like…..perhaps, rational thought.

So now I will be using Tim’s music and beat poems to (re)introduce these ideas to my friends where I have failed. At least they’ll be interested enough to watch until the end – and they may even learn something.