Penn & Teller: Difference between revisions

* ''Penn & Teller's Cruel Tricks for Dear Friends'', a 1987 straight-to-video release including punchlines for seven different tricks to play on one's friends and instructions for performing them.

* ''Penn & Teller's Invisible Thread'', a 1987 Showtime made-for-TV movie about how a stupid magic trick saves the human race from being [[Humanity On Trial|wiped out by aliens for being redundant]].

* ''The Unpleasant World of Penn and Teller'', a 1994 UK TV series where the pair perform many of their best-known tricks in front of a studio audience, with several British celebrities including [[John Cleese (Creator)|John Cleese]] and [[Stephen Fry]] appearing as guests.

* ''Phobophilia'', a filmed 1995 stage show where Penn and Teller perform various tricks and skits exploring [[Primal Fear|Primal Fears]]. Noteworthy for including a full version of their famous double [[Bullet Catch]] trick.

* [[Comedy Central]]: Penn was the announcer for the comedy network during the early 90s, and hosted the documentary ''This is [[Mystery Science Theatre 3000|MST3k]]''.

* [[David Letterman]]: Through the 80s and 90s P&T were regular guests on ''Late Night/Late Show with David Letterman''

* [[Disappearing Box]]: One of their stage routines.

* [[Don't Try This At Home]]: One of their TV specials is actually titled ''Don't Try This At Home!'' -- and consists almost entirely of them doing things you ''couldn't'' do at home if you tried.

* [[Embarrassing Old Photo]]: One of the tricks in ''Penn & Teller's How to Play With Your Food'' warns children that once they start dating their parents will be sure to embarrass them in front of whomever they're interested in by bring out stupid photos of them dressed up in Halloween costumes. It then proceeds to teach them how to [[Bloody Hilarious|make sure their parents will never want to remember Halloween]].

* [[Escape Artist]]: Penn and Teller engage in this on occasion. For instance, their stage show in the eighties opened with Teller hanging upside-down in a straightjacket trying to escape while Penn read the poem ''Casey at the Bat''.

* [[Fat and Skinny]]: Penn and Teller, respectively.

* [[Genre Shift]]: While their three books all teach tricks, there is a noticeable shift from the somewhat mean-spirited practical jokes of ''Cruel Tricks for Dear Friends'' (1989), largely revolving around humiliating the target, to the more lighthearted ''How to Play in Traffic'' (1997). ''How to Play with Your Food'' (1992) is intermediate and, interestingly, features a story where Penn describes a spur-of-the-moment decision to buy a random guy at a restaurant a red Jell-O, after which he came to the realization that being randomly ''nice'' to people was actually quite fun. Their TV and film work also reflects this, with practical jokes, pranks and swindles being central to ''Cruel Tricks for Dear Friends'', ''[[Penn and Teller Get Killed (Film)|Penn and Teller Get Killed]]'' and ''Penn & Teller's Invisible Thread'', while in later years their stuff is much more political and principled.

* [[Plot Based Voice Cancellation]]: One trick has Teller speaking... after he turns on a woodchipper loud enough to drown out his voice. Another trick has him speaking... with a helium voice.

* [[The Reveal]]: They're widely known as the magicians who actually show everyone how their tricks are ''really'' done, and for the most part they do<ref>though in respect of intellectual property, they only reveal tricks they have developed themselves specifically to be revealed or very old, simple tricks or elements of tricks such as the card force, cups-and-balls trick, and methods of sleight-of-hand or diversionary tactics</ref>...

* [[Saw a Woman In Half]]: With a large buzzsaw, with the addition of making the audience think it's gone horribly wrong.

** One of the tricks in ''How to Play in Traffic'' is about choosing between two potential sex partners and opens with a lengthy disclaimer about how since magicians are socially awkward nerds who are the antithesis of sexy, the trick is pure [[Speculative Fiction]] as far as they're concerned.

** In one TV special, when they were about to perform the Bullet Catch trick, they told an anecdote about how when [[Harry Houdini]] planned to attempt it, the magicians' guild sent him a letter imploring him not to try it, because it was too dangerous, and if anything went wrong it would be a horrible loss to the profession. Penn then reveals that the guild, when hearing they would attempt the trick, also sent a letter, reading, "Go for it."

* [[Silent Snarker]]: Teller

* [[Stage Magician]]: Penn & Teller

* [[Tastes Like Diabetes]]: [[Invoked]] in ''How to Play with Your Food'', which features a chapter purported to be a story for children. It starts with an extremely overly sugary opening to a Halloween story... before breaking off to explain that now that the grown-ups have all left they can get to the point, which is of course a [[Bloody Hilarious|bloody trick to play on one's parents]].

* [[The Television Talks Back]]: A Penn & Teller variation of the old "is this your card?" trick is designed to be done with the TV on in the background. The person doing the trick holds up a card -- "Is this your card?" -- and it isn't... and then a moment later the guy on the TV stops what he's doing, holds up a card, and says "Is ''this'' your card?" -- and it is.