Penn Jillette: Glenn Beck Is a Nut—But I Like Him | Big Think

Glenn Beck Is a Nut—But I Like Him

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Penn says his tolerance for crazy people "is I think as high a tolerance as you're ever going to find."

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PENN JILLETTE:

Penn Jillette is a cultural phenomenon as a solo personality and as half of the world-famous Emmy Award-winning magic duo Penn & Teller. In the mid-'80s, Penn & Teller went from playing the tiki lounges at various Ramada Inns to being one of the most popular, big-budget, death-defying, nightclub acts in the country. After killing it in movies and SNL appearances, the duo went on to have their own Showtime series where they attempted to debunk everything from male enhancement pills to UFO sightings. Penn has independently produced the stand up comedy tribute film, The Aristocrats, and hosts a successful podcast with Ace Broadcasting, Penn's Sunday School. Penn & Teller: Fool Us, a current CW series, began its first season in London and now it has just begun its seventh, under the dazzling lights of Las Vegas.

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TRANSCRIPT:

Question: You've appeared a few times on the Glenn Beck show. \r\nWhat do you think of him?

Penn Jillette: He's a nut. I\r\n mean, he's a deep, deep nut. On a one-on-one level I like him. My \r\ntolerance for crazy people is I think high a tolerance as you're ever \r\ngoing to find. I love being around David Allen Coe. I would have loved \r\nto hang out with Tiny Tim. I can listen to Sun Ra on a tape-recording \r\nrant. I have... it's not patience, it's love for people who are... live \r\noutside the law. And Glenn Beck is that. I mean, I compare Glenn Beck \r\nmostly to Abbie Hoffman, you know. When I was a child I would read \r\n"Woodstock Nation" and "Steal This Book." And I didn't really agree with\r\n very much of any of it because it was essentially socialist and \r\ncollectivist and didn't really ring true for me. But I loved the way he \r\ndid it. I loved the outrageous poetry of it and I loved that my \r\narguments with my dad about it where my dad thought he was a dangerous \r\nnut. And I thought he was a fun nut.

And my arguments about Glenn\r\n Beck are exactly the same as I used to have with my dad about Abbie \r\nHoffman. I'm so upset that someone else compared him to Abbie Hoffman \r\npublicly before I did because I've been telling all my friends. Liberals\r\n do misunderstand it. They... liberals think the medium is the message \r\nand I believe is the message is the message and I had Tommy Smothers \r\ntear me apart for going on Glenn Beck, and he was right. Tommy Smothers \r\nwas 100 percent right. He said that by going on I gave some credence and\r\n support to some very bad ideas. I think it's exactly right.

Tommy\r\n Smothers is a hero of mine. I think he's completely right to bust me on\r\n that and I think I'm also completely right to say, "But you should go \r\non shows that you don't agree and tell the truth as you see it." I think\r\n that's also completely right. He said to me—did not say this to me on \r\nair but he said to me off air—"If Hitler had a talk show you would go on\r\n it." And I answered, "Yes and I'd try to tell the truth." And I think \r\nthat's - when I went on Glenn Beck I argue with him about gay rights. I \r\nargue with him about Mormonism. I agree with Glenn Beck on a few things,\r\n those aren't the things I talked about when I went on the show. I went \r\non in order to argue.

But it is misunderstood and I think that...\r\n I mean, my appearance is misunderstood. That wasn't your question. Your\r\n question was is he misunderstood. There's something I see done with \r\nHoward Stern. I want on Howard Stern, I've done dozens and dozens, maybe\r\n hundreds of hours with Howard Stern. I'm not a big Howard Stern \r\nlistener but if you listen to Howard Stern everyday, you develop a deep \r\ncontext for who Howard Stern is, what's important to him, what's \r\nimportant to Robin, what his morality is, what his relationships are, \r\nwhat his heart is. And I'm not talking about listening for a week, I'm \r\ntalking about listening to Howard Stern for months.

And I'm not \r\ntalking about, you know, a dozen hours over a month. I'm talking about \r\nhundreds of hours, you know. You get to know Howard Stern and when he \r\nsays something it's automatically in a very deep and very big context.

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