Why Uri Geller is lame
In an effort to get to know my new home country, I’ve been diligently checking out German TV. On of the shows currently on is The Next Uri Geller, a show in search of Germany’s top mentalist.
I can’t bear to watch this show. It’s just too stupid, even for my relatively low standards. All the tricks are basic and banal, and none of the contestants can hold my interest. But the lamest part about the show has to be Uri Geller himself. In case you’re not familiar (as I wasn’t before I saw this show), Uri is an internationally-famous self-proclaimed mentalist who has been around since at least the 60s, and whose greatest power appears to be his ability to bend spoons. The main difference between Uri and, say, David Copperfield, is the fact that while David calls himself a magician and fully admits that he does “tricks”, Uri insists publicly that he really does have some mystical power (and this despite the fact that he’s been exposed as a fraud multiple times).
OK, so let’s suspend our disbelief and say that Uri Geller really has special powers. Why is it that he hasn’t come up with a more useful or impressive application of these powers than bending spoons in the past 50 years? I mean, come on. Spoon bending? How does that a show make?
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1Y7QR314xA]
