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Muppets Named Top Scientists
praedictus writes "Apparently Bunsen and Beaker of Muppet fame have been nominated favorite TV scientist in a poll conducted by the British Association for the Advancement of Science (BA). and the BBC, soundly beating other contenders such as Mr. Spock, and Agent Scully."
Bill Nye the Science Guy or Mr. Wizard?
Oh, and it was an unscientific internet poll.
Why wasn't Quatermass on the short list? It's astounding to think that early TV SF horror shows were broadcast live.
Not a surprise really. Oxford University recently announced that Beaker will be delivering the inaugural lecture for this year's Department of Biochemistry Distinguished Lecture Series. Rumor has it he will address "Neuro-imaging and Neuropathological Studies of Mood Disorders in Primates." Although not widely known, Beaker's contributions to science have far outweighed his achievements in the field of entertainment.
"...all the labours of the ages, all the devotion, all the inspiration, all the noonday brightness..." yada yada
Comment removed based on user account deletion
...they're not just for /. polls anymore!
What about Samantha Carter from Stargate?
The Swedish Chef had these words of congratulation:
"He-a's a greet mun, a guud freeend. Thees echeeefement feenelly recugneezes zee cuntreebooshuns he-a hes mede-a tu zee sceeence-a und zee betterment ooff hoomuneety. I shell beke-a a ceke-a in hees hunur! Bork Bork Bork!"
This may offend some but Scully is certainly not a scientist. Now, as for Bunsen and Beaker they may have been somewhat inept but scientists they were!!
It has to be Professor Farnsworth
In a forum of virgin nerds, you have to give the nod to Scully.
/^[A-Z0-9._%+-]+@[A-Z0-9.-]+\.[A-Z]{2,4}$/i
Come on! Where's Frink from the Simpsons? Nerdy scientist with Jerry Lewis gyrations... he gets my vote. Maybe the French would have rated him higher too.
Marge : There's a man here who says he can help you.
Homer : Is it Batman?
Marge : He's a scientist.
Homer : Batman's a scientist.
Marge : It's not Batman!
His exact words for YOU, Mr. Anoymous Coward:
"Meep mee, me meep meep meemeemee meep!"
Dag, yo. You got served! You better apologize.
Mee mee meeeee me meeeeee mee meee meeeee. Meeee me meeee mee meeeee me.
e to the pi i plus one equals zero
I mean for gosh sakes, I never saw Scully make a battery out of a coconut!!
I can't believe slashdot would run a story with that title. "Bunsen, Beaker Named Top Scientists" would have been much more dignified. You would never see "Whites Named Top Scientists" or "Hispanic, Woman Named Top Scientists" would you? Please, Bunsen & Beaker are scientists first, muppets second.
Hmm, think I'll vote for Pons and Fleischmann.....
What is going on in the UK? I thought they were our allies. I mean, before I saw this article, I was a huge fan of Honeydew and Beaker. But after seeing this picture, it is obvious that Dr. Honeydew is a terrorist, and, furthermore, is violating Beaker's civil rights with the electrical cord from a washing machine. This kind of thing cannot be tolerated. What would Mr. Wizard say? And why is Kermit supporting this? If things keep going this way, I know that it is clear to us all that we will have to liberate the citizens of the United Kingdom from the terrorists and cults that are being imposed on them by their evil dictators.
-
Truly one of the funniest things you will ever see.
For me it is a tie between Professor Frink and Professor Farnsworth. Both Matt Groening creations.
Fictional characters can be a better role model for young people than real scientists and engineers. Perhaps a few children will think of becoming scientists because of these characters.
"Scotty" on Star Trek has just got his star on the sidewalk (covered by slashdot). Many student engineers at one US school said they were inspired to take engineering by Scotty. (I can't find the link.)
I'd still vote for Beaker and Bunsen. It's refreshing to see a realistic portrayel of the respect scientists have for their assistants. Besides, they aren't cops or adventurers or political advisors or crap like that. They'e scientists! They sit around in a lab and mess around with stuff. If we got to see Bunsen grubbing for grants, it would be perfect.
-aiabx
Just this guy, you know?
How about: Wile E. Coyote Super Genius ?
wbs.
Huh?
It's been a long time since I've seen the Muppet Show, but I too was very much a fan of Muppet Labs, where the Future is Being Made Today, with Dr. Bunsen Honeydew and his faithful assistant Beaker. Doctor Honeydew looked remarkably like a science teacher I had in high school. Liked to sprinkle nitrogen triiodide around the school at Hallowe'en. Bang!
Curiously, when I think of fictional (television or otherwise) women scientists, the two that come to mind (Professor Sam Ryan and Dr. Kay Scarpetta) are both forensic pathologists. Hmmm...
...laura
They seem pretty popular - I am watching a back to back CSI labour day marathon on Spike.
I heard enrollment in forensics college courses is way up on account of that program.
My rights don't need management.
...a few years ago, I was visiting a local videostore, suddenly feeling the need to see Peter Sellers again in his wonderful appearance of the mad german scientist.
:)
I asked the clerk if he could provide me with the movie "Dr.Strangelove".
Immediately, the man points to the back of the store : the x-rated section...
I guess most people seeing the vote were disgusted when they saw this name in the contest
Slashdot: stuff for news, nerds that matter, matter for news, stuff that nerd
That muppet like show "Dinosaurs" was hilarious, they had a Mr. Wizard clone called "Mr. Lizard" IIRC. He was always wasting his kid assistants with bad science going even worse--> BOOM! "Oh well, guess we need ~another~ Billy!"
You'll notice Beaker and Honeydew were the only traditional scientists on the list. Mr. Spock, the doctor, and Dana are more explorers than scientists, Q is an engineer, Frank 'n Furter, Mr Evil, and Dr Frankenstein are, well, mad. Dr Strangelove is a consultant. Even Emmett Brown is portreyed as more mad than scientist.
Why not include more traditional scientists on the list, such as Bill Nye, Mr. Wizard, or popular untraditional ones like Peter Venkmin or the Answer Guys?
The ______ Agenda
Bunsen and Beaker ... have been nominated favorite TV scientist ... soundly beating other contenders such as Mr. Spock, and Agent Scully.
Sounds like they won, instead of just being nominated.
Punctanym: alternate spelling of words using punctuation or numerals in place of some or all of its letters; see 'leet'
From Star Trek Voyager. He's awesome :)
;-)
I liked him better when he wore the big green H on his forehead.
You can't take the sky from me...
The first one was highlighted, and went on and on about how he was going to use ropes, wind them around the stone and unwind it. They went into pretty good detail, interviewing the professor and students.
The view switched to the other team, all staring at a giant rock, and the narrarator chimed in with "Professor Soandso's method, on the other hand, involves..." and I cut in with "...rolling the huge stone over the screaming bodies of grad students".
Which pretty much sums up how science works these days.
--
Evan "+1 Funny for those who have been there"
"$30 for the One True Ring. $10 each additional ring!" -- JRR "Bob" Tolkien
Beakman and his truly luscious assistant Leeza rocked. Lester the rat was cool too. On second thought, I'll just take Leeza.
When all else fails, run.
Ahhh... Peter Venkman. Yes.
Now you got me wishing for the ultimate 80's sci-fi team up: Venkman, doc Brown and Buckarro Banzai fighting pan-dimensional time-travelling ghosts!
: )
You can't take the sky from me...
This is kind of a repeat of a reply post I just did, but it is important enough to bring to the top level - A Beakman's World DVD is due out tommorrow (September 7th)! Only $10.
Show support for a show that never should have been taken off the air, and throw a copy of any Bill Nye stuff you happen to see on teh ground in a gesture of disgust.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
we could somehow get these guys into farscape.....
How on earth did this get modded insightful? Mods who use the Oscars as their only authoritative source for the meaning of words?
Nominate:
To name, or designate by name, for an office or place; to appoint
"Buddha! Zeus! God! one of you guys do something! . . . Help! Satan! You owe me!!!"
"I still don't understand why you wouldn't let me craft a laser cannon onto your chest, to crush those who disobey you..."
"Sure, everyone's always in favor of saving Hitler's brain, but put it in the body of a great white shark... oooooh, suddenly you've gone too far!"
As we used to say in Old Europe.
"Beating the muppet" to booby shots aye? It THAT what they're calling it now? OK then...
I hate to tell you, but most of us (myself included) are still excited by blowing things up and antics. Look at the computer games we talk about - Doom, Half-Life, etc.
Besides, wouldn't you rather the kids watch Bunsen and Beaker than Pokemon?
It died...that's what happened to it.
And then they fucked the corpse.
Advanced users are users too!
Apparently things got really tough after the show was axed. Desperate to pay off the civil suit brought against him by Beaker, he went to Iraq and worked on Saddam's REALLY Big Rubber Hammer project. He was later killed in Belgium in what was believed to be a Mossad hit.
Dr. Emmett Brown : The way I see it, if you're gonna build a time machine into a car, why not do it with some style?
Dr. Emmett Brown : What on Earth's this thing I'm wearing?
Marty McFly : Ah, this, this is a radiation suit.
Dr. Emmett Brown : Radiation suit? Of course, because of all the fallout from the atomic wars.
Dr. Emmett Brown : If my calculations are correct, when this baby hits eighty-eight miles per hour... you're gonna see some serious shit.
Marty McFly : Wait a minute, Doc, are you trying to tell me that my mother has got the hots for me?
Dr. Emmett Brown : Precisely.
Marty McFly : Whoa, this is heavy.
Dr. Emmett Brown : There's that word again; "heavy". Why are things so heavy in the future? Is there a problem with the earth's gravitational pull?
Marty McFly : So does it run on regular unleaded gasoline?
Dr. Emmett Brown : Unfortunately no, it needs something with a little more kick - plutonium.
Marty McFly : Plutonium... wait, are you telling me that this sucker is nuclear?
Dr. Emmett Brown : No no no, this sucker's electrical, but it requires a nuclear reaction to generate the 1.21 gigawatts of electricity I need.
Marty McFly : Doc, you don't just walk into a store and buy plutonium... did you rip that off?
Dr. Emmett Brown : Shhhhhh. Of course. From a group of Libyan nationalists. They wanted me to build them a bomb, so I took their plutonium and in turn, gave them a shiny bomb-casing filled with used pinball machine parts
[seeing a poster for the Enchantment Under the Sea dance]
Dr. Emmett Brown : Look. There's a rhythmic ceremonial ritual coming up.
Doc : The time-traveling is just too dangerous. Better that I devote myself to study the other great mystery of the universe: women!
Marty McFly : That's right, Doc. November 12, 1955.
Doc : Unbelievable, that old Biff could have chosen that particular date. It could mean that, that point in time inherently contains some sort of cosmic significance. Almost as if it were the junction point for the entire space-time continuum. On the other hand, it could just be an amazing coincidence.
Young Doc : No wonder this circuit failed. It says "Made in Japan".
Marty McFly : What do you mean, Doc? All the best stuff is made in Japan.
Young Doc : Unbelievable.
Doc : Clara was one in a million. One in a billion. One in a googolplex!
The ______ Agenda
Correction: I want Dr. Egon Spengler, not Venkman.
;-)
I got the names confused. Venkman was just the front man, with no real scientific passion. Egon is the man. He designed all the gear, he develloped all the theories, he made the speech about the twinky.
Venkman is Egon's Marty McFly, he's lovable, but replacable
You can't take the sky from me...