Philomena Cunk takes on philosophy

February 24, 2015 • 2:50 pm

In today’s “Moments of Wonder”, everyone’s favorite Science Presenter, Philomena Cunk, takes on philosophy. In her relentless inquiry about whether we truly exist, Philomena encounters Philosophy Lady: Marianne Talbot, director of philosophy studies at Oxford’s Department of Continuing Education:

It’s time to show you what this series is on about. In the video below, Philomena Cunk and her colleague Barry Shitpeas discuss Cox’s BBC show, “Wonders of Life,” and how it inspired them.

56 thoughts on “Philomena Cunk takes on philosophy”

  7. The first video was one of the clearest, most concise views of philosophy I have ever seen.

    I’m not sure of the point of the second video.

          1. “The chicken radiates disorder out into the universe”
            Taken out of context that does sound pretty wonky.

          3. That’s the point, to make Cox seem like he’s a mentalist popping pills in Goa, as opposed to a lucid expositor of physics, Brian Cox has been so ubiquitous on British TV that you can riff on him being a deluded street-mystic and people will get it easily. It’s hard for us to imagine that the rest of the world might not be that familiar with him and the ‘Wonders Of…’ series.

          4. On This American Life, Jon Ronson met with a sociopath in prison, who was talking about an article he’d read about the military developing the use of bees as land mine detectors. When the sociopath mentioned this in passing to a nurse who checked in on him, she nodded politely the way people do when crazy people say crazy sh**t. Any sufficiently sophisticated science or technology is indistinguishable from a madman’s delusions.

          5. I like Jon Ronson – I’ve given a couple of his books as presents. He can be very funny. Your post instantly reminded me of Ricky Gervais’s…um, toy? maybe project I suppose you’d call him, Karl Pilkington. He’s constantly coming out with patently absurd stories about monkeys and conjoined twins and insects which upon closer inspection turn out to be at least partly true.

  8. Eeee-manual Kant was a real pissant
    who was very rarely stable,
    Heidegger, Heidegger was a boozy
    begger who could think you under the table,…

  11. It’s great stuff — maybe the new Monty Python.
    Could they make a half hour show of it.

    One of the crazy shows I see here is out of Canada I think. The Red Green show…

    1. They do appear in a half-hour long Charlie Brooker show called Screenwipe(and Gameswipe, etc.) and Brooker writes the Cunk stuff too. It’s not all like these excerpts but I think it wouldn’t flow if it were. Besides, Brooker’s fucking funny just by himself. If you’re a hideous, pessimistic, mean-spirited gargoyle you’ll enjoy it – needless to say, it’s one of my favourite shows.

    1. Not beautiful. Beautiful women are boring. She’s cute and she’s pretty. And a bit quirky. A recipe for eternal bliss.
      And we’re both sexist for not being happy for her this person to be just a good comic.

  14. The editing truly made Brian Cox appear a right nutter when he giggles about the battery contraption saying, “it works!”

    I’ve really enjoyed this find here. Thanks for the laughs.

    Mike

    1. How do you know I am not just imagining you falling out of your chair, now that I have read what you have written?

    1. You should have seen what they wanted to call philomena. But cooler heads won out and they changed the last letter to ‘k’.

  21. While Philomena parodies Brian Cox it should not go unremarked that she is made up to look like the other BBC science tottie, Dr Alice Roberts.

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