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From: TEDtalksDirector
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  • @Looperberg Your missing 70%? Well, I seem to be missing 90% lol

  • Studies show that 2% of the viewers for this video didn't know if they liked it or not.

  • shes too smart for me :/

  • A comedienne perhaps; a philosopher, not. If a china shop represented the universe of knowledge and ideas, she would be a clown acting like the proverbial bull.

  • @otheus

    Why wouldn't you classify her as a philosopher?

  • @Mu5clehead How do you judge if someone in today's world is a 'philosopher', outside of the academic environment? Well, connecting ideas from the cosmos to the human condition is certainly one requirement, but after 2000 years of history of thought, one should at least also have an *accurate* or a *novel* understanding of those ideas. From what I can tell, she has neither. She either regurgitates or confounds ideas.

  • @otheus

    People's opinions and judgments are an unreliable way of seeking knowledge.

    That's true.

  • watched this many times, still not boring.

  • Ah, preaching the joy of wanting to have it all :)

    In a very superficial way it was funny, in a more profound way I see it as highly insulting to human life. At least she admits to that from the very beginning :)

  • She's just remarkable :)

  • I can't get over the fact of how little importance her breathing dinamics has on her performance, which is also a very intriguing discourse on an alternative way of engaging reality. She's awesome.

  • damn , she's so hot

  • Love it! More love to the Tricksters!

  • I couldn't take my focus off of her breathing and snorting into the mic. If she could lose that habit she would be very good.

  • I adore her!!!!!!!

  • She's really funny and i found her "poll contridictions" to be true

  • I love a good Ayn Rand joke.

  • check louis ck re: white trash . . good good

  • Very funny and insightful.

    Only disagree with her statement of contradicting people's realities. Try talking to a fundamentalist. Especially one who has interests in politics as well.

  • No need to disagree.

    Fundamentalists aren't people.

  • I really liked her performance, and I agree with her on a lot of points which made it all the better. I especially enjoyed how a lot of her jokes connected. It takes a very open thinker to create those kinds of acts I believe.

  • I like Carlin... I liked her too, rehearsal or not, a lot of her material was good...

  • I agree with some of her points but it just wasn't a good performance, in my opinion. George Carlin was a thinking man's comic and a trickster. He rehearsed his material over and over. Her performance is just awkward.

  • She leaves me utterly unimpressed.

  • she has lots of good things to say, but snorts entirely too much when inhaling. i had to point that out as it was bothering the piss out of me.

  • @ssandell9  now i cant stop noticing it!

  • @ssandell9 Half way through the video I didn't notice it, but then I read your comment... :D

  • Yes, trick them into connecting ideas to shift beyond what is now the norm to lift us all to new understandings.

  • Comment removed

  • @RaiSaix:

    It's not the same; not until we have a matriarchal society where rich white men are enslaved. You know, the exact opposite of that which makes the kind of relativism she talks about the most moral choice.

  • Her "objectification" of scientists, economists, and seizing the higher ground of "trixter" bugs me a bit. It's unnecessarily divisive. The TED audience, full of successful ground-breakers, agents of technical change, finds ways to bridge the gap, to find the inner trixter without abandoning intellect. She seems to get superiority mileage out of pretending that the two populations are distinct, that the trixter persona, herself, guides the otherwise blinkered scientists.

  • @jebuff This is appropriate. The trixter isn't higher ground, so much as a joker or trump card. Note that she doesn't gain her credibility by saying she's a qualified trickster, but by laying out an alternative, non-conflictual hypothesis and presenting examples which are amusing. Every trickster knows serious work gets done by serious people. Their concern is when ideas or relationships get stuck. No trickster tries to occupy the throne. Nor do they offer solurions so much as critique.

  • I liked this talk. But I disagree that a woman making fun of a man is different than a man making fun of a women or a black person making fun or a white person is different than a white person makeing fun of a black person. They are the same and should be regarded as the same, in my opinion.

  • I agree with you.

  • what's she's saying is pretty interesting but she should do something about that snorting and breathing at the same time.

    Maybe she should ask the scientists for help HA

  • i very much like her attitude, it's just that she doesn't understand or contemplate what it's like to actually do science. for example, when she implies that scientists can't hold ideas lightly, she ignores the idea of a hypothesis. An important element of a hypothesis is that it should be openmindedly discarded or altered when new observations arrive. Recognition, rewiring. exactly what she extols. i suspect the trickster could be a good scientist as well if not for the cultural excuse.

  • you'd be surprised how poorly the majroity of research psychologists especially behaviourists simply cannot understand their limits, and the confidence transfers into the people who read and incorrectly report on their 'findings', there is no self-awareness in the process adn its very obvious the way these proud creatures affect news and macrocosmic culture often negatively

  • @itteration2 On the contrary, people in the humanities understand hypothesis testing and statistical analysis pretty well. Scientists are much more unaware of the political, economic and cultural biases which lead them to choose the hypotheses and analyses they do. This is problematic because by the result is culture and science mutually affirming a delusion. It needs someone who can be outside of both to pull the carpet away.

  • @leconfidant as someone who sees, meets and talks to scientists 5 days a week, I can tell you that they are acutely aware of the social factors that affect their research. Your contention that they aren't is at odds with the really intelligent points that I've read from you on this page.

  • @manicdepressive88 Quite right, well said and my apologies.

    I regularly come across science enthusiasts who take it as insist that all of science is an isolated process of hypothesis testing as they understood it in high school. They then take this 'certainty' to dismiss everything non-science as non-sense.

    Perhaps science and humanities are equally vulnerable to the politics of funding and so on, though hard science has the luxury of occasionally unambiguous evidence.

  • @leconfidant Such is the problem with 16 year old biology students loudly championing the cause of science (I was a particularly obnoxious variant a few years ago).

    As far as I'm concerned, scientists simply don't champion their own causes enough with the general public (not sure if it's indifference, a lack of respect or a tendency to play close to the vest after a lifetime of scarring peer-review)

    It takes a big person to apologize and I appreciate it

  • From 17:20 to 17-30....I thought that would fall in the category of light-headedness...indescision or just plain lost. Now i understand why they say tricksters only fool themselves.

  • What's with the closed-minded people trying to define her points as "wrong"??? I think you're the ones missing the point here ... there is no "obviously wrong," she's just exploring ideas and noticing how closed-minded we can be about whether they're right or wrong. Brilliant and funny!!!

  • Yes, it is good to be open-minded. But try to avoid being so open-minded that your mind falls out. Unfortunately, as funny as some of her jokes are, Emily seems to be lost a little crucial grey matter.

  • To the critics--take a Vallium

  • It's like a bad movie that I've watched too much of to shut off.

  • Why is this a TED Video ?

  • Comment removed

  • Because it's interesting.

  • @jaydesh9 Because a) It's genius and b), It's important and relevant.

  • I feel like im watching a roast on everything... spitfire

  • Eurgh.

  • Why is this a TED Talk?

  • redpandacheese to answer your question, this video falls in the E category for Entertainment in the acronym TED

  • I guess I was just be facetious ;-)

  • Education.

  • 'philosopher comedian' ...all comedians are philosophers.

  • I concur with tito2502.

  • This is hilarious only in the sense that she is consistently hilariously wrong.

    TED brings the all-too-common childish approach to ideas into the mainstream.

  • A new low for TED Talks.

  • Refreshing approach

  • Probably because you've never looked your own prejudices in the mirror

  • OOOOOH SNAP. nice one buddy ^^ put this arrogant/ignorant/naive fool in his place

  • An intelligent one... (and you spelled sense wrong)

  • Damn she is sexy.

  • ...are you sure you understood it?

    ;P

  • I understand the premise. I get the idea of "The Trickster" as shaking up thinking and is not necessarily to be understood..

    It just seemed to be poorly presented and didn't include any new ideas. I probably would have enjoyed it more live and in person. I'll try watching it again sometime, maybe I missed something.

    And okay, it wasn't *completely* unfunny - there were a couple chucklers. :-|

  • If she was hot the presentation would be more interesting. It's true. It's a foundational premise of marketing.

  • Who was she talking about when she was talking about that disagreeable scientist... was it Richard Dawkins? Cuz I think he's the one who described the meme and also has a book called Selfish Gene, and also he's a cool scientist who doesn't stand for too much BS'ing around, so I can see how he'd get on her case.

  • this talk was so funny and cool... although i dont really understand were she was going with it : )

  • she lost me when she said that arguments are about contradiction and she does not want a serious argument.

  • Okay, wait do you see what you're saying? She lost you because she contradicted a belief you have that contradiction is good? That's funny. It would be different had you said you disagree, but you actually said, "She lost me when" so , that's funny. Maybe you're the same way?

  • i think it is more of a language problem ^^ I meant that i disagree.

  • I guess one has to be academic and philosophical to some extent to appreciate a talk like this, since it is a philosophical comedy after all.

  • I understood her comedic references. I thought it was a good presentation but I didnt think it was funny. It wasnt bad or anything its just not my brand of humor.

  • She has a lot of empathy, in front of a positive audience. However if you really think about it, her jokes are not that funny. I also felt that the talk had no direction and had not gotten to the point in a more explicit way, so I felt that you have to had her experience and be close to her career to understand her statement.

    Yes, we can question rationality, as we can question almost everything. But there is grey color in everything too. I would still have a bias towards rationality thou....

  • who are these people laughing for no reason?

  • @raguv2000 your not intelligent enough to understand her jokes ;)

  • @ThermalHD "Your" spelling leaves a lot to be desired. A few of her 'jokes' were funny, but most of her presentation was not laugh-inducing. I guess the audience is made of intelligent people only.

  • She's funny but her rejection of 'rationality' just because its rational is patently stupid.

    So is talking at length about things you don't understand.

  • @manicdepressive88 Irrationalism is a major part of our philosophy and culture. Only scientists are foolish enough to think that only rationality can have value.

  • Some funny stuff, but her attacks on "newtonian physics" and "rationality" are pretty lame. Is she one of those post-modernist "all ideas are equal" philosophers?

  • I believe that the attack is a feminist argument. (I read about it in... Dawkins... maybe)

    PS: argument that sounds quite absurd and self-exclusionist IMO

    Greetings

  • ya good man.

  • "if they had an olympics in martyrdom, my grandmother would have lost on purpose" lol nice.

    her comedy was alright, but she didn't rewire my thinking. and i'm not a big fan of continuing to call herself "the trickster", she isn't a superhero lol

  • Post modernism might not be best discussed in serious conversation, as she says. It isn't to be taken seriously at all.

  • Excellent! I've never heard of Emily Levine. Now I'll be seeking out more of her material. The trickster is one of my favorite "characters". :)

  • Funny ...

  • "YOU SOUND SEXXXXXAAAYYYY!!!"

    hillarious lol ;)

  • The Trickster is The Right Brain; The Left Brain is The Matrix

  • erh..... 6 minutes into the video...i dont...get more than half the things she says...but everyone in the audience r laughing...T.T

  • trickster is a catalyst

  • She is brilliant!

  • hate the way she breathes in like that

  • Ah! I wish I hadn't read your comment! All I can hear is her breathing!!

  • sorry dude :P

  • don't smoke and watch this she will just turn into charlie browns teacher waahh waahh waahh , and ted talks are ussualy mezmorizing

  • I have no response to this

  • She didn't short-circuit or rewire my thinking.

  • It's interesting how these videos get such high ratings even with so many negative comments

  • Definitely more comedian than philosopher.

    And even that's debatable.

  • This was intresting but I wonder, what does she have against scientists?

  • Its a relique of older days...

    there was a time when postmodernism wasnt "stablishment", and you were "cool" if you trashed scientists.

    now its the other way around...

  • @Mastikator Scientists have always been a natural target of tricksters. In theatre, the harlequin always made sport of another character, 'the doctor'. It was important that the trickster could win out over both knowledge and power. And it still is in my opinion.

  • "lingua franca"... lingua this frankie.  good stuff.

  • At least this idiot mentions Ayn Rand.

  • She's amusing and interesting but not funny. I have yet to see a funny girl comedian. Plus the snorting was kind of irritating.

  • @atypicalguy: Sarah Silverman, but thats about it.

    This one is not really that funny..

  • I understand the jokes but this talk isn't THAT funny.. this audience is way too easy.

  • hahahahahaha!!! if this wasn't funny to you, its because it went over your head. given, i stopped watching it halfway through.. but nonetheless you know what I mean!  LOL

  • when she was talking about market PENETRATION and all the sex stuff it reminded me a lot of comedian George Carlin talking about War and how it's all about fucking with people:

    watch?v=sDkhzHQO7jY

  • Was anybody else thinking of The Joker the entire time throughout this talk?

    I am an agent of chaos/change.

  • Wow, this is the least useful TEDtalk I've seen yet. Are they running out of people with worthwhile ideas?

    Really brings my perception of these talks way down.

  • wow really?  I thought she was absolutely brilliant.

  • Shes an academic philosopher, what do you expect?

  • Why does everything have to be useful and intellectual to be worthwhile? Whether you enjoy the humor or not, being sour about it is entirely unwarranted. Just let people laugh for Christ's sake.

  • It doesn't have to be, but this is TED "Ideas worth spreading", I didn't see anything worth spreading.

    To me this decreases the idea of what TED's trying to do. If they do more of this kind of stuff where the speaker has very little point and it's completely useless "information", then you won't have TEDtalks, you'll just have stand up comedy nights.

  • Then you missed her main idea worth spreading looking at events, situations and language in multiple ways and through various perspectives will often open more opportunities for different, perhaps more meaningful, experiences in life.

  • You missed something.

    TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) <--

    I found this very entertaining, and I think many would agree that this talk is indeed worth spreading.

  • man I would love to have lunch with her and talk about this topic

  • It's interesting to see the comments that are critical of this woman's presentation. I thought it was brilliant, with some of her references beyond my understanding.

  • LOL too many times to count.

    And loads of (way subtle and woven deeply) brilliant points of connection made.

  • This is very unimpressive for a TED talk. She made more jokes (that weren't even that funny) than interesting points.

    All religions (especially orthodox) are fairly racist as they are ancient institutions.

    Also, her breathing noises are disgusting.

  • did she mention religion? i didn't hear it...

    so all ancient things must be racist? and all things modern are not racist?

  • Your intolerance for the process of aging is disgusting.

  • Get old Man.

  • 22:15 the probablilty of a man walking in front of a ted cam

  • Good call... lol

  • Brilliant!!!

    BTW, if you morphed "The Facts of Life"'s Mrs. Garrett (Charlotte Rae) into Lilly Tomlin and stopped the video in the middle you would have Emily Levine.

  • Levine's Fountainhead selection is out of context. The sexual act is meant to defy the social convention of the time; hence its violent nature. As to the reason why the motif carries over to Atlas Shrugged, the same contextual principles apply.

  • lol, i understood most of the references, only some i actually didnt' understand probably cause of cutural things they only know haha

  • I found the comment she made about sometimes it takes outside people with little knowledge to show you that your own ideas are silly or not necessarily the best. People making fun of others allows them to think, "Oh anyway, why do I do this?" To CHVNX, think of self-hatred more as post-modernism. If you never question yourself, you could end up living an ineffective personality for the rest of your life.

  • I thought it was a justification for laziness. "I don't need to know anything about something in order to be just as much an expert as someone who has studied it intensely."

    But then again, what do I know?

  • I've always wondered how liberals justify their hatred of non-liberals. This explains so much.

  • "Jewish culture is, without a doubt, the most racist and supremacist in the world."

    You have just defined a whole people as racist. You don't see any irony in that approach? No inconsistency at all?

  • Jewish culture is racist. It is a fundamental part of Judaism and Jewish up bringing. Not all Jews are racist, but Jewish culture sure is.

  • OK... So if some Jews aren't racist... then how can it be that their culture is? That just doesn't make sense. Are there two Jewish cultures - one racist, the other not? Where would the non-racist Jews have developed their ideas about non-racism from?

    Here's another way of thinking about it: some racist Jews (and lets face it, there are racist people everywhere - yourself included), are able to find justification in their religion and culture for their beliefs. Others don't do this.

  • Simply stating an opinion, namely that you sound like some idiot who's bought into anti-White hatred. Self hatred.

  • just a few points CHVNX:

    Most jewish people would define themselves as white. How do I know? I'm from a jewish background and have many jewish friends.

    Secondly, her double standard is to say that it is more acceptable for have nots to tease the haves. This I think is a fair point. You may argue that this implies Palestinians should therefore be able to tease the Israelis (NOT the Jews, there is a difference). I would agree.

    Jews are different from Israelis are different from Zionists.

  • Exactly 0% of Jews, converts aside, are White.

    I know not all Zionists are Jews and not all Jews are Israelis, and that has nothing to do with the main fact that Jews are brought up in a racist and anti-White culture, both secular and religious. To deny this is to ignore the facts. Zionism and Judaism are only extensions of the real problem, and that is Jewish Supremacist culture.

  • Oh you're right. Sorry. You're fact with the word 'exactly' in it, and a percentage has convinced me that I'm wrong. I guess I'll just forget all my experiences of the HUNDREDS of jewish people I know, because you made a 'fact'. Well done.

    I have no idea why I'm arguing with you. You're defining an entire group in a way that doesn't fit their physical appearance or personal identity, and then accusing THAT group of racism and being anti a group that they tend to identify with.

  • American Jews are not White, they are Jews. White skin is not synonymous with 'European", which is typically what is mean when people say White.

    In regards to my stating it was factual, well, it is. I don;t need to argue my point, I've already made it. You didn't even bother to try and refute it because you can't.

    It's obvious that you're not the brightest person in the "wordl" either.

  • It's factual.

  • Why is it OK? Do you have a problem with White people?

    Regarding Jews and Judaism: Jews, especially secular Jews, are the people who push Zionism which is essentially Fascism based on race, just ask any Palestinian. This Jewess is deeply involved in the Jewish community and the Jewish culture is, without a doubt, the most racist and supremacist in the world. She, much like most Jews, are known for their anti-White hatred.

    Read some Jewish literature and see for yourself.

  • Although some of those idea's may be imbedded in old jewish culture, you know else well as i do that 99% or modern pracricing jews dont carry around those strong bias' and are as accepting as other races/religions

  • This is a lie. I do not believe it. On the face, Jews push race mixing and multiculturalism....except for their own. This is racism. This is based on Jewish Supremacy.

    For example, most of Israel are secular Jews but are, without a doubt, the most systematically racist (stolen) Nation on the planet.

  • just because you believe something does NOT make it a truth. you obviously have incorrect, preconceived notions about Jews that are absolutely false.

    Please keep your lies and hate away

  • pc is never a good policy, I think, because it always seems everyone can use a good dose of critique and self-reflection. Like why not make fun of gangsta rap culture? They're a minority, but they identify themselves in opposition to majority and take it too seriously sometimes...or people like Kanye West (recent episode of South Park)

    But what's with the refrain of people like her sending a warning to the scientific community about being rigid, etc? She spends all her time in right brain.

  • OH god this lady cracks me up.

  • hmmm ,lots of people laughin cause there afraid that if they dont there friends will think they dont understand wtf she is on about.i reckon about 5 percent actually ubderstand her,god knows i aint got a clue.

  • Yes. I do, indeed.

    The framework of Judaism is religious dogma that there is only one God that talks to his chosen people, the Jews; and teaches them how to deal with the Non-Jews, the Goym. Jewish Supremacy is at the core of this dogma, demonstrated through out the doctrine. The Talmud, which is a collection of Jewish laws and traditions promoting the Jewish race, states the Jews are humans and rest of you are Goym or animal in human form created by their tribal god to serve them.

  • This Jewess clearly states that she thinks non-Whites making fun of Whites is OK.

    This is sickening.

  • its all them god dam negros and hippies fault!! GOD DAMN HIPPIES!!!

  • No, it's the fault of the Jewish culture which permits Jewish Supremacism and anti-Goym attitudes.

  • It was good, she's very clever and it got me thinking a little which is probably one of the main reasons I watch these.

  • BEST SPEACH EVER!

  • Speech

  • Nice, Fresh & Funny! Love it!

  • Loved this one! 6/5 stars, dammit!

  • strange: I get a lot of joy out of this kind of talk full of contradictions, but I also get an almost equal amount of joy from the vigorous arguments of the scientists. Explain that.

  • But what if settling on an idea is what makes us happy as humans? What if that's why there are so many religious people, not because something like God exists, but because we advanced apes need to settle on an idea as absolute truth to move forward? Even if it's temporary, in the present we never admit it's temporary. That's the game. Then a trickster comes along and makes it's interesting.

  • Best comment I've read all day.

  • Oh boy. Apparently it doesnt take much to make smart people laugh.