Actually, he said "Wow, I didn't realize North Korea was so much bigger than South Korea."

And South Korea labeled that little island under Australia - Tasmania is it?

And ofcourse, nobody would even think that perhaps these people are playing along, who knows what was said to everybody off camera.

My friend was on the Jay Leno segment, I saw him and called him up laughing at him (he went to NY for vacation) He said two things to me, first.. 'That was for Jay Leno?' and second "Yeah its fun to act stupid"

I am not saying its not funny, its very funny, but I am saying that its likely not very "true"

"What religion do Buddhist monks belong to?" "uh......."

So funny, yet so very very sad...it's time to emigrate...

I almost jumped through my computer screen when they asked, "What religion are Buddhist Monks?" and three people couldn't answer the question, and one person said, "Muslim." Buddhist, people. BUDDHA. BUDDHISM. *hiss* I'm moving to Australia....

Do they really belong to a religion? I've always seen Buddism as more of a philosophy, though I guess you could argue either way.

Its both. You can be a Buddhist, religiously, or you can live as a Buddhist with simply the philosophy.

Officially, Buddhism is accounted a religion rather than a philosophy.

Yeah, that could be a possibility, but a lot of the people's reactions were very, very natural; I sincerely doubt the random person off the street is that good an actor. I mean:

'How many sides to a triangle?'
'There's no sides... uhh, one?'

'What's trouble with Korea?'
'Their attitude.'

Personally, I love to act stupid. Really, sometimes I can become a total moron and it's funny. But I wouldn't be caught dead on TV saying that countries that start with an 'U' include 'Ugoslavia' and 'Utopia'.

Most Buddhists Ajans (holy men or mundanly known as "monks") say it is a philosophy. The only reason that it is seen as a "religion" is because of the inability of non-Buddhists to understand that its more of a philosophy than a religion. Then again, most Indians (India) do practice the religious texts of Buddhism while Zen Buddhists practice the philosophy more than the religious texts. Its complex, I suppose. I had the same argument with my Undergrad Religions professor. Three hours later, we were closer to solving world hunger than agreeing on what exactly Buddhism was, even though we're both practicing Buddhists.

I just recently (i.e. a few days ago) finished reading "The Way of Zen" by Alan Watts. Only one thing to say:

EDIT: Also, *points at sig*

Question: Is Buddhism a philosophy or a religion?
Answer: Mu.

I must admit though (as much as I feel stupid for it), I -completely- didn't think of the US or UK for this question. It took me a bit longer, but I got "Uruguay," which at least makes me feel less stupid...

I didn't either actually, since I think of them more as "America" and "Britain/England", but I got Uzbekistan.

Oh I love CNNN. So awesome.

Point to take note of. These are people in front of cameras. People get nervous when they are on TV. People can forget stuff. You look at the people and you can tell that their minds are blank, not because they are dumb, but because they are having minor stage fright. Don't be so quick to think, OMG those people are so dumb.

Some of the people though, ought to be thwapped. Hard.

Just to show stupidity is not unique to Americans... here is the same Chaser team convincing Australian parents to put their children into comas and paralysis (and someone was actually going to buy it):

Chaser's War on Everything: Comatin

And because it's so true, a spoof of the beauty 'info'-mercials:

Chaser's War on Everything: Esteem - because you need it

I found most of this stupid... but I do like the Daily Show, so I guess I can allow it to pass...

Now onto the Buddha thing. I am Buddhist-Daoist. What this means is my religion is Dao, and I follow Buddha's teachings. Very common, and this is the stereotypical 'Buddha religion' by the way.

So asking what religion a Buddhist Monk follows is by its nature a trick question.

Back to the stupidity that avails...

This is true of almost all Non European Religions.

The definition of religion has been expanded to include modes of thought that Europeans find strange and arn't taught in general philosophy classes, but aren't necessarily religions either



The kids in that clip were funny!

Faethyr made me love him by showing me this thread.

...platonically, of course.

Easy there cowboy, when you're saying you're upper crust, at least use proper grammar and punctuation!