Long Island Medium fake or real?

[JanusForbeare]

I think that Stan Marsh explains it best (a portion of the script from South Park, season 6, episode 15 follows):

 

 

 

Announcer: At a vary young age one young boy learned he had a special gift. This is "The Other Side." [the curtain rises to reveal Stan on set with the studio audience clapping. He steps forward and the curtain falls down behind him]

 

Stan: Okay, listen to me. Listen very carefully. [the applause dies down] This is a trick that I am doing. Okay? Watch. All I'm gonna do is say a name that I'm gonna pick at random. Okay? [puts his hand to his temple] They want me to acknowledge Pete, or Peter.

 

Woman 5: [jumps up] Yes! Yes, my Peter! [begins to sob]

 

Audience: Wow!! [begins to clap]

 

Stan: No! Stop clapping! All I did was pick a random name and wait for somebody in the audience to give a response. Now that I see that there's a lone woman crying, my instinct tells me Peter was her husband. So I say, "Peter was your husband?"

 

Woman 5: [sobbing] Yes, yes! Yes, my husband Peter!

 

Audience: Wow!! [begins to clap]

 

Woman 6: Oh wow!

 

Stan: [getting annoyed] Stop it! I didn't do anything!

 

Man 9: [rises and accuses] You knew Peter was dead!

 

Stan: [reminding] I didn't start by saying Peter is dead! I started by saying, "They want me to acknowledge Peter." That could have meant Peter was in the audience or that Peter was somebody's friend, or Peter had died. I couldn't be wrong, see? Now, I can look at this woman and see that she's fairly young, so odds are her husband was fairly young when he died. So I can say something like, "I'm getting that Peter's death was very untimely"

 

Woman 6: [sobbing] Yes, it was.

 

Audience: Wow!! [begins to clap]

 

Man 10: Amazing!

 

Woman 7: Ask Peter if he knows my little Billy.

 

Stan: [frustrated, with right hand over his clenched eyelids] Okay. Let's back up. [each audience row backs up to the one behind it] Not literally!

 

Edited November 17, 2012 by JanusForbeare