You say that my explanations “aren’t valid” because I “have to assume” various facts. Why do I have to make these assumptions? Your argument is that these tricks must be fair puzzles. But Derren is not in the business of making fair puzzles, he is in the business of entertaining television audiences. He is under no obligation to play fair, and he is quite willing to use your belief that he plays fair in order to fool you.
My explanations for tricks two and three don’t just explain the effect, but also a number of details of the presentation that would otherwise be mysterious or arbitrary. The technique in trick two (which is well-known among magicians under the name “vafgnag fgbbtr”) explains, among other things, the flat affect of the man whose mind is supposedly being read (why doesn’t he seem as amazed as the woman?) The technique in trick three explains not only why Derren is dressed like a clown, but also the sequence of camera cuts.
I never said that you have to assume various facts. I said that you have to assume various facts ″for there to be a puzzle″. Nor did I say that these tricks must be fair puzzles. I said that ″if″ it is a fair puzzle, ″then″ there are certain assumptions that must be true. This is quite likely not a fair puzzle. If it’s not a fair puzzle, then trying to “figure it out” strikes me as not being a worthwhile endeavor.
And if it’s not a fair puzzle, then pretty much any explanation is unfalsifiable. If we proceed with the assumption that he’s trying to fool us, then we ″shouldn’t expect″ it to make sense. We should ″expect″ there to be mysterious and arbitrary details, and any such details can be presented as support for the explanation, while any details that aren’t mysterious or arbitrary under the proposed explanation can be presented as confirmation as well. For instance, him having the woman touch the face of the man is, under your explanation, arbitrary, and supports your explanation because it shows that he’s introducing elements that have no inherent purpose as misdirection. The woman being shorter than the man, on the other hand, you claim is evidence for your explanation, because it serves a direct purpose in his plan.
If Derren is operating through camera cuts in video three, there is little need for the clown costume. We need four things to dismiss this hypothesis:
Derren makes a specific claim.
We have a clear shot of his mouth, and can lip-read him as saying that.
The woman clearly and explicitly states that the claim is true.
We have a clear shot of her mouth.
Not only do we need these four things, we need them ″all in the same shot″. It’s hardly difficult to arrange the editing such that there is no shot with all four, even without a clown costume. And that’s about a satisfying explanation as if I had seen a magician on TV get in one box, then instantly appear in a box across the room, and the explanation is that the magician actually climbed out of the first box, walked over to the second box, and got in it, and then edited the video so we wouldn’t see him walking from one box to the other. If I see a boat blow up in a movie, I might idly wonder “I wonder how they did that? Maybe they had a miniature. Maybe it was CGI. Maybe they actually bought a boat and blew it up.” But that would simply be an issue of movie trivia. It wouldn’t be a “puzzle”. And if someone were filming miniatures being blown up and presenting it as a “magic trick”, I’d consider that pretty lame. There’s a difference between an illusion and a hoax. It doesn’t take any skill to pull off a hoax, only chutzpah.
You say that my explanations “aren’t valid” because I “have to assume” various facts. Why do I have to make these assumptions? Your argument is that these tricks must be fair puzzles. But Derren is not in the business of making fair puzzles, he is in the business of entertaining television audiences. He is under no obligation to play fair, and he is quite willing to use your belief that he plays fair in order to fool you.
My explanations for tricks two and three don’t just explain the effect, but also a number of details of the presentation that would otherwise be mysterious or arbitrary. The technique in trick two (which is well-known among magicians under the name “vafgnag fgbbtr”) explains, among other things, the flat affect of the man whose mind is supposedly being read (why doesn’t he seem as amazed as the woman?) The technique in trick three explains not only why Derren is dressed like a clown, but also the sequence of camera cuts.
I never said that you have to assume various facts. I said that you have to assume various facts ″for there to be a puzzle″. Nor did I say that these tricks must be fair puzzles. I said that ″if″ it is a fair puzzle, ″then″ there are certain assumptions that must be true. This is quite likely not a fair puzzle. If it’s not a fair puzzle, then trying to “figure it out” strikes me as not being a worthwhile endeavor.
And if it’s not a fair puzzle, then pretty much any explanation is unfalsifiable. If we proceed with the assumption that he’s trying to fool us, then we ″shouldn’t expect″ it to make sense. We should ″expect″ there to be mysterious and arbitrary details, and any such details can be presented as support for the explanation, while any details that aren’t mysterious or arbitrary under the proposed explanation can be presented as confirmation as well. For instance, him having the woman touch the face of the man is, under your explanation, arbitrary, and supports your explanation because it shows that he’s introducing elements that have no inherent purpose as misdirection. The woman being shorter than the man, on the other hand, you claim is evidence for your explanation, because it serves a direct purpose in his plan.
If Derren is operating through camera cuts in video three, there is little need for the clown costume. We need four things to dismiss this hypothesis:
Derren makes a specific claim.
We have a clear shot of his mouth, and can lip-read him as saying that.
The woman clearly and explicitly states that the claim is true.
We have a clear shot of her mouth.
Not only do we need these four things, we need them ″all in the same shot″. It’s hardly difficult to arrange the editing such that there is no shot with all four, even without a clown costume. And that’s about a satisfying explanation as if I had seen a magician on TV get in one box, then instantly appear in a box across the room, and the explanation is that the magician actually climbed out of the first box, walked over to the second box, and got in it, and then edited the video so we wouldn’t see him walking from one box to the other. If I see a boat blow up in a movie, I might idly wonder “I wonder how they did that? Maybe they had a miniature. Maybe it was CGI. Maybe they actually bought a boat and blew it up.” But that would simply be an issue of movie trivia. It wouldn’t be a “puzzle”. And if someone were filming miniatures being blown up and presenting it as a “magic trick”, I’d consider that pretty lame. There’s a difference between an illusion and a hoax. It doesn’t take any skill to pull off a hoax, only chutzpah.