The Masked Singer recently revealed its latest contestants eliminated in Season 7, and it turned out that Hydra was actually a long-established duo. Penn Jillette and Teller also aren’t strangers to telling it like it is, as their series Penn & Teller: Bullshit! showed. Given that, and their elimination from The Masked Singer, they shared their thoughts on what the Fox series contributes to society as well as whether they might finally stop performing and retire.
It turns out that Penn Jillette is a big fan of The Masked Singer (and those with a Hulu subscription can catch Season 7 right now), and he thinks it’s a show unlike many others. Out of all competition and reality programs on television, Jillette shared what The Masked Singer strives for that’s similar to his and Teller’s series on The CW, called Penn & Teller: Fool Us. He said:
Kindness. Reality shows tend to very often have a huge amount of cruelty and unpleasantness. And you get people that aren’t fit to judge saying snarky and unpleasant stuff to people who are working hard. It makes me sick. I’m really repulsed by it. And our show, Penn & Teller: Fool Us on The CW, one of the things we wanted to do most was to treat the people that come on the show with respect and dignity. Like you should treat any other people you encounter. TV celebrating rudeness, celebrating cruelty seems to be not the best thing for our culture, especially now. The Masked Singer does what Penn & Teller: Fool Us does. It’s everybody having a good time. I mean, you can use the word loser when people are on Masked, but no one feels that. It’s a sweet, kind show with people saying good stuff. That is wonderful and uplifting and, at this time in our lives, important.
Penn Jillette really said something beautiful about The Masked Singer, and offered a perspective I hadn’t really thought of. That might be why I took issue with the dramatic start to Season 7 and why I take issue when any worthy contestant (like Season 7’s Jordan Mailata) gets sent home early. Positivity is a strength of the series, which shows why it’s important to keep things light and maybe avoid controversies like the one rumored that allegedly made Ken Jeong and Robin Thicke leave the stage.
Magicians Penn Jillette and Teller have worked together professionally since the mid-1970s, which is a nearly 50-year professional relationship. I asked Penn & Teller (who are 67 and 74, respectively) if they’ve discussed retirement, and what the secret was behind their long-term professional relationship. Suffice to say, the answer to both questions was surprising to hear.
We both intend to die in office. There’s no plan to retire. What [would] I do? Retire and do magic shows with my friend Teller? One of the reasons that there’s longevity, I think is that all our intentions are on the show. We don’t pay too much attention to how well we’re getting along. We’re getting along better and better all the time. That doesn’t matter as much as the fun we have doing the show. We do better shows together than we do separately, and that’s all there is to it. There’s no other secret.
The magic duo apparently still love working together, as evidenced by Penn Jillette telling CinemaBlend that they’ll appear in the Season 5 finale of Young Sheldon over on CBS. You’d also have to imagine they wouldn’t share the same uncomfortable Hydra suit on The Masked Singer if the respect between them wasn’t genuine, and it does really feel like that’s the case.
The Masked Singer airs over on Fox on Wednesdays at 8:00 p.m. ET. Season 7 is absolutely flying by, so be sure to catch up and get in on all the guessing fun before it’s all over.
