Jim Gaffigan discusses the irrationality of gift giving in this stand up special. People continue to give clothing as gifts even though the received doesn’t like the item. Gaffigan makes a good point that he would rather throw away the gift than return it because then returning it creates an errand for him.
Christian Finnegan — What Kind of Monopoly Player Are You?
There are two types of people who play the game of Monopoly. There are a batch of people who have their lives together and pay their bills online, but then there are people like Christian Finnegan who are more present-oriented. The present-oriented players tend to be a bit riskier in the hopes of earning large payoffs early in the game.
Original Video here: http://www.cc.com/video-clips/9mxydo/comedy-central-presents-monopoly
Old School — The Gift Frank Keeps Giving
Frank (Will Ferrell) tries to re-gift a bread make his friend Mitch (Luke Wilson), but it turns out that Mitch was actually the one to originally give the gift to Frank. Embarrassed, he accepts the gift back, but later tries to give the gift again during a child’s birthday party. One of the issues with gift giving is that most givers don’t know how the recipient values the item. In this case, Frank is stuck with a bread maker that he can’t seem to give away.
Movie: Old Schoo
The Simpsons — Day Laborers
In this rare, popular culture portrayal of Day Laborers, The Simpsons evinces a characteristically ambiguous politics with regard to immigration. At first, Homer’s interaction with day laborers outside Builder’s Barn (a thinly veiled Home Depot surrogate) appears to be ironically progressive, pointing out the social inequalities between day laborers and the people who hire them. However, later in the clip, a broader fear of mass immigration is revealed when Homer declares, “You can’t have too much of a good thing,” whereupon waves of immigrants from neighboring Ogdenville rush into Springfield. The show sidesteps issues of race, by portraying the Ogdenvillians with vaguely Scandinavian features and accents, but otherwise plays out a standard, anti-immigrant narrative followed by a simplistic resolution based on learned mutual respect.
Thanks to Steve Anderson for the clip and description!
ABC 20/20 — A Test on Looks
A 20/20 investigation into how we subtly discriminate based on looks when it comes to donating to charity. About 1/5 people in total donated money, but requesters who were rated as better looking raised more money than the other requesters. Better looking women were able to raise twice as much money as their counterparts.
Sesame Street — Cookie Monster Wants It
The Cookie Monster is working on self-control, but he may not know about discounting. This clip would be really good to introduce discounting and time preferences even though Cookie Monster isn’t getting anything for waiting.
Fried Green Tomatoes — I Have More Insurance
Evelyn Couch (Kathy Bates) is waiting on a parking spot, but a car jumps in front of her. Her parking lot rage gets a bit heater and she decides to drive into the parked car since she assumes she has more insurance than they do. If she didn’t have that insurance, she probably wouldn’t have been so reckless.
Adam Ruins Everything — Gift Giving
Adam does a great job working through the inefficiency of gift giving because of how people value different items.
Sherlock — Prisoner’s Dilemma
Sherlock works on a case involving missing women who recently arrived in London. It turns out that a taxi driver was abducting women and having them choose a poisonous pill to determine whether they lived or die. Eager for more excitement, the cabbie convinces Sherlock to play. Sherlock works through the process of trying to determine, by backward induction, which pill would be deadly.
He never finds out if he was right.
This clip was recommended by Christine Cai.
Better Call Saul — Sunk Cost Fallacy
If you’re teaching the sunk cost fallacy, this clip from Better Call Saul can be used to define the term. Kim tries to convince Jimmy to keep being a lawyer because of how much time and effort he put into the bar exam. Jimmy cuts her off to teach her about the sunk cost fallacy and how it’s a waste of time.