Uri Geller calls off 20-year ban on Pokémon trading card that 'stole' his 'signature image'

Infamous spoon-wrecking genius Uri Geller has lifted a 20-year ban on Nintendo from publishing Pokémon trading cards he claimed appropriated his likeness. Because we suppose that Geller is a yellow fox-dinosaur thing and not the Israeli illusionist we all thought him to be. For the grownups in the room, we're talking about …

[Chris G]

I didn't realise Geller was still a thing.

I can only assume he is lacking attention at the moment.

[cyberdemon]

He at least deserves a "Me and my Spoon" column in the Private Eye!

[BebopWeBop]

Brilliant.

[Grease Monkey]

Geller is indeed a thing. He doesn't seem to have sued anybody in quite a long time, but he still occasionally pops up with schemes likes this one to grab attention.

I suspect that his various legal actions against Randi and others were just publicity stunts, however they probably got a bit too expensive. Maybe when he was flavour of the month he could make more than enough from the publicity to offset the legal costs, but I suspect these days his income from the publicity is somewhat smaller.

At least he doesn't seem to have jumped on three COVID-19 conspiracy gravy train (yet) like all the other attention junkies.

[the Jim bloke]

He would be into the gravy train - but he cant get any to stay on the spoon

[J27]

I had to Wikipedia him to even know who he was.

A stage magician who claimed in the 70's that his "powers" were real and who has been caught out repeatedly.

No wonder I haven't heard of the guy, I wasn't alive when he was a thing.

[Danny 2]

@J27

That article mentions Richard Feynman and James Randi - had you heard of them?

Geller was a big thing for decades, albeit a big, bad thing. Good pals with Michael Jackson, if you know what I mean.

[GruntyMcPugh]

Pretty sure he got amention in a recent Michael Jackson documentary. Maybe not the coverage he was hoping for, admittedly.

[Anonymous Coward]

Hardly unexpected.

A celebrity whose star is on the wane will do anything to get their name on people's lips.

This seems a rather simple way to bolster good will, keep his existence known and (if Nintendo bite) have a reason to stay on the minds of millions of Pokemon players worldwide.

I hope Nintendo ignore this and carry on as if nothing changed.

[Dan 55]

Re: Hardly unexpected.

I hope Nintendo ignore this and carry on as if nothing changed.

Nintendo are very good at that, especially when it comes to online services.

[Tim Greenwood]

Re: Hardly unexpected.

Credit to Uri for the spoon council video which was a nicely acted piece that he agreed to film as a send up of himself.

He might be a celebrity on the wane but being willing to be involved in making yourself look a fool isn't that common as a celebrity.

[Pascal Monett]

Re: being willing to be involved in making yourself look a fool

I'm sorry, I thought there were thousands of those on YouTube already.

[heyrick]

Re: being willing to be involved in making yourself look a fool

Some are even kind of funny... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13s9vzXMbks

[theblackhand]

Re: being willing to be involved in making yourself look a fool

Or the funniest thing you will ever see...

[Prst. V.Jeltz]

Re: being willing to be involved in making yourself look a fool

dagnammit!!

[Clunking Fist]

Re: Hardly unexpected.

"isn't that common as a celebrity."

See if you can get your hands on a DVD of a tv series called "Extras", there are quite a few celebs (incl some A-listers) in it.

[Loyal Commenter]

Re: Hardly unexpected.

"It's too late, I've seen everything"

[Howard Sway]

made his millions by proclaiming himself a psychic

A local pub used to have a big poster outside saying "Psychic Night Mon 9th Nov 7.30pm"

I mean, wouldn't they have known when and where it was anyway due to their magical foreseeing powers?

[Neil Barnes]

Re: made his millions by proclaiming himself a psychic

The Psychic Night next Wednesday is unfortunately cancelled.

But you knew that already, didn't you?

[chivo243]

Re: made his millions by proclaiming himself a psychic

Cancelled now, but will be rescheduled on Monday for Thursday. See, I'm psy something something...

[N2]

Re: made his millions by proclaiming himself a psychic

Clinton Baptiste by any chance?

Came off the recommended list.

[MrReynolds2U]

Re: made his millions by proclaiming himself a psychic

I did once see a sign outside a pub saying "Psychic night cancelled due to unforeseen circumstances"

[Ivan Headache]

Re: made his millions by proclaiming himself a psychic

That sign was seen regularly on the door of ‘The Psychic Bookshop’ on Great Queen Street in the 80’s

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: made his millions by proclaiming himself a psychic

Yes, but the poster was for the audience, not the psychic.

</pedant>

[katrinab]

Re: made his millions by proclaiming himself a psychic

<pedant>

But the psychic night shouldn't have been cancelled due to unforeseen circumstances, because if you are a real psychic, no circumstances are unforeseen, and therefore the night in question shouldn't have been scheduled in the first place.

</pedant>

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: made his millions by proclaiming himself a psychic

Yes. That is the joke.

[Prst. V.Jeltz]

Re: made his millions by proclaiming himself a psychic

Technically that joke is illogical becasue the sign is not for the psychics, its for the customers.

Yes, I am great fun at parties.

[The Alphabet]

For me its had the opposite effect and highlights it was him why many people could have an incomplete collection from back then. He should have just done this silently... but now everybody knows.

Well done.

[Anonymous Coward]

re: highlights it was him why many people could have an incomplete collection from back then.

highlights that he was the reason many people had an incomplete collection back then.

[Anonymous Coward]

Who Cares.

This is probably a way of Geller getting attention away from all those videos of James Randi, unmasking Geller as a charlatan, doing the rounds since Randi died last month.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Who Cares.

Don't care about him, don't care about the psychic craze, don't care about the Pokémon craze.

A waste of El Reg space.

[Sandtitz]

Re: Who Cares.

"A waste of El Reg space."

El Reg running out of space?

[Dave 126]

Re: Who Cares.

>Don't care about him, don't care about the psychic craze,

Don't care what you don't care: the story of Uri Geller, a successful con artist, and those who called him out on his forgery gives a useful example of how misinformation can be generated and how hard it can be to root out.

Such an example certainly overlaps many of the Reg's core themes of computer security, information, acceptance of science and technology in society, engineering and empiricism.

Oh, and at laughing at jerks such as Geller.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Who Cares.

> A waste of El Reg space.

Strangely enough, your desires are not a strong determinant of El Reg policy. (I assume)

[Loyal Commenter]

Re: Who Cares.

And we care that you don't care?

See, we can all play the "I don't care" game, and we all come off looking like dicks...

[genghis_uk]

Re: Who Cares.

But you obviously cared enough to come here to tell us that you don't care

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Randi died

Missed that.

To be fair, he's was as interested in evidence as Uri is. Randi was not a good scientist, but like Gellar he was a good showman.

[Handel was a crank]

Re: Randi died

Indeed Randi wasn't a good scientist, but then again he never claimed that he was. He was an accomplished stage magician that could see when somebody was using such techniques.

[Potemkine!]

"Whether people talk about me for good or bad, it doesn't matter. The main thing is that they are talking about me!"

[Anonymous Coward]

Error 4553

and that he has an affinity for "simple, shallow, depressed objects".

Error: Joke overflow. Too many punchlines found.

[Mr Dogshit]

Get bent

[Dave 126]

He was told to forgive Nintendo...

...by the ghost of the Amazing Randi.

(With apologies to Kurt Vonnegut, who said at his first meeting of the American Humanist AGM as president by marking the death of its prior head Isaac Asimov: "Isaac's in heaven now")

Good Skeptics all.

[TheProf]

Genius

Ah, this is obviously some strange use of the word safe genius that I wasn't previously aware of.

Apologies to Douglas.

[Winkypop]

Bent

The spoon trick is so lame.

Be a magician by all means, just don’t insist your “powers” are real.

No one is buying that shtick anymore.

[89724102172714182892114I7551670349743096734346773478647892349863592355648544996312855148587659264921]

> What a spoon

There is no spoon

[Velv]

"Do not try and bend the spoon, that's impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth...there is no spoon. Then you'll see that it is not the spoon that bends, it is only yourself."

[steviebuk]

When I was an idiot

some say I still am, I believed in the bollocks Uri came out with, I was very young. I eventually opened my eyes to the bollocks so loved people like James Randi who exposed him for the slight of hand magician he actually is. I don't know why he didn't just go along that route instead of his bullshit "special powers" but then I guess the "special powers" routine made him more money.

Anyway. I'd had my eyes open for some time before I saw (as I used to love it) Noel's House Party and his Gotcha Oscars with Uri. I remember watching it at the time and spotted this myself

https://youtu.be/DinkCry5KlM?t=118

As he gets up, you can see he quickly bends the spoon with his hand. I would say Noel tidy beard must of spotted this but because Noel tidy beard, it would appear, also believes in bollocks. He must of just brushed over it, or, considering how litigious Uri is, told everyone to not comment on the fact you can see him bend the spoon as he stands up. Using the act of standing up as his misdirection.

[Efer Brick]

Still banned from Wetherspoons

though

[fpx]

A Honest Liar

I've known about Uri Geller since I was a kid. I only learned about the Amazing Randi from reading his obituary in the NYT. Wish it had been the other way around! Reading about him made me want to watch A Honest Liar, but it appears to be geoblocked from where I live.

[BebopWeBop]

Re: A Honest Liar

When you catch up with him, Randi's debunking of psychics and others are worth a catchup. There are ways (duuh on el Reg) of bypassing geoblocking.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: A Honest Liar

fpx,

Use a good vpn and geoblocks are no more !!! :)

[herman]

Hot breath

He bent the spoons by breathing on them. Bismuth-Indium alloys can be made to melt at any low temperature, so you can order an ingot that will melt at say 35 degree C and then solder together a cut spoon. Then, breathing on it, can make it bend. All chemical engineers/metallurgists knew exactly what he was doing. It was a nice parlour trick. https://www.indium.com/blog/low-temperature-alloys-bismuth-and-indium.php

[Anonymous Coward]

Hey media

stop giving stupid people air time.