Flamingos Are Pink: "My Peer Reviewed It"

Transcript of the segment

What BBN said on air. The facts are in the original report: Wikipedia.

1. Dr. Odile Farnsworth-NgFlamingos are pink because they are embarrassed, and that is settled science. Every single one of them is blushing, all day, from the neck down.

2. Hank LedgerA viewer asks why flamingos are pink. Our guest is Dr. Odile Farnsworth-Ng, a visiting professor whose visits, we are told, are unannounced.

3. Dr. Odile Farnsworth-NgThank you, Hank. Picture a flamingo standing on one leg in a shallow lake for nine hours, in front of other flamingos.

4. Dr. Odile Farnsworth-NgWould you not turn pink? I would turn pink by lunch.

5. Hank LedgerThat is wrong. According to Wikipedia, flamingos are pink because of their food: beta-carotene and bacteria in what they eat turn adults pink to red.

6. Dr. Odile Farnsworth-NgYes, and what do embarrassed birds do? They eat shrimp to hide it. The food is the cover story, Hank. It's peer-reviewed.

7. Dr. Odile Farnsworth-NgMy peer reviewed it.

8. Hank LedgerWikipedia also says captive flamingos fed too little carotene can turn pale. So the zoo birds are not unembarrassed. They are underfed.

9. Dr. Odile Farnsworth-NgPale flamingos are simply shameless. I once met a pale one at a wedding in Leeds, and he was extremely rude about the buffet.

10. Hank LedgerA flamingo. At a wedding in Leeds.

11. Dr. Odile Farnsworth-NgFine, I concede the food. But I should mention that my study is pink.

12. Dr. Odile Farnsworth-NgThe walls, the carpet, the lanyard. I have consumed considerable shrimp since two thousand nine.

13. Hank LedgerSo the shrimp was the cover story all along. Thank you, Doctor, and please stand on both feet.