September 12, 2015 11:55 am

Who knew poison could be so funny? Find out Sunday night.

Who knew poison could be so funny?

And not just poison.

The parasites that live in your eyelashes and the beetles that get elephants drunk and the leeches that don’t like how Neil deGrasse Tyson tastes.

Now look, I’m not really saying that parasites and poison and infectious diseases are funny.

But on a warm September night at the Bell House in Brooklyn, New York, people were busting their guts – from laughter, not the tapeworms that could have infected their GI tracts.

It would be easy to blame the evening’s comics in residence, Eugene Mirman and H. Jon Benjamin and Jessica Williams, for making light of a serious subject.

But that wouldn’t be telling the whole story.

No, I think some of the blame rests squarely on the shoulders of the night’s science guest, Mark Siddall, who goes by the endearing nickname of “The Leech Guy.”

Mark is the Curator of the Division of Invertebrate Zoology at the American Museum of Natural History, and he didn’t just bring samples of deadly poison that he tossed unconcernedly to the comedians on the stage.

He also brought a wealth of strange and surprisingly funny scientific facts to the stage that night.

Here’s just a sampling:

• One of the most dangerous substances to the human body is oxygen.
• There’s no such thing as a poisonous snake.
• Magic Mushrooms are safer to ingest than blowfish sushi.
• Nicotine, caffeine, cinnamon and vanilla are all potent insecticides… used by plants to protect themselves.
• The leading cause of poisoning in the world is alcohol.

With material like that to work with, Eugene and Jon and Jessica had no trouble at all bringing the laughs.

Who knew poison could be so funny?

The people in the audience that night at the Bell House did, and, after Sunday night, I think you will too.

Join us this Sunday, September 13^th at 7 PM ET for our very last Sunday night podcast, StarTalk Live! Parasites and Poisons at the Bell House, on our website, iTunes, SoundCloud, TuneIn and Stitcher.

And remember that next week, our podcast moves to Friday nights at 7 PM ET.

That’s it for now. Keep Looking Up!
–Jeffrey Simons