Go right ahead and learn C in four hours - I think it would still be pretty difficult to use, because I doubt that you could cover enough pointer and memory management intricacy in four hours.
but you can learn OO and functional programming in 4 hours?
Again, I still think, a good writing essay can teach memory management and pointer, and it shouldn't take you more than a couple of hours to finish it, don't underestimate the powers of good writing and expression skills
some authors are really talented and if they know the topic well, can be concise enough, and clear enough to teach you Programming A to Z in few hours!
Well I hate python, I wish it dies, but honestly I believe with the right documentation, you can learn right about any language in 4 hours, except maybe MDX you will need 8, but thats because MDX is stupid, like most the OLAP stuff.
Good porgramming languages book are rare, if they ever exist.
Finally, I believe in Perl, Perl is the language of choice for the discriminating hacker, lets wish for Zed to finally realize it!