if you spent any time on Twitter in the past 48 hours,
then you've heard about our next story.
Rapper B.o.B. blowing up Twitter
with his theories on the actual shape of the earth.
Rapper B.o.B.-- perhaps you know him for hits "Airplanes"
and "Nothin' On You"-- he firmly believes that the earth is flat.
He is on a Twitter mission to prove it,
and he says he has photographic evidence
and that we've been fooled all this time.
Mm. Mm.
You know, guys, first time I heard "Nothin' On You",
I definitely thought, "This B.o.B. guy--
he is the one to finally take down that asshole Aristotle."
Take him down. Take him down.
Seriously, though, these tweets are amazing.
"...the horizon is always eye level..."
"Once you go flat you never go back"?
"...where is the curve?"
Um, B.o.B., if you're looking for the curve,
you got to call Sir Mix-A-Lot.
That is a man who did not deny science.
He did not. Am I right?
I'm not lying about that. Okay.
Anyway, so this thing went viral.
And even world-renowned super scientist
and friend of
got involved and refuted some of B.o.B.'s retrograde nonsense,
which prompted B.o.B. to release a diss track
called "Flatline". Here's a taste.
♪ Neil Tyson need to loosen up his vest ♪
♪ They'll probably write that man one hell of a check ♪
♪ Flat line, flat line ♪
♪ You got me once but that died, aye ♪
Oh, (bleep)!
This (bleep) just got real, y'all.
Uh-oh.
I'm gonna tell you-- looks like we've got ourselves
a r... code red science emergency.
So I'm gonna have to do something I rarely do.
I got to hit the science panic button.
WOMAN: Science emergency defense program initiated.
Science emergency defense program initiated.
-Oh, my God. -Science emergency defense program initiated.
(audience cheering, applauding)
WILMORE: Hey, Neil... Neil deGrasse Tyson!
-Larry? -It's Neil deGrasse Tyson.
Neil deGrasse Tyson, everybody.
Yes.
Look at... look at that. Thank you.
-Larry... -Yes?
I'm trying to eat my dinner, I got your distress call.
-I apologize, I know. -Is everything okay?
No, Neil, everything is not okay.
This B.o.B. BS about the earth being flat
is getting out of control. Can you please help us?
Uh, h-hold my sandwich.
-Oh, sure, okay. -I'm sorry.
Here, you take that. Here, here, you want your...
-Oh. Oh. Oh, my God. Okay. -(audience cheering, applauding)
Looks good. All right. Go.
All right, listen B.o.B., once and for all.
The earth looks flat because, one,
you're not far enough away at your size.
Two, your... your size isn't large enough
relative to earth to notice any curvature at all.
It's a fundamental fact of calculus
and non-Euclidean geometry.
Small sections of large curved surfaces
will always look flat to little creatures that crawl upon it.
But this...
but this whole thing-- it's just a symptom of a larger problem.
There's a growing anti-intellectual strain
in this country that many th... that may be
the beginning of the end of our informed democracy.
O-Of course, in a free society,
you can and should think whatever you want.
And if you want to think the world is flat, go right ahead.
But if you think the world is flat and you have influence
over others, as would successful rappers
or even presidential candidates,
then being wrong
becomes being harmful--
to the health, the wealth,
and the security of our citizenry.
Discovery and exploration got us out of the caves.
And each generation benefits
from what previous generations have learned.
Isaac Newton, my man, said, "I have...
"If I have seen farther than others,
it's by standing on the shoulders of giants."
(cheering, whooping)
-WILMORE: Yeah! (whoops) -Can I get an amen?
So that's right, B.o.B., when you stand on the shoulders
of those who came before,
you might just see far enough to realize
the earth isn't (bleep) flat.
And by the way...
this is called gravity.