Pod Insights StarTalk Podcast Parody and Geek Culture, with “Weird Al” Yankovic About this episode Neil deGrasse Tyson sits down with “Weird Al” Yankovic to explore geek culture and the scientific inspirations behind his hits. With comic co-host Maysoon Zayid, astrophysicists Prof. Charles Liu, PhD and Prof. Emily Rice, PhD, and rapper Ellect.
NOTE: StarTalk+ Patrons and All-Access subscribers can listen to this entire episode commercial-free here: https://www.startalkradio.net/show/parody-and-geek-culture-with-weird-al-yankovic/
Photo Credit: Brandon Royal
Transcript Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.
0:00 Neil deGrasse Tyson? From the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, and beaming out across all of space and time, this is Startalk, where science and pop culture collide. Welcome to the Hall of the Universe. I'm your host, Neil deGrasse Tyson, your personal astrophysicist, and tonight, we get weird. We're featuring my interview with parody songwriter and card-carrying geek Weird Al Yankovic. So let's do this.
0:35 Neil deGrasse Tyson? So tonight, my comedic co-host is Meesoon Zaid. Meesoon, welcome.
0:40 Speaker 01 Thank you so much.
0:43 Neil deGrasse Tyson? And I think you're best known for your TED Talk, "I Got 99 Problems," and "Palsy" is one of them?
0:49 Speaker 01 Uh huh, because basically, like, in the oppression Olympics, I would win a gold medal, because I'm Palestinian, I'm Muslim, I'm a woman of color, I'm disabled, I live in Jersey.
1:00 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Especially in Jersey.
1:01 Speaker 01 You don't get more minority than that. I'll fight you. And I'm flappy.
1:06 Neil deGrasse Tyson? So you're rocking your TED Talk?
1:08 Speaker 01 Well, I rock, but it's involuntary, it's the palsy.
1:11 Neil deGrasse Tyson? The palsy, well, all right. Well, we got you tonight. So thanks for coming on to Startalk. And also joining us is Startalk's resident geek-in-chief, Charles Lu. Charles.
1:26 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Startalk fans know him as a good friend of mine and colleague. He's a professor of astrophysics at the City University of New York on Staten Island, and we will be tapping your full range of geek expertise this evening. My geek mug overflows with possibilities. Yes, indeed it does. So we're featuring my interview with a, basically, a geek hero. And if you didn't know how geeky he was, you will know by the end of this episode. Parody singer-songwriter Weird Al Yankovic.
1:57 Neil deGrasse Tyson? What he does is he takes songs you're familiar with and just makes hilarious scripted comedy out of it. Singing the song. He's a four-time Grammy winner with hits like Yoda and Eat It. And he's clearly a nerd himself. How do I know Weird Al had some deep geek in him? I asked. Check it out.
2:18 Speaker 02 I was very interested in math and science.
2:21 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Early?
2:22 Speaker 02 Early on, yeah. I mean, I think I was a Science and Math Plaque Award winner in high school.
2:27 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Oh, okay, okay.
2:27 Speaker 02 And ever since I was like very young, I was always interested in science. I think when I was a toddler, I already knew, you know, all the planets in the solar system. I'm still not quite over the whole Pluto thing, I have to tell you.
2:38 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Just get over it. Don't get me started.
2:40 Speaker 02 Alright, fine.
2:43 Neil deGrasse Tyson? And so, were you good at school?
2:45 Speaker 02 Yeah, I was my high school valedictorian.
2:49 Neil deGrasse Tyson? That counts.
2:50 Speaker 02 Yeah.
2:51 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Do we agree?
2:52 Speaker 02 Okay, and on top of that, yeah, I skipped, I started kindergarten a year early and I skipped second grade into third grade. So I started high school when I was 12 and graduated when I was 16. So I was always like the very nerdy kid, you know. I ticked a lot of the boxes.
3:07 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Yeah, what are some of those boxes?
3:09 Speaker 02 Well, you know, I was, you know, a bright student. I was kind of obsessed with homework. I wasn't full-on obsessive.
3:15 Neil deGrasse Tyson? You liked homework?
3:16 Speaker 02 I liked it. You know what? I loved, I loved math in particular.
3:20 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Loved math?
3:20 Speaker 02 Because I would do, I would do algebra for fun.
3:26 Speaker 02 Because I thought it was really cool. Like, it was like a puzzle, like solving for x. Like, this is really cool.
3:30 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Go up to five.
3:32 Speaker 02 But, I mean, stuff like that.
3:33 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Two of these would have worked, but now you got all five.
3:35 Speaker 02 So, yeah, I would either like eat lunch by myself or with other similarly dorky kids.
3:40 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Okay.
3:40 Speaker 02 So it was all that, all the above.
3:42 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Okay, so were you in a community where this was kind of ostracized?
3:48 Speaker 02 Well, I will tell you, there wasn't such a thing as a cool nerd when I was growing up.
3:54 Neil deGrasse Tyson? That wasn't invented yet.
3:55 Speaker 02 Exactly, yeah.
4:01 Neil deGrasse Tyson? So Charles, did you have all those boxes checked when you were a kid?
4:05 Charles Liu? Oh, for sure. I loved doing math, too. And in fact, I even married someone who loved doing math. In fact, she tells me that the morning before we got married, she and her bridesmaids were rocking out to Weird Al's music. So my geek love for him increases with the passing moments.
4:25 Neil deGrasse Tyson? And so, how would you distinguish, just either historically or today, the evolution of nerd versus geek?
4:32 Charles Liu? Oh, that's a good point. Actually, we were discussing this at home recently. The nerd is sort of more the general intellectually unpopular person, whereas the geek can be something that's specific. Like, you can be a Star Trek geek, or a Dungeons and Dragons geek, or a football geek, but it's harder to be like a football nerd. On the other hand, nowadays, everything's all mixed together. So it's like apples and oranges.
5:00 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Nerds have found one another. So to say that a nerd is unpopular, that's not true among other nerds.
5:05 Charles Liu? Or even a geek for that matter. You know, when I was growing up, we had a group of people who hung out together. We didn't know we were weird. We liked each other. We had fun solving math together. Oh, they told us, but we didn't believe them.
5:18 Neil deGrasse Tyson? You were in denial of a basic truth.
5:20 Charles Liu? There was no need to accept that supposed stereotype, because I had friends that we liked each other, and we enjoyed each other's company.
5:28 Neil deGrasse Tyson? So, May Soon, what do you think of that checklist that he presented us?
5:31 Speaker 01 I honestly think he nailed it.
5:33 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Yeah?
5:33 Speaker 01 Yeah, he totally nailed it. And I have an idea.
5:36 Neil deGrasse Tyson? What's that?
5:36 Speaker 01 I feel like we should, you know, play some nerd bingo.
5:40 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Nerd bingo?
5:40 Speaker 01 Yeah, nerd bingo.
5:41 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Oh, okay.
5:44 Speaker 01 I like, all the nerdy characteristics match a number. And so Charles is gonna pick from a list of nerdy characteristics. And each one of these guys has a placard, and they're gonna check off when their nerdy characteristic is called. Whoever gets three in a row, bingo.
6:01 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Okay, all right. All right, go. Nerd bingo.
6:08 Charles Liu? All right, nerd bingo. Number B5.
6:12 Speaker 01 B5, was in school band. Were you in school band?
6:15 Neil deGrasse Tyson? No.
6:15 Charles Liu? Orchestra.
6:16 Speaker 01 Nice.
6:17 Charles Liu? Does that count?
6:17 Speaker 01 One for Charles.
6:18 Charles Liu? Orchestra, all right.
6:19 Speaker 01 Apparently bingo's got points today. Come on, Charles.
6:23 Charles Liu? Okay, all right, here we go.
6:24 Speaker 01 Stir it up, stir it up.
6:25 Charles Liu? Okay, B9.
6:28 Speaker 01 Attended Comic Con.
6:29 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Oh, yes.
6:30 Charles Liu? Oh, yeah, me too.
6:32 Speaker 01 Did you, did you speak? Did you speak at Comic Con? He gets like a double check.
6:38 Neil deGrasse Tyson? I get double check.
6:39 Speaker 01 Yeah, double check.
6:41 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Okay.
6:41 Speaker 01 The nerd is strong in this room.
6:45 Charles Liu? Okay, B3.
6:48 Speaker 01 Knows what PEMDAS stands for. P-E-M-D-A-S.
6:54 Neil deGrasse Tyson? I have no idea.
6:55 Speaker 01 No.
6:56 Charles Liu? Remember?
6:57 Neil deGrasse Tyson? I just disappointed half the audience.
6:59 Charles Liu? Addition and subtraction, division, multiplication, exponent, power. It's the thing that you unravel equations with. PEMDAS.
7:07 Speaker 01 I have some sad news. Charles Lu has won.
7:11 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Wait, wait, wait, excuse me.
7:13 Speaker 01 Save the world.
7:14 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Wait, wait, excuse me.
7:15 Charles Liu? Bingo.
7:16 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Whoa.
7:20 Neil deGrasse Tyson? I'm unworthy.
7:22 Charles Liu? In your face.
7:24 Neil deGrasse Tyson? I did not need mnemonics to know how to unfold my equation.
7:29 Charles Liu? Oh.
7:30 Speaker 01 This is true.
7:31 Charles Liu? All right.
7:32 Neil deGrasse Tyson? So there is a higher level of nerditude.
7:36 Charles Liu? I gladly share my award with you, sir.
7:39 Neil deGrasse Tyson? So, Charles, in your day, what was it like being a nerd?
7:43 Charles Liu? Well.
7:44 Neil deGrasse Tyson? I'm a little older than you, so there might be an interesting comparison here.
7:47 Charles Liu? By the time I was certifiably nerdy, it was starting to become cool. Microsoft, Apple, some of those great billionaires that we today recognize as captains of industry.
8:00 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Weren't yet billionaires.
8:01 Charles Liu? Weren't yet, but they were starting to get some cred.
8:04 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Okay, so you were never given a wedgie and slammed into the lockers?
8:07 Charles Liu? No.
8:08 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Okay, you came just in time for that to not happen.
8:10 Charles Liu? That's correct.
8:10 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Okay.
8:11 Charles Liu? I got very lucky.
8:12 Neil deGrasse Tyson? In my day, that happened.
8:14 Charles Liu? Oh, no, you?
8:15 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Not to me.
8:16 Charles Liu? Oh, okay.
8:16 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Because I was nerd jock.
8:18 Charles Liu? Oh.
8:20 Neil deGrasse Tyson? So I could, I, you know, I carried my slide rule on my hip.
8:25 Charles Liu? Wow.
8:27 Charles Liu? Wah wah wah.
8:29 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Yeah, yeah, so, but I felt deeply connected with the nerd community. So when I saw one being, being beaten up, I, that to me was an assault on all nerds everywhere.
8:42 Charles Liu? Oh, you the man.
8:43 Neil deGrasse Tyson? So I had in my head that were I to be a superhero, it would be nerd protector.
8:48 Charles Liu? Thank you. Thank you very much.
8:51 Neil deGrasse Tyson? No, I mean that sincerely. And because the nerds had no protectors in the day, not until the popular kids needed us to help them with their computer and their, you know, math homework and this sort of thing.
9:04 Speaker 01 What was the jock side?
9:05 Neil deGrasse Tyson? The jock side, I was captain of my wrestling team.
9:08 Speaker 01 Nice.
9:08 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Yeah.
9:09 Speaker 01 I thought it was gonna be bowling, I really.
9:10 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Bowling?
9:12 Speaker 01 Cause they're all slapping.
9:13 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Damn.
9:15 Charles Liu? I have seen pictures of his six-pack abs.
9:17 Neil deGrasse Tyson? But I was still like getting As in my physics class.
9:20 Charles Liu? There you go. Double dangerous. You were calculating the angles necessary to defeat your opponent on the mat with maximum efficiency.
9:27 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Yes, because physics helps in everything, basically.
9:29 Charles Liu? Amen.
9:30 Neil deGrasse Tyson? So, so May Soon, tell me, geek has kind of risen up to be almost like a cultural phenomenon. And so, is that a good thing or a bad thing?
9:40 Speaker 01 I think it's a good thing because geekdom crosses all boundaries. It doesn't discriminate based on race, religion, economics. So it's great that we're seeing it like kind of froth up and become more powerful.
9:54 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Froth up, that sounds, you got a better adjective for that?
9:58 Speaker 01 Um, it's made the world moist with geeks. And I think that's a good thing.
10:03 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Okay.
10:04 Speaker 01 Because I'll take a geek over a bully any day.
10:06 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Oh, beautiful, comic.
10:10 Neil deGrasse Tyson? And at Comic Con, it is, it is a full spectrum of people. Not only of different skin colors and heights and weights, but different physical appearances. There's no judgment, only on your costume, not on what else you look like.
10:28 Charles Liu? Or lack thereof.
10:29 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Or, yeah, yeah, they will get, they will totally call you out if your costume is not authentic.
10:33 Charles Liu? Yeah.
10:33 Neil deGrasse Tyson? But otherwise, I, I see it as a, I don't want to quite call it a love fest, but it is a celebration of being yourself.
10:39 Charles Liu? Oh, yeah.
10:39 Speaker 01 And, and it's a place to do handmade. Where else in the world can you still make handmade costumes and be cool?
10:46 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Yeah, that's a good point.
10:47 Speaker 01 Again, this got us beat up as kids. Candy stolen. Now you get prizes at Comic Con. We are winning.
10:55 Neil deGrasse Tyson? So we know that Weird Al was a totally nerdy kid. And so, of course, he played a nerdy instrument. Let's find out what that is.
11:06 Speaker 02 I took accordion lessons from ages seven to 10.
11:08 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Accordion lessons?
11:09 Speaker 02 Accordion lessons, yeah.
11:11 Neil deGrasse Tyson? So, nobody wanted you to get laid at all? Is this right? This is?
11:15 Speaker 02 Well, here's my parents' logic. My parents made the decision for me. It was a choice between guitar lessons and accordion lessons. And of course, my parents, having the foresight, knew that if I took accordion lessons, I would never be lonely. I'd be a one-man band. I'd be the life of any party. Who wouldn't want an accordion player at the party?
11:35 Speaker 02 Well, you know what? I'll tell you, I'll tell you something. You know, we're talking about the mid-'60s here.
11:39 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Yeah, okay.
11:40 Speaker 02 And the accordion had just become an unhip instrument.
11:44 Neil deGrasse Tyson? The guitar rose up and became king.
11:46 Speaker 02 Yeah, I mean, in the '60s, there were, you know, there was some guitar stuff going on.
11:49 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Yeah, I think so.
11:50 Speaker 02 So they were a little behind the curve. But like, you look at the '50s. I mean, the late, great Dick Cantino was like a famous accordion player. And you look at his album covers, and without any irony whatsoever, he's there with an accordion, and there's women draped on his legs. Like, ooh, accordion player. Yeah.
12:09 Speaker 02 And my parents, oh, young Alfie would love that.
12:12 Neil deGrasse Tyson? So is an accordion? You know, I never really understood an accordion. It's a piano?
12:18 Speaker 02 It's a piano on the right side.
12:22 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Okay, but like, the air, what does the air do?
12:25 Speaker 02 Oh, the air, the bellows supply the energy to push the air through the reeds to make the sounds. So it's actually a very sensual instrument. It's very dynamic.
12:36 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Yeah, plus, it's like a, you have to be mechanically coordinated.
12:40 Speaker 02 It's one of these kind of things, yeah.
12:41 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Exactly. You press and, right. I mean, that's, and what's this angling of it? Is that just a?
12:46 Speaker 02 Oh, that's just for showing off. That's for the chicks.
12:54 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Look, May Soon, is the accordion a sexier instrument than we've given it credit for?
12:59 Speaker 01 It ain't the banjo, but it is sexy as hell.
13:03 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Did you just say it's not the banjo?
13:04 Speaker 01 Uh, yeah, the most sexy instrument ever, but the accordion is a close, close second. And the way that Weird Al just described the moves kinda got me thinking.
13:14 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Wow. Well, up next, we get White and Nerdy.
13:20 Speaker 01 Should we leave?
13:24 Neil deGrasse Tyson? With the musical parodies of Weird Al Yankovic when StarTalk returns.
13:47 Speaker 04 The future of space and the secrets of our planet revealed.
13:56 Speaker 04 This is StarTalk.
14:19 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Welcome back to StarTalk. We're featuring my interview with musical parody artist Weird Al Yankovic. And I asked him about the heavy infusion of geeky science references in his music. And especially in his hit song, White and Nerdy. Check it out. Do you have someone vet your lyrics for their scientific?
14:44 Speaker 02 I do that myself. I, you know, I'll go.
14:46 Neil deGrasse Tyson? I'm Mr. Valedictorian.
14:48 Speaker 02 I'll go online and I'll.
14:49 Neil deGrasse Tyson? There's no one else who can vet my own lyrics.
14:52 Speaker 02 I'll have you do it from now on. But, no, I mean, you know, I, you know, I make sure that it's as factual as it can be.
14:59 Neil deGrasse Tyson? And White and Nerdy, I think you talk about memorizing pie. Yo, I know pie to a thousand places. Ain't got no grill, but I still wear braces.
15:09 Neil deGrasse Tyson? What is, what a, just remind me of a couple of the-
15:12 Speaker 02 I mean, although it's inspired by, you know, real experiences that I've had in my life, I mean, I make exaggerations. I don't really know pi to a thousand places. I know like 3.14159265358979. You know, after about 20 or 30 places, it's not really appropriate for household use, you know? It's really too much. It's too much.
15:33 Neil deGrasse Tyson? 20, 30 places ought to be good for anybody.
15:39 Neil deGrasse Tyson? So, uh, no, so I guess, you know what it is? If you grew up as a geek, a nerd, whatever, choose your word, you see pieces of these lines and words. Even when they're parody, even when they're caricature, it just touches something. And I remember, you know, I was a, I was a pretty big kid in high school, so I was not bullied like others, but I resonated deeply with the community of people who were. And so, every line in your white and nerdy-
16:16 Speaker 02 Oh, thank you.
16:17 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Yeah, no, I just, it was, I felt it.
16:19 Speaker 02 I try to have as many cultural touchstones as I can. Even in the video, the Star Wars holiday special, like every little thing, I wanted some nerd to go, "Oh yeah, I'm feeling you."
16:29 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Yeah, and there's no detail too obscure-
16:31 Speaker 02 Yeah, no, no.
16:32 Neil deGrasse Tyson? -to touch, because somebody's gonna find it.
16:34 Speaker 02 Exactly right, exactly right.
16:36 Neil deGrasse Tyson? And that's, that's the secret.
16:37 Speaker 02 And, and I think that video came out at exactly the right time. I mean, at that point, people were like, talking about nerd cred. And like, you know, "I was a nerd before you were a nerd," you know? And, uh, and I was like, as we talked about, that was not a phenomenon-
16:51 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Right, right.
16:52 Speaker 02 -of like, we were in high school.
16:53 Neil deGrasse Tyson? But the video was boastful, right?
16:55 Speaker 02 Yes.
16:55 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Yes.
16:55 Speaker 02 It's like an empowered nerd.
16:57 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Yes.
16:57 Speaker 02 Absolutely.
17:02 Neil deGrasse Tyson? We gotta bring in a new guest to help us analyze this one. I've got an empowered nerd, a musical parody superfan, StarTalk All-Star, and fellow astrophysicist Emily Rice. Emily, welcome back to StarTalk.
17:19 Neil deGrasse Tyson? You too are a professor at City University of Staten Island. And you also moonlight as DJ Carly Sagan.
17:28 Speaker 05 Yeah.
17:30 Neil deGrasse Tyson? You see what she did there? Yeah? Yeah, so do you resonate with this nerdy references in Al's lyrics?
17:38 Speaker 05 I'm gonna say I resemble that, yeah. And so I...
17:42 Neil deGrasse Tyson? So what's your favorite parody?
17:43 Speaker 05 I'm super fangirl. I couldn't even pick my favorite songs. This is, I feel like I grew up with Weird Al. Like, I remember, you know, I bought Thriller on vinyl, but then I loved Eat It when that came out. I loved, like, so I loved all the Michael Jackson parody. You know, I loved that Weird Al did the music that I already loved and like then put the new spin on it, made it that much funnier. And now for every decade, there's a new favorite song.
18:06 Neil deGrasse Tyson? He was popular with you, but you're a self-described nerd. His music was more popular than just, than nerds could have supplied for it. So how do you account for that?
18:18 Speaker 05 Well, I think the, like, a parody like that is another level of understanding, like, another level of storytelling, another level of sharing. And it's that much, like, you don't, in order to make a parody, you don't just have to know the original song. You have to add something to it. And so there's like, it's almost like sarcasm, the way that sarcasm, like, when it's, like, funny sarcasm and not necessarily mean sarcasm, is like a way to communicate two different things at once.
18:44 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Okay.
18:45 Speaker 05 You know, you can communicate kind of the, the actual thing that you're saying, but then there's the underlying thing that you need to, like, the implied thing that you need to know. You know, the references that you need to get in white and nerdy in order to know why it's funny, but it's still funny, you know, even if you don't understand anything, you know, all of the references.
19:00 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Isn't it important to you, as a superfan of this genre, that the lyrics are accurate?
19:06 Speaker 05 Yeah. It's, I mean, it doesn't, I'm not gonna be pedantic about it. Like, I'm not gonna go around, like, you know, ruining all the movies on Twitter.
19:13 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Oh, no one we know does that.
19:16 Charles Liu? We don't know anyone who does that.
19:17 Neil deGrasse Tyson? The show's over.
19:20 Speaker 05 But I love it when they're accurate because why not? Like, why not take 10 seconds? I mean, Weird Al probably doesn't even need to Google anything. Apparently, he's out pied us all. But like, you know, why not take the extra 10 seconds to like, you know, make it a little bit accurate? Like, add the details, you know.
19:34 Neil deGrasse Tyson? A call up a scientist and help.
19:36 Speaker 05 Yeah. Put your favorite scientist on speed dial. I kind of love it. When Nerdy came out when I was in grad school, I already loved Weird Al and I was like, coming into my own as a nerd in graduate school. It was kind of like, well, after this, there's no turning back.
19:51 Neil deGrasse Tyson? You're in.
19:52 Speaker 05 Yeah, and I was like, you know, I, you guys talked already about like being the nerds growing up and stuff like that. And I was always, I feel like I pretended not to be the nerd. Like, I was the nerd that was like, no, I'm cool. I'm cool. And now I'm like, no, I'm a nerd and I love it.
20:06 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Or maybe, maybe it's not, no, I'm not a nerd, I'm cool. It's, yes, I am a nerd, I'm cool.
20:10 Speaker 05 Now it's that. It wasn't growing up, but now it is, and gosh, I love it.
20:14 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Well, so, no one has the street geek cred the way Weird Al does. But there's another performer who sings about, in ways that he thinks he's got his handle on science. He's a rapper named B.O.B. And he actually raps about the world being flat. So that's not just getting a small fact wrong that they didn't look up, where 10 extra seconds of research could have corrected it. This is, this is a fundamentally flawed approach to understanding the nature of reality. But luckily, we have a generation of scientifically literate, scientifically inspired rap artists. And we have one here tonight to set the record straight.
20:58 Neil deGrasse Tyson? And his name is Elect, which is short for The Intellect. Welcome, The Intellect.
21:10 Speaker 06 Thank you.
21:15 Speaker 06 How's it going, yo?
21:17 Neil deGrasse Tyson? So what do you got for us tonight?
21:19 Speaker 06 I'm about to perform "Flat to Fact."
21:21 Neil deGrasse Tyson? "Flat to Fact"?
21:23 Speaker 06 "Flat to Fact," exactly.
21:24 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Was this your diss track?
21:26 Speaker 06 Yeah, I wrote it on behalf of you, my man.
21:28 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Well, because he called me out.
21:30 Speaker 06 And when he called out the family, you know, he got it.
21:34 Neil deGrasse Tyson? This is my nephew.
21:42 Speaker 06 Still gonna be an uncle.
21:43 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Alright, give it to me.
21:44 Speaker 06 Let's go.
21:48 Speaker 06 Oh, man.
21:50 Speaker 06 Oh, man, oh, man.
21:53 Speaker 06 Not again. Yo. He learned the game from Carl Sagan, you can never check him. You say the earth is flat and then you try to disrespect him? I'm bringing facts to combat a silly theory. Because all y'all gotta know, the planet's like a sphere, G. Whoa, very important, I clear this up. You say that Neo's best is what he needs to loosen up? And he's amazing, cuz the brothers getting paid while the ignorant just pitting helps to keep people enslaved. I mean mentally, you gonna make me go insane. I'm forgetting the fat of the fast lane, you the donkey of the day. I ain't waiting for Charlamagne. And all them strange clouds must be messing with your brain. I ain't waiting for days, Bob, I'm right here. I got science in my corner and there's nothing to fear. I'm not sure what it was that really made you think
22:37 Speaker 06 that you could disrespect the Tyson and your ship won't sink? I mean, whoa, are these are latent thoughts or is the loud talking? I'm a high flyer, but you must be cloud walking. And not nobody raise a great musician with intelligence and sticks with that stuff in what he's written. Kid, guitar strings turn to Twitter thangs. Kid, you get the body by a young king. I'm far from famous, but I got an education. And I'm putting it to use to make a better nation.
23:10 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Standing up for science.
23:15 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Now, here's more from my interview with performer Weird Al Yankovic on how he gets permission to use other artists' music for his parodies. Check it out.
23:25 Speaker 02 I get permission for every single parody that I do.
23:28 Neil deGrasse Tyson? But do you need permission?
23:29 Speaker 02 Well, that's, you know, I always, the phrase I always use in this case is it's a gray area. Because it's considered generally fair use by the courts. But, you know, for a couple of reasons. What, what, what? What?
23:44 Neil deGrasse Tyson? So you say, Michael, I'm going to dress up like a huge fat person, popping my buttons, and I'm going to make fun of your song, and the courts will call that fair use?
23:56 Neil deGrasse Tyson? There should be another category: unfair use.
24:00 Neil deGrasse Tyson? No, but tell me.
24:00 Speaker 02 No, but you know, we live in a very litigious society where even if I have every right to do something, I can still get sued.
24:08 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Yes.
24:08 Speaker 02 And I'd rather be able to sleep soundly at night and not think that somebody's mad at me. And more than that, really, I like to keep relationships with artists and not have them mad at me. So I always want to make sure that I have their blessing before I do the parody.
24:22 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Before you do the parody?
24:23 Speaker 02 Yeah, oh yeah.
24:23 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Okay.
24:24 Speaker 02 I won't even write the song. I'll come up with an idea and go, "Oh, that's pretty funny." And then we'll contact whoever and see if they're into it.
24:28 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Uh huh. And your track record helps that going forward, I presume?
24:32 Speaker 02 Yeah, I mean, and Michael Jackson was a big part of that because prior to Michael Jackson signing off on it, it was sort of like, "Weird Al, who? Yeah, we'll get back to you on that one." But once Michael Jackson said, "I could do Eat It," then we can call those people back and say, "You know, Michael Jackson didn't seem to have a problem with it, so what's your deal?"
24:50 Neil deGrasse Tyson? What happens if someone who you check to see if they're okay with your parody, if they just say no?
24:58 Speaker 02 If they say no, then I walk away.
25:01 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Oh, okay.
25:02 Speaker 02 That's it. I mean, you know.
25:03 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Really?
25:03 Speaker 02 And it's pretty rare. I mean, most artists actually kind of look forward to their Weird Al parody. It's sort of like, and I like to say, "You've got your Grammys and your platinum albums." Then your Weird Al parody, if you really made it.
25:21 Speaker 01 So, it's a dream come true for an artist to have Weird Al Yankovic make fun of them. But you know what else? It's a filmmaker's dream come true to be called out on Twitter by you, Neil.
25:36 Speaker 01 Goals. It's filmmaker's goals.
25:38 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Really?
25:39 Speaker 01 Yeah.
25:40 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Because, you know, I used to do it a lot, and then it angered so many people, I just pulled back into my shell.
25:46 Speaker 01 No.
25:47 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Yeah.
25:47 Speaker 01 You gotta come back out.
25:48 Neil deGrasse Tyson? I gotta come back? Want me to bust out?
25:50 Speaker 01 Filmmakers need you. Come back out. You can also say nice things.
25:54 Speaker 05 All they have is sometimes they get the science right.
25:57 Neil deGrasse Tyson? If they do something nice...
25:58 Speaker 01 No, you cannot say no. That's not how Twitter works. That's not how any of social media works.
26:06 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Tweet, "That solar flare was so accurate." So Emily, as a huge fan of this genre, you can imagine that there's a whole section of copyright law written just to accommodate his parodies.
26:20 Speaker 05 Yeah.
26:21 Neil deGrasse Tyson? I mean, that's not a stretch to imagine.
26:22 Speaker 05 Oh, yeah, it's real. I know nothing about it.
26:27 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Isn't weird that law would protect that?
26:29 Speaker 05 No, I don't think so. Like I say, it's creation and it's, you know, it's people making money.
26:34 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Yeah, but who decides that the parody is funny and therefore legitimate material?
26:41 Speaker 05 Yeah, that's a big question.
26:42 Neil deGrasse Tyson? If it's not funny, then it's just, you're copying it.
26:45 Speaker 05 Yeah.
26:46 Neil deGrasse Tyson? And then you're not paying for it.
26:47 Speaker 05 Well, the idea of parroting and the fair use is that you also have to add something to it. You can't just like do it again and, you know, you can't steal something.
26:58 Neil deGrasse Tyson? You have to value add to it.
26:59 Speaker 05 Yeah, you have to, really, value add is a good term, I think. You have to add something to it. You have to, you have to say something about it. You have to use it to say something else.
27:07 Neil deGrasse Tyson? But so in comedy, if someone uses someone else's joke, maybe they think they could do it better.
27:12 Speaker 01 In comedy, joke stealing is a deadly sin.
27:14 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Really?
27:15 Speaker 01 Yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
27:16 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Wow.
27:17 Speaker 01 Yeah, I've seen comics like come to blows over stuff like that. But if you do steal from me, you're going down.
27:25 Speaker 01 But there are some parodies of you that I really dig.
27:28 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Of me?
27:29 Speaker 01 Yeah. Like, I love Saturday Night Live.
27:32 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Oh, they did me a couple of times.
27:37 Speaker 01 And then you got Key and Peele, Oscar winner.
27:45 Speaker 01 And this last one is by far my favorite one, Playboy Bunny.
27:55 Neil deGrasse Tyson? So Emily and Charles, scientists use each other's ideas all the time.
27:59 Speaker 05 Oh, yeah. And that's a kind of currency. Like, it's the, so...
28:03 Neil deGrasse Tyson? In fact, you want your stuff to be used.
28:04 Speaker 05 Oh, yeah. So what we do, what we kind of get paid for is to publish papers. Right? Everybody's probably read all my scientific papers. Thank you.
28:13 Speaker 01 I bet you have, Charles.
28:14 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Charles, Charles.
28:16 Speaker 05 Put it away. And then, and then other people have to cite your papers. And in fact, like the, the kind of tradition is you put your paper online when it gets published, and then you wait for the emails to come in of all your colleagues saying, "Well, you should have cited this paper. You should have cited this paper. You should have cited..." Because not only do we count the papers that we write, but we count how many times they get cited by other scientists.
28:34 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Yeah, but, but if you always have to cite someone for an idea, would that mean there are no new ideas in science, Charles?
28:41 Charles Liu? Oh, there are new ideas all the time.
28:43 Neil deGrasse Tyson? But if you're always citing people who came before you, standing on the shoulders of giants.
28:47 Charles Liu? But the newness comes from being able to see farther than the person you're standing on. There's always something new, and that's what makes science so exciting. That point of discovery where you look beyond and you go, wow, that's something no one else has seen before.
29:02 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Okay, let's geekify this. Emily, Weird Al's parodies kind of like creating an alternative universe in the multiverse.
29:10 Speaker 05 Ooh, I think so. That's what Stephen Hawking believed in terms of the interpretation of quantum mechanics. I like it. I would like to live in that universe.
29:21 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Well, Emily, thanks for being back on StarTalk.
29:23 Speaker 05 Thanks for having me.
29:24 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Love your comments here. Emily, yes, thank you.
29:29 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Emily Rice. Up next, we find out why Weird Al Yankovic doesn't use curse words in his comedy when StarTalk returns.
29:48 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Welcome back to StarTalk from the American Museum of Natural History, right here in New York City. We're featuring my interview with musical parody legend Weird Al Yankovic. And I asked him about the comedy chemistry of his hugely popular music videos. Let's check it out. Could you, given your life experience and wisdom,
30:14 Neil deGrasse Tyson? could you explore for me the value of the comedy as written words relative to the comedy as performed?
30:25 Charles Liu? Well, I mean...
30:27 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Because, you know, when you did Bad...
30:32 Charles Liu? That was Michael Jackson. I did Fat.
30:34 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Oh, sorry, sorry.
30:36 Speaker 02 We get confused all the time.
30:38 Neil deGrasse Tyson? All the time.
30:39 Speaker 02 It's a good mistake.
30:39 Neil deGrasse Tyson? It's a thing. So, when you did "Fat",
30:45 Neil deGrasse Tyson? the lyrics are hilarious.
30:48 Neil deGrasse Tyson? But it's more hilarious to watch it. So, when you make these songs, are you hoping that they are first ingested by video?
30:56 Speaker 02 They've got to work both ways. And anything that I write has to work purely as an audio recording. It's got to be funny in and of itself. And the reverse is true. Like, "Eat It" was a big hit in Japan.
31:08 Neil deGrasse Tyson? "Eat It", parody of "Beat It".
31:10 Speaker 02 "Beat It", right. And I think that was mostly because of the video, because I'm not sure, you know, how many people in Japan really understood the wordplay in the song, but they could appreciate the fact that it was a direct parody of the Michael Jackson video.
31:27 Neil deGrasse Tyson? So, Maysoon, how does visual humor work differently from just audio humor?
31:35 Speaker 01 Well, you gotta like use your eyes.
31:37 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Oh, yeah?
31:38 Speaker 01 That's the big difference.
31:40 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Okay. So, you were the first comedian, as I understand it, to perform stand-up in your family's home country, Palestine.
31:51 Speaker 01 Yeah, it's kind of like being the first scientist. I'm the first, but I don't know if I'm really the first. Maybe in the 1950s in Palestine, there was this amazing comedian that just didn't have access to the internet and nobody knows. But as far as recorded history, I am the first. What I love about it is because I was a woman, they didn't have that stereotype that women aren't funny. And when men comics came to the Middle East after me, people were like, "Ha, ha, ha, cute", they're trying to be like the ladies.
32:21 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Oh. Okay, so now, your parents are Palestinian, but you're born in New Jersey.
32:30 Speaker 01 I'm born and bred in the great state of New Jersey.
32:33 Neil deGrasse Tyson? So, don't try to pretend like you're American.
32:36 Speaker 01 I'm born in the USA. It's very, very disconcerting to a lot of people who scream at me, "Go back to your country", and I always go, "I'm from Jersey".
32:47 Neil deGrasse Tyson? So, but now, but so, obviously, you would have some sensitivities and awareness of the Palestinian culture because your parents were. But what's it like? Delivering comedy in different cultures. Because half of, to me, as far as I can tell, half or more of comedy has to fit in the culture in which it's delivered.
33:05 Speaker 01 A live comedy totally goes both ways. I don't have to understand something for it to be funny. Like, for example, I understood nothing that Charles said and I laughed my butt off.
33:18 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Well, so Weird Al's humor is clean. No curse words, PG rated. So I asked him, because so many comedians rely on curse words. I asked him about his approach, that approach to comedy. Let's check it out. I couldn't help but notice there is no profanity or obscenity. Is this a philosophical point?
33:42 Speaker 02 Yeah, it's not a calculated thing because, you know, a lot of people think, oh, he's just doing that to get the family audience. And, you know, that's a nice side effect. It's nice to be like, like the album that gets played on family car trips. I mean, that's a cool thing. But mostly it's just an extension of my personality. It's just kind of the way that I was raised. I never even used profanity in everyday life. And it's just, you know, that's just me. I appreciate comedy.
34:04 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Were you a Boy Scout?
34:06 Speaker 02 I was never a Boy Scout. My folks wouldn't let me be a Boy Scout. They were too rough and vulgar.
34:13 Neil deGrasse Tyson? So, but the reason why I ask is for so much comedy, they need access to profanity or vulgarity just to round out where they want to take the humor. So you have found places to go that don't need it at all?
34:31 Speaker 02 Yeah, I mean, I try to find my way around that. I understand there are some, some times when it's helpful in comedy. I mean, a lot of comedy is based on surprise and shock value, and profanity fills that. But, you know, that's, that's just not the kind of comedy that I, I personally want to put out into the world.
34:46 Neil deGrasse Tyson? What about the ever-shifting comedic soils?
34:50 Neil deGrasse Tyson? The sand dunes of comedy. Where the sand dunes here today and then like in six months it's over there. But you're standing over here.
34:57 Speaker 02 Right.
34:58 Neil deGrasse Tyson? So in the "I'm Fat" video, were there like, was there a demographic that complained about that?
35:05 Speaker 02 Not.
35:06 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Then or today?
35:07 Speaker 02 Not so much. I mean, I've had people say, "Well, you could do a song like that today."
35:11 Neil deGrasse Tyson? That's what I'm asking.
35:13 Speaker 02 Yeah.
35:13 Neil deGrasse Tyson? That's what I want to know.
35:14 Speaker 02 I don't know. I mean, I'd be more sensitive about that. But again, when I did the song "Fat" in 1987, 88, it's like the nerd thing. I mean, it was an empowering thing. I wasn't making fun of overweight people. It was sort of like a guy that was like big and proud.
35:27 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Right.
35:28 Speaker 02 You know, and I think it's all about attitude and all about perspective. And the guy singing the song was, you know, it was not derogatory for him. It was like, you know, a joyous empowering.
35:39 Neil deGrasse Tyson? A celebration.
35:39 Speaker 02 Yeah, yeah, yeah.
35:44 Neil deGrasse Tyson? So, May Soon, is there a fine line between comedy that empowers a person who it addresses? Or just is mean spirited?
35:54 Speaker 01 Well, the interesting thing about comedy is sometimes you have to actually try it out to see if it's offensive or not. And I think there's a couple of different standards. One is, is it funny? Like, you kind of have to be funny in order for it to not be mean. But also, is it earned? And is it yours to joke about? So like, when I first became a comedian, I thought I was Andrew Dice, Eddie Murphy. And I used.
36:19 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Very vulgar.
36:20 Speaker 01 Not only was I vulgar.
36:21 Neil deGrasse Tyson? In case people don't know Andrew Dice's play.
36:23 Speaker 01 I was like Slurry McSlur. Like, all I did was use slurs all day, all night. Paula Deen had nothing on me.
36:30 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Okay.
36:31 Speaker 01 And, um, and I didn't realize until I got later in my career that not only was I depending on it, but I was harming my audience. So like, a lot of people are like, "Oh, you're censoring yourself." I don't think I'm censoring myself at all. I choose not to be mean. I choose not to use slurs. I choose not to joke about things like pedophilia because I don't want to harm the people in my audience. My like, number one goal is to make people laugh.
36:59 Neil deGrasse Tyson? So, how do people react when you joke about having cerebral palsy?
37:05 Speaker 01 They laugh, and they're not laughing at me. They're laughing at their own biases and fears against disability. Because when I talk about my CP, I'm not doing it to be inspirational at all. I'm just telling real stories. Like, if you joke about things that people fear, or if you joke about things that people hate, that in a way, you get them to no longer fear it and no longer hate it, and especially, no longer try to kill you.
37:34 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Okay, so now, up next, Weird Al Yankovic has a question for me about how the universe will end when StarTalk returns.
38:00 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Thanks to the following Patreon patrons for helping us make this episode of StarTalk possible: Jeff Prime, Jennifer Shin, Richard Shirley. And thank you for your simple names.
38:15 Speaker 04 The future of space and the secrets of our planet revealed.
38:25 Speaker 04 This is StarTalk.
38:43 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Welcome back to StarTalk from the American Museum of Natural History. We're featuring my interview with musical parody artist Weird Al Yankovic. And he had a question for me about the universe. Check it out.
38:59 Speaker 02 Well, I'm kind of curious. I know that there's different schools of thought among astrophysicists and cosmologists, but I'm just wondering what your opinion is on how the universe is going to end. Do you think it's gonna be... Do you think that the expansion is gonna slow down and go back to a singularity? And maybe you have a big crunch to start over again? Do you think there's gonna be a big freeze where, you know, the absolute temperature is gonna go to zero? Do you think, you know, do you think the forces of expansion are gonna outweigh the gravitational field and everything will get ripped apart on a molecular level or atomic level? What do you... I've got money on this. I wanna know what you think.
39:37 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Vegas, one of the... So, do you want the bad answer first? The worst answer or the worst answer?
39:49 Speaker 02 Gosh, let's... I'm gonna go with bad.
39:52 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Bad, okay. So, the bad answer is, all evidence says, we are on a one-way expansion trip. We're expanding faster than the collective gravity of everything in the universe can possibly slow us down to reverse. So, it's a one-way trip. And in that one-way trip, temperature of the universe will drop to absolute zero asymptotically. So, not only does it become large, it becomes empty because matter becomes more and more separated, and it becomes cold. And as I say, the universe will end not with a bang, but with a whimper. And not in fire, but in ice.
40:34 Speaker 02 Wow.
40:35 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Yeah.
40:36 Speaker 02 Kind of a spoiler alert, by the way.
40:44 Speaker 01 You said in the clip that there was a bad answer, a worse answer, and like the baddest answer ever. What was that?
40:52 Neil deGrasse Tyson? The baddest answer?
40:57 Neil deGrasse Tyson? All right, there's some hypotheses that the expansion of the universe will become so accelerated that the very capacity of the spacetime continuum to stretch will become compromised, and no longer will spacetime stretch, it will tear. And we have no idea what would happen after that. A tear in the fabric of space.
41:26 Speaker 01 Like a wrinkle.
41:28 Neil deGrasse Tyson? No, worse than a wrinkle. A tear. If you close a wrinkle, do you iron them out? If they tear, it's a wardrobe malfunction. So our StarTalk fans, every show we solicit, questions that they might have about a topic that we discussed, and they've got questions about the end of the universe themselves. So that means it's time for Cosmic Queries!
41:53 Neil deGrasse Tyson? So you're gonna read questions from the internet? We haven't seen them. I got my man Charles here to answer every question, because he's geekier, nerdier than I am, but I might be able to add color commentary to it. So what do you have for us?
42:04 Speaker 01 I'm going to be the voice of your voiceless fans.
42:07 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Yes, please.
42:08 Speaker 01 Number one, @SammyForever on Twitter asks, "How do planets end? And if one of the planets in our solar system ended in some way, how would it affect us? Because it's about us on Earth."
42:20 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Oh, okay, Charles, let me get this. Okay. Okay. "In five billion years, the Sun will expand stupendously, so large that it will engulf the orbits of Mercury and Venus, and its surface will become so near to Earth that Earth's oceans will come to a rolling boil and evaporate into the atmosphere. And the atmosphere will evaporate into space, and the ember that was once a haven for life descends into the crucible that is the center of the Sun as we vaporize."
43:01 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Have a nice day. So that's what would happen to us.
43:06 Speaker 01 Um, okay.
43:09 Speaker 01 Ziggy, it doesn't really matter because we're gonna evaporate. But Ziggy Richards from Facebook asked, "Do black holes ever end? Or are they eternally crushing matter and light with their gravity? Does it ever stop?"
43:23 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Charles.
43:24 Charles Liu? Yes, it ends. Black holes evaporate through a quantum mechanical process named after Stephen Hawking. It's called Hawking Radiation. He first came up with a long time ago. But it will take a really, really long time. So as you heard from Neil, five billion years from now, our sun will die and our Earth will die with it. But you know how long it'll take a black hole to do that same thing, right? Uh, Google years.
43:51 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Yeah, 10 to the 100th power years. Google spelled correctly.
43:55 Charles Liu? G O O?
43:56 Neil deGrasse Tyson? G O L.
43:59 Speaker 01 Before I read the next query, are any of your scientific answers not like dark and deadly? Because I'd like to sleep again.
44:07 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Okay, it might be a nice...
44:08 Speaker 01 And right now, I'm gonna evaporate and burn to death and fall in a black hole.
44:12 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Wait, wait, you'll vaporize. That's worse than just simply evaporating.
44:16 Charles Liu? Oh, it's better. No, I prefer to be vaporized over evaporated.
44:19 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Wow.
44:20 Charles Liu? Yeah.
44:21 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Yeah?
44:22 Charles Liu? Yeah.
44:22 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Vaporize is faster.
44:23 Charles Liu? Yes.
44:23 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Yeah, okay.
44:24 Charles Liu? Yes.
44:24 Neil deGrasse Tyson? All right, I'm with you.
44:25 Charles Liu? Yeah.
44:27 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Okay.
44:29 Speaker 01 Okay.
44:32 Neil deGrasse Tyson? All right, up next, Weird Al Yankovic plays Isaac Newton in a parody rap battle that I'm in.
44:42 Speaker 01 Nice.
44:42 Neil deGrasse Tyson? When StarTalk continues.
44:47 Speaker 04 This is StarTalk.
44:51 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Welcome back to StarTalk.
44:55 Neil deGrasse Tyson? We're exploring the geeky musical comedy of Weird Al Yankovic. And he plays my man, Sir Isaac Newton, in a science-infused rap battle on YouTube. And it includes Isaac Newton, a parody of Bill Nye, and a parody of me. Check it out.
45:15 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Who are the combatants officially in that video?
45:17 Speaker 02 Officially, it's Sir Isaac Newton, which I play. And Nice Peter plays Bill Nye. And then Charlie Tuna plays you.
45:24 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Okay.
45:29 Speaker 02 And you killed it, I gotta say. I gotta say.
45:32 Neil deGrasse Tyson? The lyrics are very clever.
45:34 Speaker 02 Did people actually think that was you in the video? They're like, "Oh, that was a great video you did."
45:37 Neil deGrasse Tyson? No, no, no, they didn't think it was.
46:00 Neil deGrasse Tyson? So I got the last word in that video, but Isaac Newton had some good zingers before that. And one of his lines to Bill Nye is, "I'll leave you with a page from a book I wrote at half your age."
46:19 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Then he goes on to say, "The integral secant ydy from 0 to 1/6 to the power of pi is log to base e of the square root of 3 times a 64th power of what?" So, Charles, is that a real equation?
46:34 Charles Liu? Yes.
46:35 Neil deGrasse Tyson? What?
46:36 Charles Liu? The integral secant ydy actually shows up in every calculus textbook that's been printed.
46:42 Neil deGrasse Tyson? I get that, I'm talking about the whole thing.
46:43 Charles Liu? Yeah, the whole thing. The definite integral of that function from 0 to pi over 6 is actually the natural log of the square root of 3. So if you take the natural log--
46:53 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Why do you just know that now? I could figure it out in a half hour. And you're just spitting that out?
47:00 Charles Liu? It's a thing.
47:02 Charles Liu? But the answer there, so he wrote, he said it was natural log of the square root of 3 times what to the 64th power, right? So because the answer is actually the natural log of the square root of 3, x to the 64 equals 1, which means that there are 64 solutions on the complex unit circle, including i, negative i, 1, and negative 1.
47:28 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Okay.
47:30 Neil deGrasse Tyson? I agree.
47:32 Speaker 01 I also agree.
47:33 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Thank you, thank you.
47:34 Speaker 01 I had a flashback to seeing you do calculus, and that is correct.
47:41 Neil deGrasse Tyson? Well, it was a pleasure to meet and to hang out and to just chill with parody performer Weird Al Yankovic. And he's a lovable, legitimate nerd. That's all I'm saying. And in this final clip, I had an idea for his next role. Check it out. May I make a suggestion for you? Sure. Because no one is doing this. Or maybe they are doing it and I haven't heard about it. I think somebody, and once you hear this, you'll know it's gotta be you, has to give out the annual nerd awards. Oh, why don't they have one already? They don't. It seems so obvious. They got every other frickin' award. The annual nerd award. We should co-host. So the nerdiest statement in Congress, for example. Okay.
48:26 Neil deGrasse Tyson? No, no, some congress, members of Congress have some nerd street cred, and it might come out in something that they say. So you're not making fun of them, you're celebrating the nerd. Yeah. There was a, there was a placard in the March for Science last year, and it said,
48:45 Neil deGrasse Tyson? "When nerds have to march, you should really worry about the state of the world." That'd be the best nerd poster. Yeah. Right? Let's get on that.
49:01 Neil deGrasse Tyson? This nerd geek culture, the fact that I can even use that phrase, geek culture, shows a remarkable advance of society's capacity to even recognize that demographic. Because I'm old enough to remember explicitly when if you were good at school, especially good at math and science, you really didn't have many friends. You know what that tells me? It must have been long ago, some monk must have accidentally mistranslated the Bible.
49:39 Neil deGrasse Tyson? That phrase.
49:42 Neil deGrasse Tyson? We know what phrase this is. I think it really should have been, "And the geek shall inherit the earth." You've been watching Start Off. I've been your host, Neil deGrasse Tyson. As always, I bid you to keep looking up.
Previous Cosmic Curiosities, with Paul Mecurio Next Westworld and the Future of AI, with James Marsden Page updated September 29, 2026 · transcript and summary are machine-generated
