♪♪
-50 years ago,
man first stepped on the moon,
but I'm not here to pay tribute
to the Apollo 11 astronauts.
-Oh, it's beautiful, Mike,
really is.
-Instead, I'd like to celebrate
a group of brave Americans
who haven't gotten their due.
[ Party horns blowing,
fireworks popping ]
Without the moon landing,
we wouldn't have
moon-landing deniers,
valiant theorists who've
inspired us to see that science
is merely a suggestion.
-It is my personal belief,
and I totally believe this
after all the years
of research I've done on this,
that NASA never landed
a man on the moon.
-If it were so easy to go
to the moon 40 years ago,
there would be bases there
by now.
-There's overwhelming proof
that it didn't happen.
It's sometimes translucent.
You can see through it, right?
-As the scientist right next
to the moon-landing denier
makes clear,
there is room for doubt.
JFK gets all the credit
for getting us to the moon.
-We choose to go to the moon!
-But we shan't forget the JFK
of moon-landing deniers.
-Men have never landed
on the moon.
-Bill Kaysing is an undersung
American hero.
In the mid-1970s, Kaysing
had the courage to assert
that we never went to the moon
in his cleverly titled book
We Never Went to the Moon.
The moon hoax theory
exploded in 1978
with the release of the classic
film "Capricorn One."
-This is Capricorn control.
We're at T-minus 15 minutes
and still...
-Telling the story
of a faked mission to Mars,
the film appeared on the surface
to be mindless entertainment,
but astute conspiracy theorists
saw it as a documentary
worthy of Werner Herzog.
The super-realistic
special effects
and the acting chops
of O.J. Simpson...
-These people,
they're capable of anything.
-...made viewers
absolutely certain
that we never went to the moon.
In 1980, the president
of the Flat Earth Society
lent his prestige to the
burgeoning moon hoax movement.
Now, you could argue
that the flat-earthers
were just pissed at Apollo 11
for sending back pictures
like this,
but moon hoax whistle-blowers
remained unfazed.
In the 1990s,
a new scientific invention
posed an existential threat
to conspiracy theorists
everywhere...
-I took the initiative
in creating the Internet.
-...the Internet.
Verifiable facts could now
reach more people,
threatening the future
of unproven speculation.
Luckily, moon hoax evangelists
were able to share the gospel
faster than you can say...
-You've got moon.
-Bold voices were willing
to question missing NASA footage
and other
truth-adjacent theories,
eventually making their way to
respected media outlets and Fox.
-For NASA to come out and say
that all the tapes were erased,
I mean, you must --
It's incredible.
-There are a couple of questions
that I do have
from time to time.
Who shot the footage?
-I see a lot of footage
that gets doctored.
-How in the world
do you erase the tapes
of the most historic event
in 2,000 years?
I mean, it's not like
it was a bar mitzvah.
-Full disclosure --
my parents did erase the tape
of my bar mitzvah,
and adding insult to injury,
this is what they taped over.
-We're in too deep to stop now.
-It's time to finally give
America's intrepid
conspiracy theorists
the credit they richly deserve.
Blessed with the gift
of cojones,
these deniers
are bravely willing
to ignore scientific findings
and video evidence
in favor of an America
where everyone is free
to ask questions
until the science
matches their feelings.
-My current opinion
about vaccinations
is that they have
never been safe.
-Evolution, Big Bang Theory,
all that is lies straight from
the devil.
-I just don't think
climate change is real.
-Climate changes.
Asking question is good.
There are no dumb questions.
-Right.
-In the face
of mounting evidence,
is there ever a time to stop
challenging accepted science?
For the final word on that,
I'll turn to supposed
astronaut Buzz Aldrin.
-Why don't you swear
on the Bible
that you walked on the moon?
You're the one who said
you walked on the moon
when you didn't,
calling the kettle black.
-Will you get away from me?
-Saying I misrepresented myself.
You're a coward and a liar
and a --
[ Cheers and applause ]
♪♪
