- Since I was a child I've
been naturally inquisitive
questioning anything and everything
that didn't quite make sense.
As I grew I poured countless hours
into a number of conspiracy theories.
Some of these theories I believe in
and some of these theories I
don't but some of them I do.
Here I'll be studying the
evidence for and against
all of history's mysteries, doing the work
so you don't have to but you really should
do it on your own like check
sources and all that, okay.
On today's episode, flat earth.
(balloon hissing)
a lot of people would have you
believe the earth is round,
well,
(balloon blowing out air)
we'll see.
What is the flat earth theory?
Well, the flat earth theory posits,
(balloon pops softly)
there we go,
that the earth is not a globe
as you have come to know it.
But is in fact a flat disk like shape,
lemme show you here.
It's kind of a lot like this, yep.
Suggests that the earth's
land masses lie flat
and to better understand this,
let's go all the way back
to the Bedford level experiment with
Samuel Burley Rowbotham.
(suspenseful music)
So let's go to the chalk board
and the Bedford level experiment.
Sir Samuel Burley Rowbotham,
don't know if that's
how its pronounced, kicked
off his whole flat earth thing
with this Bedford Level experiment.
I'll write it here.
Bedford Level ex,
This is the loudest thing
in the world, experiment.
What he did is he started on a long river
and he stood here, this
is him, with a telescope
woop woop woop woop
and he had his friend in a boat,
boo boo boo boop, boo boo boo boop
ride a number of miles down the river.
So this was what he was suggesting,
because of the curve of the
globe, he shouldn't be able
to see his friend after about six miles.
The top of the sail
should've been about 11 feet
under his view but instead,
he saw his friend go like
more that six miles.
The whole time he saw the
whole boat and the whole thing
just like this.
That led him to thinking that
Earth is not a globe,
wait, globe, there we go.
This is where it gets a little quack-y.
He published these findings in a book
called Earth Not A Globe.
The tricky thing is is that
he published these findings
under the name Parallax.
Why, I don't know.
Now if you think this
sounds crazy, it's important
to note that a lot of people are actually
in the same school of thought as Parallax.
(suspenseful electronic music)
Possibly Kyrie Irving,
Tila Tequila and B.o.B.
And this is where people
kind of hit the wall
on the flat earth thing, where's the edge?
Wonderful question, I've got answers.
So, to explain, this
is essentially what the
the shape of the flat earth looks like
and of course if these are the
edges, you're next question
would be like, well, why
haven't we fallen off.
Well that brings me to the ice wall.
(upbeat music)
Using my handy dandy
modeling clay for children,
I'm gonna explain.
(upbeat music)
Once you got the land masses
and they're all there.
They have this ice wall.
Now forgive me saying,
flat earthers, I haven't
fully made my mind up yet.
I really would like to
get around this 'cause
this is just so cool.
And so, this is what they
believe it looks like.
So you get your Canada, US,
Mexico, South America in there
and then Russia, the
other big ol' land mass.
They believe that the
Antarctic surrounds the earth
and keeps the water in
between the ice mass
just like this, look at that.
These are the principles
of the flat earth society.
Honestly, seeing it like
this, it's not so crazy.
We understand the ice walls
we got all that figured out,
you might say, what about the seasons?
(upbeat mysterious music)
This is the most enjoyable
part of the flat earth theory.
It is actually suggested that the sun
spins around the earth.
I'm actually doing the
opposite of that but you know
give me a break, you can figure it out.
The seasons changing
when the sun is closer
and further from the earth.
The earth stays kind of a fixed number
of miles away from the sun so that's good.
So okay, so they believe
in gravity so we're good.
No they don't.
Gravity is a hoax.
(upbeat electronic music)
In the flat earth theory,
the tides are not moved
by a lunar involvement.
The tide shifts are connected to a magnet
in the center of the
earth and we all stay here
not because of gravity
but because the earth
and the sun are constantly
an ever moving upward
like a tower of terror
that you can never get off.
This brings me to photographs.
(exciting upbeat music)
So you're saying, I've
seen photos of the earth.
It looks like a sphere, its very circular.
Why haven't these flat earth
people seen the photos either.
Well, they have but those
photos were taken by NASA.
This is a quote pulled from
the flat earth society's website.
In general, we at the
flat earth society do not
lend much credibility to
photographic evidence.
It is too easily manipulated and altered.
That is where me and them connect.
You cannot trust photos.
For example, photos of the moon landing.
Here's a photo of me at NASA looking like
I'm having a great time.
And here's a photo of me and
my best friend Jeff Goldblum.
I've never met him.
And on the whole, the flat earth society
doesn't believe anything
that NASA says or does.
They don't believe that
we've ever been to the moon,
me neither.
So if they're not gonna
believe other people's photos
why don't they take their own.
Well they've tried.
They don't even know
what's underneath the earth
because they can't get
outside of this ice wall
to get a good pic.
They have no idea.
One man even tried to
shoot himself into the sky
to get a good photo of the circle.
Listen, global warming's
gonna melt away that ice wall
we're all gonna swim
out and just fall over
like a waterfall and
I for one, can't wait.
But as Reading Rainbow always said,
don't just take my word for
it, look it up yourself.
Do the research on your own.
(upbeat exciting music)
