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 The Nightly Show
 Neil deGrasse Tyson
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.
