I've never seen or felt Neil deGrasse Tyson, the Physics Tycoon, as a comedian, or a funny guy to say the least. After watching the revival of the old Carl Sagan's Cosmos on Netflix, I honestly think he did a great job as a dynamic presenter... but still not funny.
However, living on the rays of the success The Big Bang Theory brought to all 'pimply' scientists, physicists and science nerds are nowadays a must for any scientific encounter or public engagement that really want to sound intelligent, genius or exquisite.
It is easy for Physicists because they work on matters that put the finger on a lively wound. But that doesn't take the merit from their capacity to astonish us tremendously when it comes to their mathematical geniuses.
Nevertheless, the reason I chose this video for the Toxic Humour label is because it is quite frankly, amazingly and surprisingly... funny! Neil really brought up the effects of deGrasse in this participation :P
And to a certain extent I relate to this supposedly fictional theory of us being the higher power science experiment... I really do.
I like real people, with real problems, and real answers to face these same issues... I am not so inclined to believing that the problems we see nowadays in the world have one colour only, one cultural spectrum only and one approach diagram only.
My very favourite comedian, George Carlin, could tackle the hot-steamy-stinky society issues with loads of class and intelligence. And I honestly believe that as a communicator, thinker and comedian he lacked no predicate whatsoever. But times change, routines are altered and the world needs newer, fresher approaches.
I've been listening to Bill Burr recently, and I have to admit he is becoming the comedian that got me to believe in clever, authentic, intelligent, contemporary comedy once again... for the guy is a real person with a real vision on things. Bear in mind I know nothing else of this dude, just his Netflix special and nothing else. But on this special he covers loads of interesting day-to-day behaviours that really divert from the expected norm. For example, in regards to racism...
One of the toughest and most walking-on-glass topics for any branch of thought in the entertainment world is Racism (alongside lesbianism, gay tendencies, feminism, abortion and gun control). But like myself, Bill sees racism as it is, an issue of individuals rather than a defect of societies. Individuals can be racist, not the entirety of the cultural background they emerge from.
Being a member of a family composed of dark-black people (my sweet grandma that I love so much is a great example) and very pale-white people (my blue-eyed awesome grandfather that I cherish incredibly), with a vast encompassing spectrum of tones of skin in the middle, I understand Bill easy!
I come from a country that once had over 60% of the world in hands. After colonisation was rightfully abandoned and assumed as a crime against humanity, the people that were 'touched' by the Portuguese returned to Portugal and live now as one, in the most peaceful country in the World. Not Iceland. Yeah Iceland, it's easy to be number one when it's so cold outside that no one really goes out and finds another soul in the streets. So take my word, Portugal is the most peaceful country in the world; chased by Iceland :P as a close second. In Portugal, people really respect each other... as a whole. Occasionally, certain individuals come out of their racist nests and disrupt that peace, but there's nutters everywhere, they actually represent the standard deviation that actually make the norm abide to the statistical rule.
These are individuals, not the whole society nor even the 'small majority' of our nation. These are the ones that ferment these jokes as they are in fact the joke on themselves.
As to Institutional Racism, that's a different thing. In that sense, yes, Portugal is light years behind the best socialist European countries. Try to be an African descendant and climb up the ladder in any governmental entity/institution in Portugal, you'll know the physical meaning of 'impossible', Seldom, Rare. I personally don't know a single case. And that is because years and years of Institutional segregation has been in place against those who were once the colonised ones. And this my friends, is statistically undeniable. A Black, Mollato, Gipsy, Asian man reaching even the middle of the company/governmental hierarchy is like never-to-be-seen. Let alone on those multimedia companies (TV, web, newspapers, etc) where 'they' could gain influence and represent a menace to old customs. In that sense, that is just a mirror of the racism that lives within these particular citizens for whom TV, in particular, and media, in general, are made.
Yep, I could debate this matter for hours as I experienced this first-row for many years in person and as a third party.
For now let's just relax and hear old Bill explain it in a more interesting fashion.
Alien, what a movie. I should see the trilogy again some time soon. My friend Licinia just made my day when earlier today she sent her own reenacting of the iconic terror-embedded moment when Sigourney Weaver is noticed by the Xenomorph XX121. All is there, the terror, the thrilling cold anxiety, the creature, the babe... the only thing missing is the toxic acid spurting.
I just found my coconut milk is a disguised Neo-Nazi extreme right wing straight edge fascist who believes that only coconuts should populate this planet
You say “orders of magnitude” in regular sentences. ✔
You say “conjugation” instead of “sex”, and “pili” sounds dirty.
You can no longer spell normal words but have no trouble with spelling things like immunohistochemistry or deoxyribonucleic acid.
You refer to your children as the F1.
You think the following is a quality insult: “I’ve seen cells more competent than you!”
You use acronyms for everything and never stop to elaborate. ✔
You use the word “aliquot” in regular sentences, especially with reference to tea, coffee or curry. ✔
You flinch when you hear the word “significant”. ✔
For you, media is something which increases your culture.
When you hear tween, you think of the surfactant not the age group. ✔
You are fed up of people saying alcohol, when they mean ethanol.
SOB is not an insult; it’s what you grow your bugs in.
You actually threaten your cells whilst waving a bottle of virkon or some other disinfectant.
You give the lab equipment motivational pep talks: “Work for me today or I’ll reprogram you with a fire axe” is my favorite. ✔
Entertainment:
You’ve seen how far away you can hit a target with a squirty water bottle or seeing how far away from the bin you can fire pipette tips. ✔
You still get amusement out of “freezing” things in liquid nitrogen. ✔
You rejoice when grabbing a handful of eppendorfs/bijous/anything and it turns outs to be the exact number you needed. ✔
You decide the courses and conference you want to go on by the quality of the food served. ✔
When you start making patterns in your pipette tip box as you take the tips out. ✔
You’ve played Battleship using tip boxes.
You’ve used, “I’d like to get into your genes” as a pickup line.
You have made some kind of puppet out of a nitrile glove and kept it as a pet. ✔
The scent of latex reminds you of work, not play.
Couture:
Safety equipment is optional unless it makes you look cool. ✔
A timer clipped to the hip is not only practical, but dead sexy.
People wearing shorts under a lab coat disturb you slightly as they look as though they might be naked underneath. ✔
You can tell what cheap and expensive white coats look like.
You hate having to change your lab coat to a new one because ‘it just won’t fit right’ and because the wrist bits are way too tight.
You’ve never worn a clean lab coat.
You have an irresistible urge to rip your shirt off superman style because it has press stud fasteners just like your lab coat… Most often occurring as you walk through a door just like exiting the lab… (I prefer to apply the Hulk style to disposable PPE) ✔
You’ve left the lab wearing a piece of PPE (personal protective equipment) because you forgot you had it on. ✔
You consider a green laser pointer to be science bling. ✔
You own Invitrogen t-shirts and actually wear them. ✔
Kitchen and home skillz:
No matter what the timings in the experiment protocol, there is always time for lunch in the middle.
When you organize your kitchen cupboard contents the way you would your chemicals… all labeled in alphabetical order.
Although all cooking is a glorified chemistry experiment you just still can’t seem to get it right.
You’re also very good at transferring small amounts of liquid between containers. ✔
You’re very good at diluting things. ✔
When your fruits go bad and you get fruit flies, you can’t help but check their eye color.
You open the toothpaste with one hand.
You want to have parafilm at home too. ✔
You wonder what absolute alcohol tastes like with orange juice.
Professional:
Showing up at 10AM and having a coffee is a productive day. ✔
You’ve worked out that a trained chimp could probably do 90% of your job. ✔
You always seem to use the microscope after the person with the impossibly close-set eyes. ✔
When you say goodnight to your microscope on a Friday night and tearfully hug it goodbye as you won’t see it all weekend.
You can identify organs on roadkills. ✔
You can’t wait for lab clean-up because you get to do random pointless “experiments” to figure out what’s in all the dodgy unlabeled bottles.
Accidents & discomfort:
Accident reports are a badge of honor.
Warning labels invoke curiosity rather than caution.
Blinking real fast has saved your eyesight on more than one occasion.
Burning eyes, nose and throat indicate that you haven’t actually turned on the fumehood/ downdraft bench.
Liquid nitrogen is only about a 1/3 as dangerous as you thought.
You bitch about not being able to pipette by mouth any more. ✔
When you wonder: how much will it hurt if I pour just a smidgen of this phenol/chloroform/ trichloroacetic acid/ any random chemical on myself?
The fire alarm ceases to bug you. You only evacuate when you see the fire. (Hand on the floor to check for heat is a good indicator.) ✔
C’est la vie:
No one in your family has any idea what you do. ✔
Sometime you momentarily vanish from social activities because of a time-point. ✔
The front page of Science is your light reading.
You realize that almost anything can be classed as background reading. ✔
When a non-scientist asks you what you do for a living, you roll your eyes and talk science at them until they’ve lost the will to live.
When you rejoice when grabbing a handful of eppendorfs/bijous/anything and it turns outs to be the exact number you needed. ✔
When you’ve got that callus on the side of your thumb from opening PCR tubes (0.5ml and 1.5ml eppendorf tubes for me). ✔
You are strangely proud of the collection of junk you’ve stolen from vendors at trade shows. ✔
Technology:
You can make a short film in Powerpoint. ✔
You can’t watch CSI without cursing at least one scientific inaccuracy. ✔
You don’t fear rodents, rodents fear you. ✔
You have to check the web to find out what the weather is outside. ✔
You’ve bent down to pick something up off the floor only to scatter the contents of your top pocket under the largest machine in the lab. ✔
Health and Hygiene:
You wash your hands before and after using the washroom.
You’ve suffered carpal tunnel from the pipetman. ✔
You’ve used Kimwipes as Kleenex. ✔
You’ve wondered why you can’t drink distilled water in the lab- shouldn’t it be clean? ✔
Your nose invariably itches when you’re doing mucky stuff with your hands so you develop the habit of scratching it on your upper arm. Unfortunately, you sometimes carry this habit over to real life, where it looks like you’re sniffing your armpits. ✔
You are slightly too fond of the smell of (pick one or many) Xylene/ Agar/ Ethanol/ Undergraduates/ Alcoholic hand-wash.
You’ve removed your gloves to find a small hole which has left you with either – wrinkly old person hands, a brightly colored finger (histologists especially) or a burning sensation and dermatitis at some point.
