Internet Culture

Everyone is mocking Neil deGrasse Tyson for explaining the word ‘awesome’

Twitter is awesome.

Photo of Tiffany Kelly

Tiffany Kelly

Neil DeGrasse Tyson with tweet

Neil deGrasse Tyson is at it again. The astrophysicist and Cosmos host has become a punchline over the last year for his pedantic tweets. He’s a “well, actually” guy who will ruin things that you love—like when he explained the “bad physics” in fantasy series Game of Thrones. Tyson is either hyper-aware of what he’s doing, and trolling people, or he doesn’t see anything wrong with his tweets.

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On Thursday night, he tweeted about his annoyance with people overusing the word “awesome.” He even labeled this opinion as a “back in my day” rant.

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To Tyson, only scientific advancements and major milestones in history deserve the “awesome” modifier. Low-brow stuff like TV shows and food can never be awesome. Damn, Neil. Way to ruin the start of our weekends.

His tweet was, naturally, mocked by people who enjoy awesome TV shows and food.

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Even Merriam-Webster seemed to disagree, tweeting Neil’s first name, which on Twitter is a sign that someone wrote a bad tweet.

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Other adjectives were also popular “back in the day,” but we don’t use them the same way today.

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What do others in the science community think about Tyson’s stance? Well, Sophia Nasr, a physicist, disagreed that we can’t use “awesome” to describe arts, culture, and food.

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Even former Congressman John D. Dingell, who is 91 years old, thought that Tyson needed to chill out.

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Tyson, if you need some awesome food and TV show recommendations, we’re here for you.

 
The Daily Dot