There is arguably no conspiracy theory more notorious than the idea that the Earth is flat rather than round.
Despite hard scientific evidence to prove otherwise, "flat Earthers" seem to be growing at a surprising rate.
Basketball legend Shaquille O'Neal apparently stands among this infamous crowd.
On a recent episode of The Big Podcast With Shaq, the concept of the Earth being flat was brought up to some pretty amusing results:
- YouTubeyoutu.be
During the June 26 episode, O'Neal (or "Shaq") requested of co-host Adam Lefkoe that they play a game of "White People Sh*t/Black People Sh*t" with their guest, comedian Bill Burr.
The simple game consists of Lefkoe listing "random things that have no direct racial connotation," and the participants decide whether or not the listed topics are "White people sh*t" or "Black people sh*t".
Clearly excited to play along, Burr intercepted listing the categories form Lefkoe, first listing off various types of cars, immediately drawing a disagreement from Shaq.
After Lefkoe listed off "punishing a child by making them sit in a corner," "sleeping on the couch after getting into a fight with your partner," and "drumming," the topic of "conspiracy theories" came up.
Shaq more or less declared them to be "Black people sh*t" without batting an eye. Burr believed that conspiracy theories were "Black people sh*t" before the internet, but that "white people started to catch up with the internet." He went on to claim that White people took conspiracy theories in a "stupid direction," immediately citing "flat Earthers."
Upon hearing Burr's last remark, Shaq asked him if he indeed didn't believe the Earth was flat.
The question took Lefkoe by surprise, and he asked Shaq if he believed the Earth was flat.
Though not ever saying it verbatim, Shaq went on to say he did, indeed, tend to believe the Earth was flat, citing a 25-hour flight, where he never once saw the plane curve. The admittedly questionable rationale was met with laughter from Lefkoe and Burr, with the latter attempting to debunk Shaq's logic by pointing out "north" and "up" were two different concepts.
While Shaq accepted Burr's argument, he nonetheless clapped back, claiming he watched the map on his screen and looked out the window the whole 25-hour flight, and saw no evidence that the Earth was round, and not flat.
Burr continued to counter Shaq's beliefs, citing the invention of VORs (Very High Frequency Omnidirectional Range), while Lefkoe also poked fun at a time Shaq claimed the Moon was closer to New York than Los Angeles.
Shaq swiftly denied ever saying that, but instead clarified that New Yorkers can see the moon, which is over 240,000 miles from Earth (despite Lefkoe's false claim that it was "millions" of miles), and yet East Coasters can't see Los Angeles, being only about two thousand miles away.
Burr then advised Shaq that, should he ever enter negotiations to be a brand spokesperson, he might want to avoid bringing these conspiracy theories up, resulting in guffaws of laughter from Shaq.
Shaq continued to have trouble containing himself as Burr mocked his logic of "looking out the window" to determine if the Earth is flat or round:
"You can determine whether it's round or flat by looking out the window."
"What are the scientists wasting all their time with all of these apparatuses."
"Look out the window."
The laughter continued among the three men on the podcast, as well as on X (formerly Twitter), with many joining along in poking fun at Shaq's logic, even if not everyone felt Burr's jokes quite hit the mark:
At least Shaq tried to back his belief up with a firsthand account.
Even so, he might want to consider taking a flight with Neil DeGrasse Tyson or Bill Nye, who can explain the concept of gravity as they look out the window...
