Astrophysicist , who just might be American pop culture’s first “Blerd” (Black nerd) superstar, upset a lot of Christians on Christmas yesterday by lightly poking fun at the religious holiday, in one case using science as the punch line.
Tyson, host of the TV series “Cosmos” and star of a theater-style scientific show touring the country, went on Twitter to unleash his unique brand of Christmas humor.
“On this day long ago, a child was born who, by age 30, would transform the world,” Tyson wrote Thursday. “Happy Birthday Isaac Newton b. Dec 25, 1642.”
As of Friday afternoon, Tyson’s tweet had been retweeted more than 59,000 times. But there were many folks who didn’t enjoy his humor. As could be expected on social media, he got lots of people calling him nasty names.
“F**king atheists, man. This is why everyone hates you,” tweeted @AASalamH, in a typical response.
“Hi @neiltyson, trolling Christians on Dec 25 is so EDGY. Please let me know when you troll Muslims on Ramadan. Merry Christmas!,” wrote another Twitter user.
But the astrophysicist didn’t stop there. His next tweet went even harder at Christians:
“QUESTION: ThIs year, what do all the world’s Muslims and Jews call December 25th? ANSWER: Thursday”
“@neiltyson That’s reslly deep, man. It never occurred to me that non-Christians don’t celebrate Christmas,” tweeted @Popehat. “Guess I’ll become an atheist.”
Tyson had one more Christmas tweet to disturb the Christians:
“Merry Christmas to all. A Pagan holiday (BC) becomes a Religious holiday (AD). Which then becomes a Shopping holiday (USA).”
