That Time I Really, Really, Let Bill Nye The Science Guy Down.

Pictured above is me in 2014, back when I worked as a researcher, writer, and video editor for the Vsauce2/Vsauce3 Youtube channels.

I'm the guy second from the right, next to Jake Roper, who is doing his best to smile through the soul crushing agony of having deeply disappointed Bill Nye The Science Guy (a childhood hero of mine).

This was fairly early into my Vsauce career, back then Vsauce was a Youtube Lab Channel. That meant it was technically owned by Google, which made Michael, Kevin, Jake and myself all people who got to work at Google/Youtube.

It was awesome. The nap pods are real people, THE NAP PODS ARE REAL!!

In case you've never heard of Vsauce before, it's a network of educational Youtube channels that ask weird questions and then answers them with hard science like, "how much does a color weigh", or "what would happen if superman punched you".

They had wanted to make a video with Bill Nye for years, because obviously, he's Bill freaking Nye! I had been working with them for around four months when we got word from our producer that Bill Nye was going to be speaking at some kind of Google event. The Google peeps told us that he would have some free time to shoot a quick cameo for any videos Kevin and Jake might be producing.

Little back story about me, I grew up on "Bill Nye The Science Guy", he was my hero. He's the fucking shit.

So me, Jake, Kev, and our producer brainstormed, researched, and wrote for a few weeks to get 2 episodes ready that Bill could show up in.

The first one was a video about future technology. I got to work over an hour early that day to prepare for the episode. The series was called "Thought Glass" and it required me to print various silhouettes onto transparent sheets so that Kevin could stick them to said thought glass.

The day didn't get off to a great start, the printer kept jamming and the sheets weren't sticking together like they were supposed to. A deep dark ball of despair started to well up in my abdomen at this point. Not only was I going to blow this amazing opportunity for Vsauce2, I was going to look like an asshole in front of my childhood hero.

Thank god I had gotten to work early that day because it gave me enough time to search all of Youtube headquarters to find a printer that could handle these weird plastic sheets. I ended up assembling everything with only minutes to spare.

So Bill Nye rolls in, and there's one thing you should know about Bill, he carries a rolodex filled with different bow ties. That's how dapper that man is.

He's super polite and nice, he takes a look at Kevin's script and is pretty impressed by it, so far so good. My job is to record/mix sound and all I can think about is how I'll be fired if I screw it up somehow...

We shoot his cameo without a hitch and you can check out the video below.

Vsauce2 Video:

It goes well, the sound is good, and we're ahead of schedule so we move on to Jake's video. I'm starting to relax a little bit, Jake's video is about time travel paradoxes, and aside from recording a little more sound I have no real responsibilities to worry about.

So Bill's great, talking about time dilation or some shit and ad libbing some banter with Jake along the way, then in between takes someone calls me Watson (cause that's my last name) and all of a sudden Bill is super interested in talking some more to me.

He says, "Watson, come here, I want you."

Then, perhaps realizing how sexual that sounds he clarifies: "You know where that's from? Alexander Graham Bell?"

Unfortunately for me I had not. I assume he's referring to either some Sherlock story or Watson from IBM. I fumble through some star struck idiot response and he goes:

"Alexander Graham Bell, you know, the guy who invented the telephone? One of the most important inventions in mankind's history?"

I die a little inside.

He goes on to recount for me how the first words EVER uttered over a telephone were "Watson, come here, I want you."
It turns out that Alexander's assistant was named Watson, and when ol' Alex got the telephone working for the first time he managed to spill acid all over himself, and used the telephone to call for help. Which for the record is an awesome factoid that I am happy to now know about.

Then Bill shakes his fist at the sky and exclaims, "If they aren't teaching you about that in school what ARE they teaching you?"

I don't even remember what I responded. The shoot continues on, me dead inside.

Then Bill cracks a joke towards me again, this time about some original Star Trek episode I've never seen.

I curse the heavens above me for never having watched any Star Trek other than "Enterprise."

He references some super famous episode where William Shatner falls in love with some hot chick via time travel, but then has to let her die so the Nazi's don't win or something like that.

Despite my best efforts it becomes apparent to him that I have not seen this episode. I gather that he really like OG star trek because he goes on to list the writers, and awards it has won etc. Then he throws his arms up and says, "My god, if they aren't teaching kids about Alexander Graham Bell or Star Trek what am I doing? I might as well take the black pill!"

Yes, you read that correctly, my ignorance caused Bill Nye The Science Guy to have an existential crisis, and contemplate suicide.

There really isn't a word for the emotion you feel when you cause your childhood hero to think about killing themselves, but if there is that's the word I felt.

Anyway this is the video we made, it was really great.

Vsauce3 Video:

The story actually has a happy ending.

After we finished with the video Bill decided he wanted to keep hanging out with us and eat lunch, but first he wanted to make sure I was brought up to speed on all the things he loved. We spent the next 45 minutes watching videos about Alexander Graham Bell as well as a full episode of Star Trek. I ran to the kitchen and got him some Google made sushi, which delighted him and put me back in his good graces.

My Google sushi chef nemesis wasn't even around that day to shortchange me on the soosh.

So this is my first post on steemit! I'm currently a freelance video editor/writer/comic book author, and I'll be posting videos and comics here in addition to relaying funny/horrible stories from my past.

Please give me a follow if that sounds like fun to you!