The end is Nye: When ‘the science guy’ went viral

16 Dec 2015

The image that started it all

For those of you who are unaware of who Bill Nye (the science guy) is, firstly, shame on you, and, secondly, he is a dapperly-dressed American science communicator who went from being a science legend to a pop culture icon this year when he was immortalised in a meme.

Star Trek fan Bill Nye, who is also quite the Twitter enthusiast, was working on a show earlier this year with National Geographic, entitled Explorer: Bill Nye’s Global Meltdown.

The network decided to use this pretty badass still of Nye to promote the show, and an internet legend was born.

Bill Nye

The photo was shared in the Photoshop Battles subreddit, which led to badass Bill (as I like to call him) finding himself in all manner of unexpected situations.

He was the star of his own movie (a few times).

View post on imgur.com

View post on imgur.com

View post on imgur.com

View post on imgur.com


He was the star of an album cover.

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The hero we needed in a post-apocalyptic world.

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He even inspired his own fashion range.

Bill Nye

Image via Imgur

And, of course, given the week that’s in it, it’s only suitable to mention that, despite him being a Star Trek fan, he also got in on all the Star Wars: The Force Awakens hype.

Star Wars

Image via Imgur


As year-end approaches, the end for this meme is probably Nye (see what I did there?), given people’s short attention spans on the internet, but the science world will still love ya, Bill!

Keep watching Siliconrepublic.com as we look back on the greatest memes of 2015. Let us know your favourite at @siliconrepublic on Twitter.

Brigid O Gorman is a former sub-editor of Silicon Republic.

editorial@siliconrepublic.com