Bill Maher rips Kyrie Irving’s flat Earth comments on Real Time

Real Time with Bill Maher (Photo by Mike Coppola/VF17/Getty Images for VF)
Real Time with Bill Maher (Photo by Mike Coppola/VF17/Getty Images for VF) /
facebooktwitterreddit

The Real Time with Bill Maher panel erupts over NBA players Kyrie Irving and Draymond Green’s assertion that the Earth is flat.

Cleveland Cavaliers point guard Kyrie Irving made headlines over the all-star break when he revealed that he believes that the Earth is flat. The comments were quickly mocked and disputed on social media, but other NBA players like the Golden State Warriors’ Draymond Green chimed in to lend their support to his remarks. This idea was briefly discussed during Friday’s episode of the HBO show Real Time, sending host Bill Maher into a tizzy, where he echoed Bill Nye’s statement that this belief was “heartbreaking.”

The conversation was quickly sidetracked by Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane, who began talking about NASA’s recent discovery of seven Earth-like planets, and tied the theory to President Trump’s lack of belief in science, but Maher countered that we should be focusing more on combating climate change on our own planet, and steered the conversation back to Irving and Green.

“This bothers me, because I know we live in this post-fact world, but can’t we agree that the world is round?” he said. He then slammed the “genius” Warriors power forward for his comments where he questioned whether pictures of the Earth are actually real, arguing that he could “make a round picture with my iPhone today on the panoramic camera and make it look round.”

“This is so dangerous!” Maher continued.

“Have either of them ever been on a plane?” MacFarlane asked rhetorically. “Or a boat. How come when you sail towards the horizon, you don’t fall off?” Maher added.  “Can we have a benchmark? I mean, there’s pictures of it from space!”

More from Real Time

But fellow guest Asra Nomani, a Muslim-American activist who voted for Donald Trump, took a different tack, offering that we “have to respect people where they’re at,” which was quickly shot down by the rest of the panel.

“We have to teach people where they’re at, and if that’s where he’s at, and if Trump voters are where they’re at in their ideas… ” she said.

“You’re entitled to your own opinions, not your own facts,” countered MacFarlane.

“We have to have humanity,” Nomani responded, leading Maher to remark, “Okay, humanity: Please don’t be a f*cking dumb ass!”

Nomani attempted to drag Milo Yiannopoulos’ recent demise into the conversation, but Sen. Angus King concluded the segment by stating: “My teachers were human, but they told me when I got the problem wrong.”

Watch the entire clip below:

Next: Bill Maher takes credit for Milo Yiannopoulos’ downfall

The conversation was just a small part of an episode which mostly made headlines for Maher’s interview with GOP Rep. Darrell Issa, who called for a special prosecutor to investigate Russia’s possible involvement in helping to elect Trump, though he’s since backtracked in an interview with CBS News after criticism from his fellow Republicans.

Real Time with Bill Maher airs Fridays at 10 p.m. on HBO.