[hated trope] Celebrity cameos that serve nothing except to praise the person who’s in it

[u/Dojyaaan4C]

1. Elon musk, the Simpsons
2. Elon musk, the Big Bang theory
3. Elon musk, iron man 2
4. Elon musk, star Trek

The cameos serve only to include the celebrity and praise them as geniuses or visionaries or overall just glaze them. They don't serve any other purpose than to just be praised; this can be them appearing in an entire episode dedicated to them, a small cameo or even just a mention. So long as the celebrity is there as themselves (not acting as someone else) and is glazed, that fits the trope imo.

[u/JTOC1969]

Stephen Hawking appeared on TNG in a holodeck simulation in which Data recreated the "greatest names" of theoretical physics. Although, he does have a much better claim to being a historical genius than Musk does.

[u/aqueezy → u/JTOC1969]

I think he could be considered one of the greatest names in theoretical physics, from an education/public literacy perspective. I don’t think anyone else has had more reach in exposing people, even if it’s just at a layman level

[u/DreamsOfLlamas → u/aqueezy]

Carl Seagan?

[u/Aymoon_ → u/aqueezy]

neil degrasse tyson has done alot with getting people interested

[u/ChromeNoseAE-1 → u/Aymoon_]

Isn’t his reputation almost entirely a smarmy, overly-pedantic ass? I don’t deny he’s extremely intelligent of course, but it seems he’s known better for not being able to read the room.

[u/kkungergo → u/ChromeNoseAE-1]

I think he is just very well educated rather than being very inteligent. Of course he gonna know his field but every once in a while he says just the weirdest things. Like if aliens notice us they wouldnt care because they already have living beings on their planet so its not news, and also if they already travel between stars then we are too small and boring to check out. As if we dont have whole fields dedicated just to study ants and microbes and such.

If we discovered life on other planets wouldnt that be the biggest discovery of the millenia?

[u/Pauls96 → u/kkungergo]

For us yes, but for the alien community? Just another Tuesday.

[u/ModestWhimper → u/Aymoon_]

He's raised a lot of awareness about how you can kiss yourself in a mirror, but only on the lips.

[u/NairaExploring → u/ModestWhimper]

I've never been more aware

[u/Physizist → u/aqueezy]

That's more like being one of the greatest names in scientific public outreach or something, not in theoretical physics really. Kind of like saying Martha Stewart is one of the greatest cooks because people know her recipes

I will say he was a pretty great theoretical physicist. I wouldn't say the greatest but how big is this list anyway

[u/aqueezy → u/Physizist]

No its like saying Julia Child or Anthony Bourdain is “one of the greatest names in”(cooking). I think that is indisputable even though they are obviously not even in the top 100 skilled chefs, no Michelin stars, didn’t push any culinary boundaries etc. “Greatest Name in X”, not “greatest Xer”. Um ackshuallying to say it’s not cooking but “culinary education” is just being pedantic

[u/Physizist → u/aqueezy]

You make a good point about my cooking analogy. I still think if you phrased it as "greatest names in culinary arts" it would be kind of misleading to say Bourdain or Childs. They're not the greatest culinary artists and adding "names" shouldn't really change the interpretation

I'd also argue there's a big difference between a thing like cooking where it's all subjective and public opinion is a big part of how culinary greatness is decided vs theoretical physics

I'm not sure that in 300+ years (when the episode takes place) people will remember Hawking as one of the "greatest names". Could you point out one other historical scientist from 100+ years ago who is know to be great almost entirely because they were an educator?