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Gravity Is Only a Theory
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Dissing gravity as a way of dissing either reality itself or some theory/guess/world-view. A large part of this trope's use in both fiction and Real Life stems from the fact that 'theory' means something very different in a scientific (and philosophical) context to its everyday use, which could be summed up as 'unconfirmed idea'. 'It's just a theory' is a common way to indicate lack of confidence/certainty. This is not at all how the word is used in science, which gives many scientifically ignorant laypeople the confidence they need to attack any science of their choosing. What "theory" actually means is a tricky, tricky subject — just go to your friendly university library and ask for some books on philosophy of science. In some works, however, the theory of gravity comes under fire as well, most often for purposes of analogy and satire. note The presence of gravity is not theoretical and is very clearly observed. It's the explanation of how gravity operates (as opposed to the phenomenon itself) that is indeed a theory, and has changed from time to time in the wake of new evidence, as scientific theories do. Gravity is currently best explained by the General Theory of Relativity, which has been empirically demonstrated to be correct, but which conflicts with quantum mechanics, which treats time as a constant. For various reasons, the theory of evolution is the only scientific theory that gets challenged on a regular basis in Real Life. This has caused many science communicators to assert that evolution has so much evidence supporting it that it may instead be considered 'scientific fact'. note To be perfectly precise, a theory is a model that interprets and explains facts and allows for prediction — using the gravity example, a fact is that when I dropped my pen just now, it fell to the floor, while theory of gravity is a conceptual framework that lets me say, with reasonable conviction, that my pen will fall to the floor when I drop it tomorrow, and it would have fallen to the ground if there were no floor. It might do so by claiming gravity waves, gravitons, curvature of space or tap-dancing garden gnomes, and we have no real way of determining which one is true — only of weeding out theories that are false (because a false or insufficient theory will fail at prediction eventually). See also: I Reject Your Reality, Science Is Wrong, What We Now Know to Be True, and Outgrown Such Silly Superstitions — and see Gravity Is a Harsh Mistress for when gravity itself is simply acting goofy. |
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In the Clone High episode "Blinded With Pseudoscience: Magnetic Distractions", Candide Sampson hires a substitute teacher named Professor Hirsute, who turns out to be a pusher of pseudoscience (and was hired by Candide under the gambit that the students who aren't leadership material would be stupid enough to blindly believe his nonsense and get themselves killed). At one point. Hirsute shows a bird in his hand and takes the bird flying away as proof that gravity isn't real. | |
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Invoked by Stephen in Academia as part of The Rant. | |
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In the computer world of The Matrix, gravity is not real because the world is not real. At the end of the first movie, Neo gives the tyrant overlords the proverbial finger by flying off in broad daylight, showing mankind that gravity is not all it's cracked up to be. | |
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Looney Tunes: In "High Diving Hare", Sam finally has Bugs Bunny tied and standing on the edge of the platform, with Sam sawing away at the board, gloating: "Now ya smarty-pants, let's see ya get out-in this one! This time, you're a-diving!" However, as soon as Sam cuts through the board, it is the ladder and platform that falls, leaving the cut plank suspended in midair. Bugs turns to the camera and cracks: "I know this defies the law of gravity, but, you see, I never "studied" law!" At the end of "Fastest with the Mostest", Wile E. stares at the Road Runner, still standing on a floating piece of rock, much to Wile E.'s confusion. He pulls out a sign that says, I WOULDN'T MIND, EXCEPT THAT HE DEFIES THE LAW OF GRAVITY!, but the Road Runner holds a sign that says, SURE, BUT I NEVER STUDIED LAW!, as he speeds away. |
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8-Bit Theater. Fighter attempts to save the group from a lethal fall by blocking the earth. It never occurs to him to factor in gravity or any other forces that might deadify anyone who was stupid enough to try such a thing. It works. | |
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Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal A combination of two strips plays creationism for laughs by invoking the idea that the theory about the earth moving around the sun rather than vice versa is only a theory. The first strip joke about creationists demanding to put "evolution is only a theory" stickers in biology textbooks. The next strip joke about a guy from the 13th century demanding the same kind of stickers in astronomy textbooks. In a much later strip, a biology teacher reverses the arguments against evolution— he argues that history is only a theory. More specifically, he does not believe in "the theory of revolution": According to his religion, all states were created in their current form (he handwaves away revolutions he could personally observe as "microrevolutions" whose resulting states are basically the same.note This is a parody of the creationist tactic of handwaving away as "microevolution" any clearly observed cases of natural selection such as the development of antibiotic-resistant bacteria; "microevolution" of course, is evolution, it just needs lots and lots of time to become "macroevolution", which of course we don't have. It takes thousands of years at an absolute minimum (combined with an extreme level of environmental pressures) to produce the level of change creationists are demanding, significantly longer than human history has existed.) However, he was deliberately using Insane Troll Logic in order to prove his point that teaching Intro Biology was tougher than teaching Intro History, because even though both have to deal with wackos and conspiracy theorists of all flavours the biology professor actually has to deal with bullshit "theories" as well. |
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In one Dilbert strip, Dogbert theorizes that gravity is optional and that this is the reason why most people are stupid: Smart people question everything, and when they start questioning gravity they get flung out into space. | |
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3rd Rock from the Sun has a scene with the aliens commenting on humanity's "misplaced faith in gravity" and laughing about it. | |
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Nineteen Eighty-Four: As O'Brien puts it, "I could be floating in front of you right now if I wish it. Right now I do not wish it, because it does not suit the Party." | |
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In a "U.S. Acres" segment on Garfield and Friends, Roy tricks Wade into thinking that the law of gravity (or "grabbity", as Wade misinterprets it) has been repealed, leading to Wade thinking he's going to fly off into space. | |
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asdfmovie: One character here says "Screw gravity" and immediately begins floating upward. | |
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The Onion has an article called "Evangelical Scientists Refute Gravity With New 'Intelligent Falling' Theory," where fundamentalist Christians want equal time in physics classes, demanding that the theories of Newton and Einstein step back in favor of the theory that the universe is held together by Jesus. | |
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In "High Diving Hare", Sam finally has Bugs Bunny tied and standing on the edge of the platform, with Sam sawing away at the board, gloating: "Now ya smarty-pants, let's see ya get out-in this one! This time, you're a-diving!" However, as soon as Sam cuts through the board, it is the ladder and platform that falls, leaving the cut plank suspended in midair. Bugs turns to the camera and cracks: "I know this defies the law of gravity, but, you see, I never "studied" law!" | |
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Chick Tracts: Some tracts go into this territory, claiming that the universe is held together by Jesus rather than any scientific principle such as gravity. Others even state that matter is held together on the subatomic level not by gluons, but by the will of God. |
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In Mage: The Ascension, Gravity is only one of the many oppressive and arbitrary rules that The Technocracy forces on us and The Traditions want to get rid of.. On the flip side, because consensus reality sort of becomes the mage's personal reality the closer you get to him, there is often convenient floor-directed 1*g gravity and 1*atm air pressure wherever a mage that's too lazy to come up with better is standing... even if he's standing on an asteroid, in space, with no atmosphere. | |
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The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy holds that learning to fly is a fairly simple manner. All one has to do is throw oneself at the ground... and miss, at which point physics will happily ignore what you're doing as long as you yourself don't think about it too hard. Several characters successfully achieve flight in this manner. It's pointed out in analysis that, from a certain point of view, this is actually true: being in orbit is literally a case of moving so quickly horizontally that you keep missing the ground while falling. | |
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The YouTube comedy Miss USA - Should Gravity be Taught in Schools? | |
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In the Salvatore Ganacci skit "f the police.", Salvatore floats away on a hot air balloon that doesn't have a balloon, since there's no cops around to catch him breaking the laws of gravity. | |
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In the My Life as a Teenage Robot episode “Turncoats�, Dr. Locus assumes this trope is effect when he tries to use his invention controlling remote on gravity itself. He promptly gets crushed by a thrown XJ-8. | |
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Safehold: Variant. Many scientific theories (including gravity) are taught to the locals as divine miracles with no further context. If a doctor fails to wash his hands before a procedure and the patient dies, it's not because of germs, it's punishment for his sins. If you don't eat enough fruit and get scurvy, it's because of sin. The locals are even aware that their world is a globe, and are told that this is clear evidence of divine will, because what else could keep them affixed to a rock floating in space? It's worth noting that this was done very specifically to undermine the growth of the scientific method, as part of an attempt to keep Safehold stuck in Medieval Stasis. |
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In Sam & Max: Freelance Police Season 2, Max claims not to believe in the existence of magnetism, insisting it's 'only a theory'. Then he brings out his Luger... only for it to be magnetized to the North Pole. He then says he believes it, "But that's my limit!" | |
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In an episode of Family Guy, Peter gets Mel Gibson to walk off Mt. Rushmore because, according to Peter, “Christians don’t believe in gravity.� | |
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The Amazing Atheist does a Take That! to Josh Feuerstein and his reasoning against evolution in "Gravity Disproved In 2 Minutes" where his character Josh Moronstein uses the same line of logic as Feuerstein to "disprove" that gravity is real using a helium-filled balloon. | |
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The Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster claims that "gravity" is actually the Flying Spaghetti Monster gently pushing us down with his noodly appendages. This theory is supported by the fact that people are taller now than during the stone age, and also more numerous: Clearly there is less gravity for each of us these days, and thus we grow taller. | |
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Phoebe in Friends states, "Lately I get the feeling that I'm not so much being pulled down as I am being pushed" when Ross compares evolutionary theory with gravity. It was never confirmed whether she was serious or just messing with Ross. This leads to one of the show's funniest jokes: there's a knock on the door, and Chandler responds, "Uh oh, it's Isaac Newton and he's pissed." |
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In Saint Seiya, in Shiryu's final trial to earn his Dragon cloth he has to revert the flow of a waterfall using his Cosmo, Shiryu at first objects to the trial saying that it's impossible since it goes against the laws of nature, his master, Dokho, chastises him by saying that "There's no law that says the water has to flow downwards" and that the so-called "Laws of Nature" are the feeble attempts of weak men to explain what they can't possibly comprehend. | |
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