The saying goes ‘you should never meet your heroes’ because inevitably this person you’ve built up to be larger than life in your mind is going to let you down, and reality is going to punch you square across the jaw. Below, a bunch of people shared stories of meeting their childhood heroes and why it was a bad idea. All of these stories are illuminating, but what stands out above all is how many people have had a terrible brush with Bill Nye ‘The Science Guy’. These all came from AskReddit, so you can take them with a grain of salt, but I’ve been hearing for years that Bill Nye is terribly rude to children and these stories only corroborate that reputation. As it turns out (based on the stories below), not all celebrities are dickheads, and both Patton Oswalt and Harrison Ford sound like awesome gentlemn:
komnenos:
Bill Fuckin Nye
Grew up down the street from him (Ronald Reagan jr lives across the street from him) almost everyone in my age group in Seattle has some negative story about the guy. For me it was when I saw him at the local grocery store and told my mom “wow look, it’s Bill Nye!” I was only six or seven at the time but I still remember the loud “GOD DAMN IT!” followed by the incessant muttering as he stormed out of the building huffing, puffing and stomping his feet as he went.
I also had a guy whose dad was a producer with the Bill Nye show and when he took my friend to work asked Bill to sign a book and talk to his son for a second. Bill tells my friend’s dad to go fuck himself and that he’d never talk to some little punk bitch brat. Producer dad pulls rank and Bill awkwardly sighs in resignation, walks over to my buddy and tells him (more or less) “science is cool, do good in school… yeah” and walks off while muttering under his breath.
Many other people in their mid 20s in the Magnolia, Queen Anne, Ballard, Fremont areas of Seattle have similar stories of the guy. I get it, it must suck at times getting recognized by so many people. However what I found off was how he was so prone to cursing kids. Still enjoy a lot of his work and would love to meet up with him and see what he’s like to talk to adult to adult. But the memory of a pissed off man muttering “fuck, god damn it, shiiiiit” because a kid recognized him will forever stay with me.
missedtheapex:
I can also confirm this, and Bill Nye was the name I came in to post.
I met him in the late 1990s, when I was in high school and he was emceeing a national academic competition I was participating in. I made the mistake of intercepting him during some down time and asking for an autograph. That resulted in an eye-rolling, shoulder-dropping, huffing, begrudging signature before telling the others who were starting to gather around that he didn’t have time to “deal with this”. Which may well have been true, but his tone was unbelievably nasty.
I saw him at a similar event a year or so later, but I didn’t make the same mistake and get my head bitten off again. I did, though, overhear him saying to the man he was with—after dodging some kids—that he hated having to “deal with all these brats at once”. Brats who, mind you, were just smart, promising kids who did nothing but look up to the guy.
After that first time, I had thought maybe I caught him on a bad day. The second encounter confirmed that he was just an irredeemable dick.
sayakota:
I was at a Captain America premiere, Chris Evans signed as many autographs as he could. Scarlett Johansson signed a lot too. Samuel L Jackson walked towards us and people start screaming his name. He just looks at us and imitates the people screaming, laughs and goes in the theater. I wasn’t even mad.
violetmemphisblue:
I went to an event with “Salem” from Sabrina the Teenage Witch as the special guest when I was like seven. It turns out, there were multiple Salem cat-actors. For some reason, this really devastated me. After that, I’d always try to point out the inaccuracies of the cats within a scene…to make me feel better, my aunt got the producers of Wishbone to write and confirm that Wishbone was a single dog, actually named Soccer. This did make me feel better, and Wishbone is a universally better show.
nightshiftfox13:
Had to pay $60 to get Nathan Fillions autograph. He had like 4 handlers that vetted you and screamed at you if you tried to take a picture while he signed your shit because photos are a separate charge. And I waited in line 3 hours for the “opportunity.” If it hadn’t been a gift for someone I would’ve noped out.
Lashes_:
When I was in 2nd grade, I thought Bob Feller (pitcher from the Indians back in the day) was the greatest thing ever. I read about him constantly. When Cleveland opened it’s new Jacob’s Field stadium, he was there signing autographs all day. I went to the exhibition game with my dad.
Around 10pm we were walking to our car in the lot, and my dad notices Bob Feller is like ten feet away walking with some guy. He’s like – Do you want to ask him for an autograph? So I go over there, this tiny little white haired blonde girl, and I was like “Excuse me Mr. Feller, can I have your autograph?”
He turns to me and is like “God damnit, no. I’ve been signing autographs all day, I’m not signing another one, jesus christ.”
I didn’t know what to do so I just kinda froze and walked back to my dad and teared up. My dad was so sad because he knew he was my hero, so he took the paper from me and was like “Mr. Feller would you reconsider? She’s 8, she reads about you every night, you’re her hero.” He was like “Give me the god damn paper!” Signed his name real quick, and my dad thanked him so much and walked back to me to give it to me. He was like “Here honey!”
Loud enough for Feller to hear (which was an accident lol), I was like “i dont want it anymore.”
After telling that story here and there I found out apparently he is a huge dick and has a reputation for being constantly nasty. Oh well.
imbrium:
Neil Armstrong. For a while I worked for Congress, specifically the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology right around the time the shuttle program was being defunded. Met a whole bunch of the astronauts, all of them seemed like incredibly nice down to earth people. If you only went based off of his public persona, so is Mr. Armstrong. But take the camera away, and he was one of the most vicious, condescending, cruel men I’ve ever met.
At the same hearing was Eugene Cernan, who after Mr. Armstrong said some something particularly petulant to a female understaffer, turned and loudly announced, “Wow Neal, we always joked that you were the first man on the moon because no one on Earth could stand you! Proving us right, yet again, eh?” It totally dissolved the tension that had built in the room, and actually shut up Mr. Armstrong. Ended up chatting quite a bit with Eugene after that, super cool guy.
anix421:
One of my earliest memories was meeting Batman. I was probably 3 or 4 and I remember my mom taking me to this big event and it was crazy and awesome. The Batmobile was there and we got to sit in it. I remember I had a picture of Batman and Robin signed. Best day ever! I’m 30 now and recently brought it up to my mom. I asked where it was we went that time. She explained to me that it was just a local grocery store promotion, Batman and Robin were just some old fat middle aged guys with a beat up old corvette that had cardboard “mods” attached to it. Apparently it was a pretty embarrassing display… I always remembered how amazing that day was but now that I know the truth it kinda ruined it.
Blokie_McBlokeface:
While I was working at an airport, I met Sting. I thought he was gonna be cool but he was kind of a dick. The opposite can be true also. I met Robbie Williams (of Take That) who I’d always thought seemed kind of a dick but he was one of the nicest people I’ve ever met.
AP_Dude:
Played blackjack with Michael Phelps who was a drunken sloppy mess and an asshole. Also, Pete Rose, who was funny and awesome.
Edit: Phelps was at the Harrah’s casino in New Orleans during super bowl weekend and Rose was on a random Vegas trip at the Palms 6-7 years ago.
Fraundog:
I have a lot of friends that swim and they’ve always said Ryan Lochte is a complete douche. A few of them met Michael phelps and a apparently he was a condescending asshole.
Mangiyko:
Wasn’t really my hero, but I met Billy Mays awhile back when he was visiting a local Giant Eagle grocery store for some reason or another. I think they had the money for him to come in and plug some product in-store.
Anyway, my mom worked at this particular Giant Eagle and she met him before I came into work. She had him sign an autograph for me before begging him to do her a favour.
That favour was charging in my direction down an aisle shouting “CLEAN YOUR ROOM, MANGIYKO”. Funny and a great memory thinking back on it, but I nearly shat my pants at the time.
Jeffreyboxxx:
Years ago, I went to my first comic con in San Diego. This was way before they announced a Star Wars VII. We saw Peter Mayhew sitting by himself just hanging out, my brothers and I were so excited we walked up and asked for a picture and then he told us it’s $25. We said no thank you and walked away
grommash_sunscreen:
This one is a little different. Louis CK did a show at a theatre I was working at once. After the show I was chucking some bags of garbage into a dumpster in the alley way and he came out to get some fresh air. I noticed it was him but tried to play it cool and just nodded and painfully tried not to acknowledge him since he was probably trying to have some quiet time to himself.
So I just keep focusing on what I’m doing. Taking out the trash. But then a bag ripped open on me mid swing and scattered shit everywhere. He piped up and said “Well thats a bummer.” Then headed back inside after giving me a ‘good luck’ nod and a brief moment of sympathetic eye contact. I really do know he meant the bag ripping open, but it felt like letting a parent down at the time.
Don’t meet your heroes, not because they’re all assholes, but because you will probably only let them down.
pocketMAD:
Years ago, my chemistry teacher attended a Science Olympiad convention (a national after school science club) in Chicago I believe. He stayed at a hotel on the top floor. As he was traveling down the hotel in an elevator, in walks Bill Nye. My teacher, wearing his SciOly shirt, essentially screaming “I am science!” filled with joy and was about to say “o-oh, you’re Bill Nye,” when, before he could even begin, Nye doubled shushed him. And my teacher spent the entire hotel height-wise elevator trip in an awkward silence. To this day, whenever a kid asks if Bill Nye is still alive, my teacher always assures that he isn’t. Isn’t to him.
Bill Nye is a celebrity and probably was having a bad day. We’ve all had them. I also understand many think he’s wasting his time debating the existence of climate change with people who are as stubborn as humans. I think he isn’t because of two reasons: 1) he spreads awareness of those who do not believe in climate change and 2) he may potentially convince third-party watchers of the existence of climate change.
bluntforcecastration:
To give us a little salve for all the Bill Nye hate, I once delivered a pizza to Patton Oswalt and he gave me a 50% tip and when I told him he was a personal hero he gave me a little bow. Also he would come in to order sometimes with his daughter and he’d let her do the ordering. He is for real the nicest.
Really mad about Bill Nye though
Last, but not least.
owninobrien:
I actually just met Harrison Ford today. He was wearing an Indiana Jones hat while shopping in public.
Do meet your heroes.
I’m trying to think if I’ve ever been put in this situation because over the years I’ve met a ton of celebrities in this line of work. I’ve never had a celebrity be a dick to me, even when I asked them questions in interviews that would’ve fully justified them being dicks. I guess I’ve seen them act weird before, like when Seth Rogen showed up to a party for The Interview and told security to kick anyone out if they saw them on their phones. Most people at this party (I think it was a party for The Chive, I forget) had to check their cellphones at the door because Seth Rogen’s that weird about people taking his photograph at parties…And in this case, he didn’t even stay at the party for a full hour, so it seemed like a really weird move to inconvenience over 200 people at this party WHO ALL SHOWED UP JUST TO SEE SETH ROGEN because he doesn’t like seeing people use their phones and he’s that uncomfortable with pictures being taken…But then again, if he doesn’t want random people taking his pic then that’s his prerogative.
Alright, bros, that concludes my recap here. I still can’t really process these tales of Bill Nye ‘The Science Guy’ being a massive dick to kids when his entire career has been built upon the education of children, but I guess that’s why they say you should never meet your heroes. To keep on reading these stories on AskReddit you can CLICK HERE to see the thread in full.