Yesterday evening, dressed in a blue jacket and his signature bow tie, Bill Nye ’77 returned to Cornell to speak at the Alice Cooke House.

Nye’s introduction threw his audience into fits of laughter. He hid behind a cardboard cut out of Alice Cooke and pretended to be the honored professor. “My name is Alice Cooke. I was an ILR professor but I love science so I love when Bill Nye comes back to Cornell University.”

Chris Tindel ’12 remarked that Nye looked almost exactly as he remembered him from his childhood. “He looks just the same, except I was used to his lab coats. Those were awesome.”

Nye first showed clips of the children’s show he is currently working for, “Solving for X.” The show, which can be viewed on the DisneyEducation website as a “webisode”, is meant to educate children on algebra. In the first clip, Nye demonstrated proportions by measuring the Hollywood Hills sign compared to a smaller model. Nye showed three other clips, one of which was titled “Solving for Unknown.” As the audience watched the clips, Nye poked fun of himself and repeated some of the clip’s punch lines as they played. Students laughed and applauded after each excerpt.Rockin’ the bow tie: Bill Nye ’77 speaks about his rise to fame at Alice Cook House yesterday. In his expected garb, the legendary host of “Bill Nye the Science Guy” showed clips from his new show “Solving for X.”

After the clips, Nye fielded questions from the audience. When asked how he got into the entertainment business, Nye said, “It all started at Cornell on Linden Avenue with the radical new technology called cable.”

Nye’s freshman roommate was an avid watcher of Steve Martin’s show on cable TV and encouraged Nye to try out for a Steve Martin look-alike contest while Nye was working for Boeing in Seattle. After further pressure from friends, Nye tried out and won. “So after that I started doing stand up comedy on my own.” Nye’s penetration of the comedy industry ultimately led to his landing a job writing comedy for NBC. This job spawned others in numerous comedy shows, including the one most Cornell students remember, “Bill Nye the Science Guy” on PBS.

When asked how he ended up at Cornell, Nye joked that he still cannot fathom how he got in. “I think me getting into Cornell was a clerical error,” Nye said. Nye also joked about his attraction to Cornell. “One of the things that really appealed to me about Cornell — first, they let me in and second, they had women.”

To this day, Nye does not know how he made it through his years at Cornell. “I cannot write. I can not calculate. ... I can’t do any freaking thing. I don’t know how I got out of here,” Nye said.

Despite promptings from the audience, Nye refused to reveal all of his Cornell stories. “The really good ones, I really can’t tell you. Even for an engineer it was a really cool time,” Nye said.

Material Sciences Teaching Assistant Carol Newby grew up in England and had therefore never seen Nye’s show.

Newby asked Nye whether he believed it was possible to teach college level science humorously without slowing the students’ rate of learning. Nye’s response emphasized his love for the humor that he is so known for. “[I do not think humor would slow the rate of learning] because humor keeps people engaged. My father and mother were both very funny,” Nye said. “So I meet people who aren’t funny and it is not important to them and, if I may, I don’t get it. Humor is so important to me.”

Though Newby enjoyed the response, she remained skeptical of Nye’s stance. “I really appreciate the humor and it does keep students attention, but I think it is difficult to keep up that much humor without losing the pace of learning,” Newby said.

Justin Zupnick ’12 remarked that he would love to see relevant Nye videos in class. “The videos would be boring if it was just on algebra [like in “Solving for X”] but if it was on something relevant to my level of education and interests, it would be interesting,” Zupnick said.

When asked why he comes back to Cornell so often, Nye mentioned his deep love for and gratitude to the University. “I come back because I have tremendous loyalty to Cornell. Cornell changed my life for the better. My relationship to Cornell has enriched my life tremendously,” Nye said.

As a child, Cassie Greene \’11 watched Bill Nye every day after school. “Bill Nye inspired a generation of scientists so it was really an honor to get to see him.”

Greene was not disappointed. “He fulfilled all of my expectations. You know, science rules.”