"How could anyone possibly compete with this."

Bumpy Fists

Facebook's awkward foray into virtual reality drags on — and this time, the company has roped astrophysicist and noted sad boy Neil deGrasse Tyson into its attempts to sell the concept.

In a cringey video shared by Facebook parent company Meta's VR department on Twitter, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg — or rather, his cartoonified, legless body — chats with deGrasse Tyson's own mustachioed avatar about the first images taken by NASA's groundbreaking James Webb Space Telescope.

While the science behind the images is undoubtedly fascinating, deGrasse Tyson and Zuckerberg's jittering and bug-eyed avatars suck up all the attention. An awkward fist bump between the two, with limp wrists awkwardly hovering in mid-air, only adds to the disillusion. Just look at these monstrosities:

"How could anyone possibly compete with this," Financial Times tech reporter Dave Lee responded to an awkward screenshot of the two "fist bumping."

"Imagine a future with worse graphics than Wii Bowling and none of the fun," mused fellow journalist Elle Hardy.

Metaverse Shill

Of course, Zuckerberg took the opportunity to shill his half-baked "Metaverse" — which, as of right now, amounts to a confusing network of apps and online spaces that can only be visited through the company's increasingly expensive virtual reality goggles.

Those space aren't exactly teeming with people right now. In fact, the company is already facing major headwinds during its major pivot to VR, with Meta's hardware division scaling back spending significantly.

When asked by Zuckerberg what he thinks "of this whole experience," deGrasse Tyson didn't really have any actual feedback to give.

"Any place you hadn't gone before, because you couldn't, or you just would read about it, if you get to go inside, I don't see why that wouldn't be the next best thing," he said, playing into Zuckerberg's, uh, hand by arguing that the "applications are limitless, clearly."

Roll the tape!

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