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Colbert Wins Space Station Name Contest
As we speculated a couple of weeks back, it has come to pass. Reader mknewman writes to tell us that comedian Stephen Colbert has won the vote to have his name immortalized (or at least until it crashes) as the moniker on NASA's newest addition to the International Space Station. We can but wonder what NASA will do now. "NASA's mistake was allowing write-ins. Colbert urged viewers of his Comedy Central show, 'The Colbert Report' to write in his name. And they complied, with 230,539 votes. That clobbered Serenity, one of the NASA choices, by more than 40,000 votes. Nearly 1.2 million votes were cast by the time the contest ended Friday."
It's not mentioned in the article, but what brought this all up in the first place was the fact that "Xenu" was winning the write-in vote before he asked viewers on his show to write in his own name instead. Xenu is the galactic overlord from Scientology myth. Colbert asked his viewers to write in his own name, and the following day he had already passed Xenu on the write-ins. The show that evening, he declared himself the new galactic overlord.
Incidentally, NASA reserved the write to call it whatever they want; they don't have to go with the vote.
that my write in vote for Bigus Dickus didn't win... I thought I had the mobs support. Cheers, endxv
All glory to the Hypnotoad!
I hardly think that a 3.3% margin of defeat is worthy of the adjective "clobbering".
Really naming it the "Colbert" room isn't as lame as if everyone voted for "i can haz space station" or something. Plus he may have actually raised public awareness of space programs a little bit. He certainly drove traffic to NASA's website. And if 200,000 people actually voted for him, you can imagine how many people voted for a "real" option or read some of the NASA content.
The Colbert Spaceport?
What a fool believes, he sees, no wise man has the power to reason away.
From the article: "NASA reserves the right to choose an appropriate name."
Name it something else, but hang a signed picture of Colbert in the module. The fans are satisfied, a reasonable name can be applied, and Colbert gets a talking point for a show.
But please, for the love of God, no dancing! Colbert dancing with that freaky grin always creeps me out.
Yep, I guess the difference lies in "to kill hundreds of thousands of people".
You just got troll'd!
I wrote in "Candlejack", and apparently i was the onl
On a similar note, what will Time do if Moot wins the #1 most influential person of the year?
http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1883644_1886141,00.html
I wonder if he'd let it be named Serenity for a date with Inara Serra / Morena Baccarin?
Yeah! What the fuck have we ever gotten from NASA? Pretty pictures?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASA_Spinoff
http://spaceplace.nasa.gov/en/kids/spinoffs2.shtml
Kohl-bear Spayss-pore
Karma: Non-Heinous
Why shouldn't it be named after him? After all, it makes sense. Bear in mind that there's a lot of people watch the Colbert Report who are not necessarily Space Nerds. But they are people who have political interests, and are active voters. Do you not think it would actually be a really really good thing to have them interested in what NASA is doing? And thus help fund other things?
Colbert is great about generating publicity, the Colbert Bump is real -- so why not bump NASA? Who really cares what the craft is called if it will help NASA?
It would have been "Ron Paul" if it wasn't a socialist space project!
NASA's mistake was allowing write-ins.
Mistake? How so? It's pretty obvious that the purpose of the naming-competition was to get people involved and excited. To raise NASA's profile and garner some free advertising. By allowing write-ins, they opened the door for Colbert to advertise for them. And apparently he drove some 230,000 people to go check out the NASA site, maybe read some other NASA material, talk about NASA with their friends, and so on.
I daresay NASA was quite successful in their effort to gain some publicity. Allowing write-ins was evidently not a mistake.
This is awful. I've heard him pronounce his *own* name different ways on his show.
As I understand it, The Colbert Report is "the coal bear rapport" most of the time, but it was temporarily changed to "the coal bert report" during the first quarter of 2008 to signify the more improvisational format that the striking Writers Guild of America forced on Colbert. Likewise, The Daily Show got replaced with A Daily Show .
You clearly don't watch his show. He often talks about Nasa and space stuff. He even did a couple of interviews with astronauts aboard the ISS.
Mada mada dane.
I believe the correct term is actually "damaged Cylon" you insensitive frakin' clod.
Some bring out the best in others, some the worst. Some bring out far more.
All right, but apart from the Pretty Pictures, Light-Emitting Diodes, Infrared Ear Thermometers, DeBakey's Ventricular Assist Device, Artificial Limbs, Aircraft Anti-Icing Systems, Highway Safety Grooving, Improved Radial Tires, Chemical Detection, Video Enhancing and Analysis Systems, Land Mine Removal, Fire-Resistant Reinforcement, Firefighting Equipment, Temper Foam, Enriched Baby Food, Portable Cordless Vacuums, Freeze Drying Technology, Water Purification, Solar Energy, Pollution Remediation, Better Virtual Software, Structural Analysis, Internet-Connected Ovens, Powdered Lubricants, Improved Mine Safety and Food Safety Systems, what have we ever gotten from NASA?
**TODO** [X] Steal someone elses sig.
That's one way to look at it.
On the other hand, I think it's an example of how quickly a large group of people can be mobilized when prompted by someone they like. It seems obvious you've not spent much time watching his program.
Colbert, Stewart, and others prove that serious discussion can happen while laughing. I don't think for one second that Stephen was mocking NASA; he actually saved it from the prior leading write-in: Xenu.
...are the people behind nearly all that is evil in the world!
Ah come on not all evil, leave some room for bankers and republicans!
"Nobody knows the age of the human race, but everybody agrees that it is old enough to know better." - Unknown
Sometimes the direct route is not always the best route. The river meanders for a reason.
What?
But Colbert != Stern. It's like saying you don't want something named Gandhi because you don't want it named Hitler.
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