NASA had a contest to name the new room on the Space Station but made the fatal error of allowing write in votes. Stephen Colbert urged his fans to write his name in and “Colbert” clobbered the competition.
Unfortunately NASA does reserve the right to choose whichever name that they wish.
I did a write-in vote for Colbert. Glad to see he won.
He did it!!! WOOO!!
Seeing as Dr. Colbert already has his DNA on the space station, it’s only fair- everyone knows that once you put your DNA on something, it’s yours. (His joke, not mine.)
I see Dave Barry wanted people to name it “Buddy.” That would’ve been interesting.
On a slightly more serious note (as funny as that sounds given the story), NASA would be idiots to ignore this. I say play it up. Colbert has ratings NASA dreams of and they could certainly do worse than have him playing things up. Imagine that funding for the ISS is up in Congress with the lean toward cutting things…
Do you really want to give up the advantage of Colbert screaming at the top of his lungs to save the Colbert Room?
In this, as in every other area, Stephen Colbert is far, far behind Leader Kibo.
On the other hand, I am disappointed that the ISS won’t have a module that Scientologists can’t mention.
I agree. Something like this is just a PR move in the first place, and the public has spoken. I’m a bit surprised that he managed to beat out “Serenity”, though… Where were all the browncoats?
I was torn, but went with Colbert. If I hadn’t known about the call to vote for him, though, I would have gone with Serenity. It was a difficult choice.
I wonder if NASA will have the balls to go with the vote, or if they’ll chicken out and go for Serenity (which I think is otherwise an awesome name).
Colbert is too much a joke, like having write-ins and getting “Mickey Mouse”. No one is going to count Mickey as the winner.
Besides, Serenity fits with the theme of other Nodes - Unity (Node 1) and Harmony (Node 2).
Colbert is more of a patriot than many other people they could name it after.
Does anyone have a link showing the original four choices? Serenity came in first loser, but what were the others?
NASA should get back at him by placing the DNA of the Ursus arctos horribilis (North American Grizzly bear) in the entrance of the room.
Mr. Neville voted for this, because he’s not a fan of Scientology and didn’t want it named Xenu.
Mickey doesn’t encourage people to vote for him, but considering the results, you can’t tell me Colbert didn’t achieve unity and harmony among his supporters.
I think the other choices were Venture, Earthrise and Legacy, all of which were far, far behind Serenity. It didn’t occur to me until just now that Colbert didn’t actually step into this until the Scientologists got involved.
That’s partially because Mickey Mouse can’t actually serve as junior Senator from Ohio, or 7th Tax Assessor in New Orleans, or Assistant Dogcatcher in Bumfuck, North Dakota. Stephen Colbert’s surname, however, is as qualified to be the name of an ISS module as Serenity is.
You know, they don’t have to make it that room… Stephen got his portrait in the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, even if it was above the water fountain outside the bathrooms.
Can you cite that please? I have been following this just a little. Scientologists got involved? Someone wanted to name it Xenu? I thought the name Xenu was one of those secrets they aren’t allowed to talk about until you pay enough. If someone was suggesting Xenu could it have been the anti-Scietologists?
I’m sure NASA wouldn’t select “Serenity” if that won. That’s a good way to get the program canceled.
Especially since it’s like Christians naming it “Satan”.
You’re right, but I didn’t go back and edit the post. Scientologists wouldn’t vote for Xenu, it would’ve been people making fun of Scientology. So Colbert competed with the parody. The bit on his show where said the vote totals made him the new galactic overlord of Scientology was a scream.