Stephen Colbert prank leaves NASA in a pickle

by Stevie Smith - Mar 24 2009, 17:30

With an Austrian bodybuilder seated in a position of power as the governor of California, and a Hollywood actor having already held the reins in The White House, would it be too much of a stretch to imagine Comedy Central’s hugely popular Stephen Colbert seated within the oval office?

While Colbert’s iconic maniacal grin and perpetually arched eyebrow make him the perfect choice in an aesthetic sense, the Daily Show stalwart has successfully underpinned his potential political prowess after pulling off a prank of public influence that suggests American voters could well be putty in his hands.

The Tech Herald’s fantasies asides, Colbert has won a competition held by NASA in which the U.S. space administration asked the general public to officially name a new ‘living room’ module scheduled to be fitted to the orbiting International Space Station (ISS) in the spring of 2010.

It may be a long way from the oval office – in more ways than one – but a televised call from Colbert for faithful viewers to submit the word ‘Colbert’ as a competition entry has seen the comedian’s name beating out the closest NASA-endorsed suggestion ‘Serenity’ by a whopping 40,000 votes.

More specifically, across a ballot of 1.2 million, Colbert secured almost 250,000 votes and duly won the competition. However, NASA has said that, while it will give the winning competition entry proper consideration ahead of the official naming in April, it reserves the right to issue any name it deems to be more appropriate.

And, given that existing ISS living modules are already named Unity and Harmony, the word Colbert isn’t likely to sit well with NASA when placed beside the much more apt sounding Serenity.

If NASA does indeed decide to look further afield then other official recommendations include the likes of Venture, Earthrise and Legacy, while even more far-reaching public entries include Socialvibe and Myyearbook.

Colbert for president!

Want regular updates from The Tech Herald? Follow us on Twitter.

Around the Web