NASA’s online contest to name a new room at the international space station went awry. Comedian Stephen Colbert won.
The name “Colbert” beat out NASA’s four suggested options in the space agency’s effort to have the public help name the addition. The new room will be launched later this year.
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.
NASA still reserves the right to choose an, uh, appropriate name.
@#29
no problem. i wasn’t trying to say one show is better than the other. i have never seen serenity. the point i was making is if you are going for PR with a pop culture name like nasa is doing then colbert is the better choice.
Apparently NASA is considering naming the new toilet after Colbert, preserving their ability to please the public and name the module something tiresome.
The right wing nuts don’t change. Even though they lost the November election, they won’t accept the results of this one either.
Given the function of the new module I wrote in “lymph node”
Colbert is the new Stern
They should call it The Flatularium
#30
bobbo it sounds like you were probably watching Farscape by mistake.
here try this one
http://www.hulu.com/watch/4584/firefly-jaynestown#x-0,vepisode,1
You might need to know the characters to really enjoy it.
#36–Zarkov==thanks for the recommendation, I’m watching it now. I have to resist my kneejerk reaction to space ships having more space than my house, but it is the character and themes that count?
I don’t think it was Farscape that I agree is even worse what with sock puppets as main characters–reminded me of Buck Rodgers TV show.
I also hate any SciFi show plotted around societies that resemble past periods on Earth – beyond lame.
But, I actually WANT to enjoy it, Blade Runner being one of my top 10 films of all time.
Yeah boy, I love those guys at comedy central. Colbert is hysterical! If you haven’t seen him go visit the comedy central web, they got great bandwidth and a huge collection of online material. Nothing kills the exsistencial funk like laughing until the tears start to roll.
BTW Firefly was/is boring, the film Serenity is destined to become a sci fi classic! But since the spacestation and it’s inhabitants are gonna get fried by the great solar flare of winter solstice 2012, it won’t matter much what they call it.
Well, I stopped watching serenity. Too muddled, confused, mixed up. I don’t watch SF to listen to folk music being played in a survivalist camp with fundamentalist preachers.
The cyborg from Sarah Chronicles was nice to see though.
I just found “Underbelly” the Australian version of the Soprano’s. The mindless cruelty like in “Oz” makes me look away a bit, but “real” characters in a real setting.
#28 People with no sense of humor amuse me.
And you get to feel sooooo superior, that’s a plus.
#28 I do have a sense of humor. The problem is this is not funny. If it is, can you explain me why? Can you pinpoint it?
What did he prove anyway, that the Nasa poll Web site was feeble? Can I assume you also think it’s funny to push seniors down a staircase? “Hahaha, look at grandpa rolling down, he is feeble!” How about looking for kids on the beach building sand castles and kicking their castles? “Hohoho, sand castles crumble so easily! I rule!” Is that your idea of funny?
Or maybe he wanted to show that he is popular and can remote-control an army of dumbasses with barely 15% of the IQ required to be accepted by Nasa to pick up a mouse and vandalize a poll. Oh, yeah, that is so very funny!
Come on, he could at least have had the decency of suggesting an actual funny name. You know, a pun? That’s what Monty Python or Mel Brooks would have done, if ever. Instead, he says: look, I am one shitty comedian and have no funny idea really, so just put my name on that poll. LAME!!!
That is not the work of a comedian, that’s the work of an ego jerking off on national TV, at the expense of a nice initiative by one of the most serious and respected organizations on the planet. His material is worthless. That guy is just a bunch of lame ideas delivered with the old and tired dead pan face we’ve all seen thousands of times on dozens of unfunny clowns who think that the dead pan face is all you need to pass for comedy.
@#41 lol see what colbert did to you there? now that is comedy.
Democracy run amok! Why can’t NASA use capitalism to its advantage? Why didn’t they just do what sports arenas have been doing for a decade or more and just SELL THE NAME TO THE HIGHEST BIDDER?
Jesus, they could have subsidized the entire cost of the International Space Station by selling naming rights to every module on the structure. And now that the ISS is the brightest object in the sky, they could even sell advertising space!
That’s the problem with NASA. They’ve got rocket scientists making all the important decisions instead of Madison Avenue executives.
This is almost as hilarious as the same sophomoric idiots voting for Obama in November.
If space debris hits that pod and destroys it. Will it be called the Colbert Bump?
Bobbo, the show is kind of interesting, but there is the problem that the author majored in women’s studies, so there is the occasional junk.
41–Luc==all humor has a taste and flavor about it. If you don’t like Colbert, thats fine. His humor is based on his impersonating a fat headed news pundit a la Papa Bear O’Reily, Rush Limbaugh, or any other silly conservative/repuglican. He goes over the top and is rarely out of character.
I like your idea of suggesting a more clever name but playing an egotist is the shtick of his show. Much better than most others, and sadly, better than most news shows.
#46–Mike==specifically WHAT is it you like? I have seen bits of about 3 different shows now. The main characters strike me as high school students organizing the big school pep squad competition. A little titillation with the busty babes, and shoot-em-up action like cowboys and indians in space. Drek.
Maybe its not your thing Bobbo. Do you tend to like other Whedon shows? Maybe his style rubs you the wrong way.
The characters are interesting. 14 episodes isnt a ton of time to develop so many, but they have a good start. Mal is a bit cliche: the gruff ship captain/leader who wants to seem ruthless, but is actually extremely honorable. Done before, but Nathan Fillion does it so well. Wash is amusing as the goofy pilot. River helped to typecast Glau as the oddly acting killing machine you enjoy in Terminator. Jane is neat because hes pretty much irredeemable. He an ass who will sell out the other characters at a moments notice, but for some reason you like him anyway. Not often you have someone like that whos not a villain.
I like the dialogue. Its typically well written and clever. Some people dislike the western patois, but the mix of future speak, bumpkin, and Chinese cursing helps set the scene.
The plots are interesting too. Both the episode and the story arcs. I like that each ep is a little different. Not every week is a flee from the Alliance or a space heist. The unfolding mysteries of whats wrong with River, who Rev. Book really is, and the reavers were intriguing. I think would those would have been even better dealt with in the course of the show rather than the rushed loose end tie we got with Serenity.
YMMV, but if you’re not seeing any of that, I guess go find yourself a different cup of tea.
#48–tcc3==good review. You’ve focused on what makes any story good or bad–the personalities/characters and their development/revelation over time.
The episode recommended turned me off right from the start. Seems to me the audience is expected to have the interests of a teenage boy. Highschool characters flirting, sexually inappropriate, for this time and culture but not in the future, oogling the plunging neckline of the bareshouldered brunnet walking up the stairs. Very puerile.
Then yes the western/cowboy/campfire/survivialist setting is a complete turnoff. Any holodeck does better on default.
For counterpoint, I like the first season of Terminator, Sarah Connors but it has gone off track with disconnected side stories and secondary characters of little interest. I liked the Mom fighting society to save her son who want to independent. And the cyborg. She doesn’t beat up enough people or demonstrate special skills as all cyborgs should.
Put given your review, and the uniform cult status raves this show gets, I guess I will force myself to actually sit an entire episode and try to catch the personalities in conflict. When Bones or Spock made Fun of Kirk, it was amusing–or were those comedy skits made years later?
#41, Luc,
I do have a sense of humor. The problem is this is not funny. If it is, can you explain me why? Can you pinpoint it?
Not everything is funny to everyone. If it needs explaining however, then the problem is either with the teller or the tellee.
That is why there are so few right wing comedians. They just can’t be funny without being sarcastic to the point of turning people off. Your feeble guy falling down the stairs is what right wing funny is all about. Only they understand why it is funny.
The cult status isn’t really deserved, but that’s probably true of every show that gets such adoration. I came to the show late, and probably would have a lower opinion if it had been longer. I got sick of Battlestar after awhile, and by the end of X-Files I was on the side of Cigarette Smoking Man.
This comes under the heading ‘you never know what will happen so you have to play the game’. This made me laugh immediately, keep Colbert.
The thought that they won’t reminded me of the Oregon license plate. Oregon had a contest to design a new plate. Many of you’ve probably seen it, the one with the green tree in the middle. The only problem is that that’s not exactly the plate that won the contest. The plate that won had a brown tree. But after the contest people started calling it the dead tree plate. So, they turned it green. You never know what a bureaucrat will do…