The internet is awesome for many reasons but it is particularly awesome in turning something somewhat serious and turning it into a clown show. Such is the case over in England right now where a government body decided to let the public vote on a name for a couple hundred million dollar research ship that is currently under construction. The proposed names started out as heroic and regal. Names like Shackleton, Endeavour, and others were on the list. And then someone suggested “Boaty McBoatFace” and the internet suddenly started voting. Tens of thousands of votes later the contest is still going but the leading name by a massive margin is, of course, Boaty McBoatFace.
There are some people who likely think this whole thing is tragic but those people are humorless jerks. What is the harm in giving the thing a funny name? If anything, embracing the name and “going with it” will work to the massive advantage of the ship and the research it is doing. How? Imagine the social media reach that the “Boaty McBoatFace” Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and other social media network presence will be. Assuming that they are doing stuff that is not 100% top secret you’d think that researchers would like to keep people abreast of what they were doing so people know where their $200-million that went into building the thing ended up.
The guy who initially suggested Boaty McBoatFace has publicly apologized and while we get what he is trying to do, we don’t think that was necessary. It isn’t like he suggested something profane, disrespectful, or racist. There is some discussion as to whether the boat will be named after the moniker which wins the contest and we just want to go on record and say that we believe the people who are running the poll should stick with the winning suggestion!
Click here for the full scoop on the Boaty McBoatFace story – hilarious stuff
My suggestion…. The S.S. Cheese Cutter
A few years ago the folks over at Mountain Dew unwisely asked the public to name their new apple flavored beverage. Some of the top names were “Hitler Did Nothing Wrong”, “Gushing Granny”, and “Soda”. They used none of those and decided to never speak of that contest again.
Don’t forget when NASA asked the public to name the new observation piece of the ISS and Stephen Colbert asked his fans to vote for the Colbert node and it one so they named the treadmill after him.
http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/nasa-names-treadmill-comedian-stephen-colbert-sort-not-space-station-room-article-1.363018
You know BoatyMcBoatface kind of fits , it looks like a BoatyMcBoatface to me.