So Colbert ignores my invitation to have me on his show to defend the Apollo missions, and as I surf teh tubes, what do I see?
Images of Colbert at the premier of "In The Shadow of the Moon", a movie about the Apollo missions!
Oh, Stephen, how you taunt me. This matter will need some serious thinking.
If you went to BadAstronomy.com and found yourself here, never fear: the BA Blog has moved to its new home at Discover Blogs. The original BA site (with the Moon Hoax debunking and all that) is still online, too.
Phil Plait, the creator of Bad Astronomy, is an astronomer, lecturer, and author. After ten years working on Hubble Space Telescope and six more working on astronomy education, he struck out on his own as a writer. He has written two books, dozens of magazine articles, and 12 bazillion blog articles. He is a skeptic, and fights misuses of science as well as praising the wonder of real science.
Contact me: The Bad Astronomer "at" gmail "dot" com
|
| Bad Astronomy is a Wikio Top Blog! Clearly, Wikio has excellent taste. | |
 | ||
 | Bad Astronomy was chosen as one of Time.com's Best Blogs of 2009. |
 |
"Reading this book is like getting punched in the face by Carl Sagan. Frightening, but oddly exhilarating."
-- Daniel H. Wilson, author of How to Survive a Robot Uprising
DISCOVERmagazine.com: Latest Articles on Space DISCOVER Blogs: The Loom
September 17th, 2007 at 2:33 pm
He’s just showing that he agrees with you completely and the HB stuff was just a joke. Knowing all of the impressionable youth who watch his show, you didn’t really think he’d argue against the Apollo Missions, did you? As my Latin teacher always says “Dead silence means ‘yes, I agree, carry on.’”
September 17th, 2007 at 4:10 pm
The only explanation I can think of is that you must have offended Stephen in some way, and he’s doing this to get back at you. Maybe, to be on the safe side, you should call 1-800-OOPS-JEW and set things straight with him.
September 17th, 2007 at 5:04 pm
You know, I like your site BUT you have NO sense of humor.
September 17th, 2007 at 5:21 pm
Quick, someone have a spare irony gland put on ice for me, will you? Here we go again.
September 17th, 2007 at 5:43 pm
The Stephen Colbert on The Colbert Report is not the real Stephen. The Colbert on the TV Show is a parody that mocks most conservitive news hosts that have an American Centric point of view. He is actually mocking people like Bill O’Riley and others. If you have ever seen his perfromance at the White House Correspondents dinner, he acts as his TV Charachter and makes fun of the president!
September 17th, 2007 at 5:44 pm
Don’t worry, Phil. We, your horde of evil minions, will soon execute our plans against Colbert, and then we will dance on his grave and laugh! Ha ha ha! No one will deride the great Bad Astronomer again!
September 17th, 2007 at 6:06 pm
Phil, you are a good author and have made a name for yourself, but I believe you are still under the radar for the Colbert Report to pick you up. In terms of grades, you are probably a D or E-list celebrity. Was your book recently released? If so, get your publicist to try to get you on. Otherwise get a new book out and do the same.
Did you email your YouTube video challenge to the show’s proper channels? Maybe no one of consequence saw it? Also, since you were replying just to a blurb Colbert said, not even a main story or discussion topic, that could also have not been very impressive for the show’s staff.
Maybe you need to kick it up a few more notches. Do some crazy stuff and do some hardcore challenge-talking. In the video you posted, you looked like you were holding yourself from cracking up the whole time. It makes you look like a bad actor or perhaps someone who will not be able to stop laughing through the interview?
Good Luck Phil, I actually do hope you can get on the show!
September 17th, 2007 at 6:38 pm
Hmm, you know who you have to send in to set him straight. You mentioned that in the video…
Before that happens though, I don’t know if this is real or not but is there a free month in the Skepdude calendar? I get the impression that when he isn’t in character he’s a skeptic at heart. Please? ;^)
September 17th, 2007 at 6:56 pm
Apparently, amazingly, some people still don’t get that you actually already know that Stephen Colbert does satire.
September 17th, 2007 at 8:31 pm
Urm, I believe it’s 888-OOPS-JEW Infophile.
September 17th, 2007 at 8:50 pm
BA is such a fan boy….
September 17th, 2007 at 9:05 pm
I’m surprised anyone thinks that there’s someone who watches the Colbert Report and doesn’t know that it’s satire. Ye gods of Asgard, people, Phil has a functioning brain. Of course he knows it’s satire.
Good luck with the quest, Phil. I suspect it’d be quite entertaining if it happens. You’d probably have better luck trying to contact the show directly instead of hoping they see the video, though.
September 17th, 2007 at 9:11 pm
If the number Ibrahim supplied doesn’t work, try 1-888-MOPS-KEY instead!
September 17th, 2007 at 9:36 pm
Colbert is one of those rare and talented artists who tells the truth by lying.
September 17th, 2007 at 9:59 pm
Ah! I figured it out! All the people on here saying that Colbert is just a satirist are actually Colbert agents attempting to cover up the truth! By saying Colbert isn’t serious, they dissuade people from bothering to attack him, thus rendering him immune! Oh, you are clever, but I am cleverer! And Phil is even cleverer…er. Of course, Steven Colbert must be covering it all up, given the enormous lack of evidence!
September 18th, 2007 at 12:03 am
It is Phil Plait who is the satirist. This whole skepticism thing is obviously a façade. Phil espouses truthiness to the bone.
Anyway, this week’s guests include Jon Voisey, A.K.A. the Angry Astronomer. I’m sure not going to miss that!
September 18th, 2007 at 1:27 am
Possible ways to get on the Colbert Report:
1. Finish the new book (lots of new ways to scare Colbert, but you need to add grizzlies into the mix) and get a good publicist to book you on the show.
2. Ask Niel de Grasse Tyson (friend of the show) to have a chat with Colbert to explain why he should invite another astronomer skeptic on to the show.
3. Finish the book…
4. Nominate Colbert for some sort of award, or for something he can get his name on to (like a Hungarian bridge, perhaps?). What about his name on a plaque /chip/CD on an upcoming space mission to the moon (we’ve never been to).
5. Finish the book…
6. All of the above. Oh, and finish the book.
September 18th, 2007 at 6:11 am
tsrod, are you Mr. Pot or Mr. Kettle? Even those of us accused of being “wingers” get Colbert’s shtick. Rated R, nice demonstration of silliness, some of Colbert’s guests have been pretty far down on the totem pole as far as household name recognition goes. He seems to be looking for two things: do they have a position I can have fun poking holes in, and will they be good sports about it? (He’s missed a few times on that last question…)
BTW, Phil has at various times in his career been a “serious” actor. I’ve seen him on a couple episodes of Law & Order. One time he was the psycho killer, another just a run-of-the-mill crook. Phil would definitely need an irony gland transplant after watching those episodes.
September 18th, 2007 at 6:14 am
Where’s my “edit” button. That should have been “Colbert has at various times in his career been a “serious” actor. DOH!
September 18th, 2007 at 6:43 am
The fact that people who read BA actually did not get the
fact that Phil was being ironic just shows why he will never
be out of business when it comes to correcting bad science
and the general stupidity of the sheeple.
September 18th, 2007 at 7:12 am
Quothe
The fact that people who read BA actually did not get the
fact that Phil was being ironic just shows why he will never
be out of business when it comes to correcting bad science
and the general stupidity of the sheeple.
Unquothe
Must readers are yanks, no?
Those irony glands must be in demand.
September 18th, 2007 at 7:14 am
Yep, should have read ‘Most readers …’.
September 18th, 2007 at 8:47 am
I would have thought Phil was once a “Sirius” Actor.
September 18th, 2007 at 9:29 am
Look at the bright side. Now you can mock your readers for mocking you for mocking Colbert for mocking conservative Republicans.
September 18th, 2007 at 11:11 am
Instead of inviting yourself onto his show, why not invite Stephen Colbert to be a guest on Q&BA? (if you ever start that up again)
September 18th, 2007 at 1:05 pm
Does Colbert do anything other than an O’Reilly parody?
I watched a couple episodes because of the mention of him here and, well, it got sort of old by the end of the first.
At least with Space Ghost Coast To Coast they could go all over the map.
And I’m a strident non-ideologue and long time Howard Stern veteran. I don’t think I can even get offended anymore.
I’ll be blunt: O’Reilly’s own show is actually funnier.
September 18th, 2007 at 9:25 pm
This post is useful because it contains the comments of a Colbert Report writer regarding what they want for guests on the show- “entertainment, not storytelling” and if a book has a good review. That said, I think you’d be especially entertaining, so.. yeah. Finish the book, i guess. I also like the idea of inviting him to be in the Skepdude calendar; that would make your request stand out, at least!
September 27th, 2007 at 9:57 pm
Phil: I think you became an addict to irony-gland-transplant and that’s why you keep up with this subject, sure you have a box full of it and ready to use
September 30th, 2007 at 11:56 am
I don’t think you should go on his show he might take you to area 51 and have the grays brainwash you like they did him and then you will be a true belivever and put the moon landing is bad asteronomy on this web site allong with stuff about alien abductions and bigfoot and other supermarket tabloid nonsence and then iI would have to stop reading this site
October 4th, 2007 at 10:21 pm
Well you may already know, but Colbert has shown his yellow streak. He had Lovell on his show and during the interview he now admits that we did in fact land on the moon and he believes it. Just by stepping up to the plate you have made him back down. Keep up the good work!