Evidently my use of dumb toys to model satellites has inspired at least one young man.
My sense of humor baffles me. I have seen a lot of videos in this genre that made me want to hunt down the maker and slap them, but this one cracked me up.
About Bad Astronomy
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. Subscribe to BA using an RSS Feed
Death from the Skies!
Order a copy of Death from the Skies! from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or Borders.
"If things worked the way I wanted them to, any reporter about to do another 'sensational' story on deadly meteors would consult this volume, and bang! common sense would find its way into the news. How strange would that world be?"
-- Adam Savage, Mythbusters"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 UprisingSocial/Networking/Cool Stuff
DISCOVERmagazine.com: Latest Articles on Space- Will Our Universe Collide With a Neighboring One?
- Visual Science: Polishing a Cosmic Spyglass
- Visual Science: NASA Unveils Its New Rocket
- Is Jupiter's Bizarre Moon Our Best Hope for Finding Extraterrestrial Life?
- Reviews: Clashes With Aliens, America vs. Science, and Really Horrible Sci-Fi: The Best in Science Culture
- DISCOVER Blogs: The Loom
February 22nd, 2008 at 11:36 am
Potassium!!!
February 22nd, 2008 at 11:37 am
Truly, you do have a rather odd sense of humour…but why was I laughing???
February 22nd, 2008 at 11:41 am
I thought it was completely stupid until he said “potassium” and I was on the floor laughing
February 22nd, 2008 at 11:49 am
His dad was right
February 22nd, 2008 at 12:13 pm
I’m going to work on my imagination so I can be just like Brad! I probably better eat lots of potassium. too, if I’m to succeed like he has.
February 22nd, 2008 at 12:15 pm
This is great.
February 22nd, 2008 at 12:20 pm
I guess the cultural divide between British and American humo(u)r is just too great in this particular case…
February 22nd, 2008 at 12:25 pm
another youtube waste of time
February 22nd, 2008 at 12:30 pm
Hee. He has good timing, knows when to stop, and doesn’t let on that he’s joking. These technical things make a lot of difference.
February 22nd, 2008 at 12:31 pm
Gotta admit I was a little worried at first. But when he mentioned his dad, I started laughing and didn’t quit.
February 22nd, 2008 at 12:34 pm
Umm… Phil. Could I please have those 3:30 minutes of my life back? Please?
February 22nd, 2008 at 12:39 pm
I wonder what was the first thing he choose for the missile…..although I have a suspicion…
very funny
February 22nd, 2008 at 12:47 pm
Uh-oh! You don’t wanat to encourage this type of behavior or you’ll get flooded with “creative” videos. His Mom may want him to use his imagination but his dad may have hit closer to the mark.
Bananium!!
February 22nd, 2008 at 1:06 pm
Don’t listen to these philistines, Phil! I’m with you… THAT was HI-larious!
Remember, as Steve Martin once said, comedy is not pretty!
February 22nd, 2008 at 1:07 pm
It would have been funnier if he had used the missile like object in his mom’s room.
February 22nd, 2008 at 1:28 pm
“The satelitte was up there, with Koreans on it. And they were like, googadaboogadagoogadaboogada!”
I was smiling up until then, but I lost it at that point.
February 22nd, 2008 at 1:32 pm
“USE IT!!”
February 22nd, 2008 at 2:31 pm
Hey, it made me chuckle at 3:30 on a Friday afternoon. Always a good thing.
T.
February 22nd, 2008 at 2:59 pm
That was very funny indeed!
This is a good one too.
February 22nd, 2008 at 3:14 pm
I prefer this one to BA’s myself:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1VEY7ndKCs
About 100 times funnier IMHO.
February 22nd, 2008 at 5:34 pm
That was funny. I found something for my missile in my mother’s bedroom, but she made me put it back. I hit the floor then.
February 22nd, 2008 at 5:40 pm
O come on now Tacitus! I live on your side of the pond too and I found it very funny. Proof at long last that there is American humour (humor?) after all, It’s actually not all boring and pretentious like ‘Friends’ and ‘Sex in the City’. Perhaps we could persuade the scriptwriters to go on stike again!!
February 22nd, 2008 at 6:15 pm
[...] a very random geek: Bad Astronomy Blog » An alternate view on the spy satellite (Cue Also Sprach [...]
February 22nd, 2008 at 6:32 pm
Sorry Phil, but Brad’s video was better than yours.
February 22nd, 2008 at 6:35 pm
I had an appointment to get my eyeballs shaved, and I missed it for this?
February 22nd, 2008 at 7:25 pm
K!
BAHAHAHHAH!
February 22nd, 2008 at 7:36 pm
Oooh, my very English niece would have your guts for garters if she heard you saying things like that.
February 22nd, 2008 at 9:45 pm
My first thought: “Hello, central casting? We need a dork!
February 22nd, 2008 at 10:19 pm
Hey everyone, thanks for watching. Also thank you to Bad Astronomy for posting this video. Remember to use your imagination and eat plenty of potassium. It’s the breakfast of champions.
February 23rd, 2008 at 1:01 am
I giggled… I don’t usually do that.
February 23rd, 2008 at 1:26 am
So that’s why we blew it up. Koreans got to it and were learning sensitive state secrets.
February 23rd, 2008 at 6:40 am
My mother use to have one of those in her bedroom, too. They do make excellent pretend-rockets.
February 23rd, 2008 at 11:06 am
1)wtf
2) his father was right
February 23rd, 2008 at 1:55 pm
He could have bought a dildo just for the video. Later, he could return it
for a full refund by claiming it wasn’t satisfying enough.
February 23rd, 2008 at 3:32 pm
Tim G thanks now I have a mental picture of the dead parrot sketch from monty python and instead of a parrot it is defective gadget.
February 24th, 2008 at 12:59 am
davidlpf,
He should get a full refund, as long as the gadget doesn’t stink.
By the way, most of the youtube comments are as pathetic as the ones about Stephen Colbert.
February 24th, 2008 at 9:14 am
That was so damned funny I have tears in my eyes!