The Rise and Fall of Admiral Ackbar’s Campaign to Be Ole Miss Mascot
Remember the student (well, the nerdy student) campaign to get Admiral Ackbar voted the official mascot of Ole Miss? ESPN did the above mini… whatever about the phenomenon, and it’s pretty phenomenal (cough). Things to note: Cheerleaders and adults being utterly unwilling to entertain the notion (remind me again about how the nerds have won?) and George Lucas’ actual letter to Ole Miss, saying Ackbar was too “busy” to perform the duties needed of an college sports mascot. It’s all pretty amazing, although one has to wonder — since the campaign was shut down so efficiently and severely, one has to wonder if this was a trap of some kind.
Well. That solves that, then. Thanks to Nallygator for the tip.
About The Author
Robert Bricken is one of the original co-founders of the site formerly known as Topless Robot, and its first editor-in-chief, serving from 2008-12. He brought the site to prominence with “nerd news, humor and self-loathing” as its motto, raising it from total internet obscurity to a readership in the millions, with help from his savage “FAQ” movie reviews and Fan Fiction Fridays. Under his tenure Topless Robot was covered by Gawker, Wired, Defamer, New York magazine, ABC News, and others, and his articles have been praised by Roger Ebert, Avengers actor Clark Gregg, comedian and The Daily Show correspondent John Hodgman, the stars of Mystery Science Theater 3000 and Rifftrax, and others. He is currently the managing editor of io9.com. Despite decades as both an amateur and professional nerd, he continues to be completely unprepared for either the zombie apocalypse or the robot uprising.