Mister Splashy Pants

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Mister Splashy Pants, or Mr. Splashypants, is the name of a humpback whale in the South Pacific Ocean. It's being tracked with a satellite tag by Greenpeace as a part of its Great Whale Trail Expedition,[1] which was working to raise awareness about whales threatened by the Japanese Fisheries Agency's plan to kill 50 humpback whales. The whale's name was chosen in an online poll that garnered attention from several websites, including Boing Boing and Reddit,[2]and quickly became an internet meme.

Contents

[edit] History

The temporary Reddit logo feature Mr. Splashypants.
The temporary Reddit logo feature Mr. Splashypants.

Originally, Greenpeace had accepted 30 names. On November 26, 2007, an IP address in Arizona found a way around the one-vote system by disabling cookies, and began clicking at 120 clicks per minute for 38 minutes without pause.[3]

The massive leap in votes for the name attracted the attention of b3ta.com[4], 4Chan /b/, BoingBoing[5], reddit, Digg, and numerous blogs. Though Greenpeace removed the extra votes from the results, users from the social networking sites flocked to vote for the name, and the percentage moved quickly from 5 percent to 75 percent in less than a day. In response to the spike, Greenpeace decided to hold the competition open for an extra week, until the 7th of December. Reddit took the voting so seriously that they temporarily changed their logo to feature Mr. Splashy Pants[6]. Facebook also began garnering interest, and a Facebook application was created with the tagline "Vote your conscience, vote Splashy Pants." On the 30th, Fark.com posted a thread linking to the voting as well, and for a few days internet traffic on the Greenpeace server spiked to almost untenable levels.

There was some controversy over the naming, with Treehugger.com[7] and an associated blog[8] initially claiming that the name was not beautiful enough, and seeking to instigate votes for the other names.

On December 10, 2007, Mister Splashy Pants was announced the winner of the competition. 150,000 people reportedly voted, and 'Splashy' received 119,367, over 78 percent of the votes. The nearest rival was Humphrey at 4,329 votes, or less than 3 percent. The other top ten names, like Aiko, Libertad, Mira, Kaimana, Aurora, Shanti, Amal and Manami, received less than 1 percent each.[9] Reddit alone was responsible for 20,322 of the votes. [10]

The name has since spawned clothing, logos, flashvideos, and the slogan "Save Mister Splashy Pants."

[edit] Sightings

Mr. Splashy Pants used in political statement.
Mr. Splashy Pants used in political statement.

A Reddit user-created logo of Mr. Splashy Pants turned up at Normandale Community College in Bloomington, Minnesota the same day as a front page story appeared on Reddit stating that the college had erected a wall at the request of Muslim students to separate men from women in the college's meditation room. The image was placed there after the Reddit community protested the wall on their forums.[11] The movements of Mr. Splashy Pants may be tracked on Greenpeace's website.

[edit] See also

[edit] Footnotes

  1. ^ Timothy Marshall (2007-11-29). Whale name makes a big splash. Retrieved on 2007-12-10.
  2. ^ Kristen Nicole (2007-12-12). Mr. Splashy Pants and the Tale of a Hijacked PR Campaign. Retrieved on 2007-12-10.
  3. ^ Mister Splashy Pants Fan (2007-11-27). Retrieved on 2007-12-23.
  4. ^ b3ta.com (2007-11-26). Greenpeace want to name a whale. Retrieved on 2007-12-23.
  5. ^ Cory Doctorow (2007-11-26). Mr Splashy Pants in the lead for Greenpeace whale-naming competition. Retrieved on 2007-12-23.
  6. ^ Moneyries (2007-11-27). Mister Splashy Pants - Part 2. Retrieved on 2007-12-23.
  7. ^ Bonnie Alter (2007-12-05). Name That Whale. Quickly!. Retrieved on 2007-12-23.
  8. ^ AbiSylvester (2007-12-05). 'Mister Splashy Pants' emerges as clear favourite in Greenpeace whale-naming competition. Retrieved on 2007-12-23.
  9. ^ Mister Splashy Pants the whale - you named him, now save him (2007-12-10). Retrieved on 2007-12-10.
  10. ^ Brianfit (2007-12-14). Mister Splashy Pants. Precisely who is responsible for this nonsense?. Retrieved on 2007-12-23.
  11. ^ treehugger.com (2007-12-14). Mister Splashy Pants for President.. Retrieved on 2007-12-27.

[edit] External links