SciFi Channel Admits Whole “SyFy” Thing Was A Joke
Posted: May 8th, 2009 | Author: miconian | Filed under: Media And Advertising, TV | Tags: scifi, scifi channel, syfy | 4 Comments »
And it’s a good thing, too. “SyFy” makes it sound like the channel is trying to distance itself from the geeks that made it popular to begin with. Sci-Fi stands for Science Fiction, but SyFy stands for nothing.
The implication of the whole change, in fact, would be that SyFy isn’t about science fiction, but something else, something more modern, more informal.
More cool.
That’s the real idea. Somewhere up the chain, some doofus decided that a channel called SciFi could never really be perceived as cool. They had to make sure to allow room for those viewers who would be embarrassed by the idea of watching something that unironically associated itself with Asimov, Bradbury, Heinlein, and Clarke.
The use of the letter Y to replace I in order to obfuscate the entomology of the word recalls the retrofitted ultrafeminist “womyn.”
In other news, The History Channel will become The Hystory Channel, and The Discovery Channel will become the Disco Very Channel, with plans to eventually change to Very Disco once the branding catches on.
p.s. I wanted to change the “Imagine Greater” in the image above to “Become Stupider,” but I don’t have the Photoshop skills. If someone else wants to do it, I will give you a credit.
