Internet meme Admiral Ackbar on his way to being a school mascot
He began life as a third tier character in one of the most successful movie franchises of all time, moved on to being an Internet meme and now he may end up as a university mascot. Admiral Ackbar has had quite the life.
In the third act of the Star Wars film Return of the Jedi, we are introduced to the supreme commander of the Rebel fleet, Admiral Ackabar of the Mon Calamari. While he resembled some sort of octopus/crustacean (get it? Mon CALAMARI? You order calamari in a restaurant …), he had one of the most iconic lines of the film when he yelled, “It’s a trap!”
Although the Internet did not hit mainstream popularity until many years after the film’s release, Admiral Ackbar’s infamous line stuck with us all, and it took on a life of its own in pictures, fan videos and other assorted parodies.
When the University of Mississippi, more commonly known as Ole Miss, lost its mascot in 2006 to political correctness, the school began the lengthy process of coming up with a new one. A student movement began to bring Admiral Ackbar out of the Internet and into the real world as their new mascot. What connection a member of the Mon Calamari race has a university in Mississippi is beyond me, but oh well.
NotATrap.org sprung up as well as a a Facebook fan page and Twitter account promoting the cause. On Tuesday a vote was taken at the school to decide if the students should be the ones to choose the new mascot, and the students won, bringing what one assumes started off as a joke, one step closer to reality.
The question, of course, is will Lucasfilm allow this to happen if the old crustacean should actually happen to win? The company George Lucas founded is notoriously protective of its intellectual properties, so it would have to sign off on this. We reached out to Lucasfilm’s press department for comment, but no one was available for comment by post time. We have also reached out to the student group, but no emails were returned in time.
We will keep you posted on the campaign to make a space faring fish, with a cult of Internet fans, into a school mascot.
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February 24th, 2010
Don’t listen to this article. IT’S A TRAP!!!!
*gets blown up*
February 24th, 2010
Instead of a squid, the Rebels need a SHARK.
February 24th, 2010
They’re the Ole Miss Rebels. Ackbar was the leader of the Rebel Alliance. See – it’s perfect!
June 7th, 2011
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