Recently, Stephen Colbert has gained some notoriety by Google bombing his way to becoming the number one result for the search term “greatest living american.” By getting website owners, bloggers, and others to link to him using the text “greatest living american,” Colbert became the number one Google result for the term. This feat, along with some of his other Internet based publicity stunts, won him the title of “Webby Person of the Year.”

This all goes to shoe how the Google crowned greatest living American is also the world’s greatest PR person. In this post, I just wanted to highlight a few of Colbert’s greatest stunts to date. From his uncanny ability to get things named after him, to running for president, Colbert has what it takes to make a splash in the world of modern media.

The Budapest Bridge

In late 2006, Colbert directed fans of his show to a Hungarian website set up to allow users to vote for the name of a new bridge in the city of Budapest. Thanks to a zealous fan base, and the probable use of some clever Perl scripts, Colbert won the naming competition quite handily. His victory was followed up by a visit from a Hungarian ambassador, who informed Stephen that in order for the bridge to be named after him, he would have to become fluent in Hungarian, and be dead. As it turns out, the bridge was actually became the Megyeri Bridge. However, the the stunt was still lots of good fun.

Stephen Junior, the Eagle

Stephen Junior is a bald eagle, born in the San Diego zoo, and released into the wild. Equipped with a tracking device, Stephen Junior is a frequent subject of updates on the show. When Stephen took a detour into Canada, home of many bears (which are famously hated by Colbert). Stephen Junior has since returned from this unpatriotic side trip, and is now back safe and sound in the USA.

Stephen Colbert’s AmeriCone Dream

Stephen Colbert’s AmeriCone Dream is a Ben and Jerry’s ice cream created in honor of Stephen Colbert. It’s ingredients consist of vanilla ice cream, chocolate covered waffle cone chunks, and strips of caramel. The public reaction to this new flavor has been huge, and as someone who has tried it themselves, it really is quite delicious. Chalk another one up to the Colbert PR magic.

Running for President

In what was perhaps his biggest stunt to date, Colbert announced that he would be putting himself on the Presidential ballot for both the Democrat and Republican parties in the state of South Carolina. A Facebook group was created to support this run, and its membership quickly grew to over 1 million, something Barack Obama’s group had not achieved despite being around for much longer. This stunt gained great recognition in the mainstream press. Unfortunately, his run was cut short when he was disallowed from being on the ballot for the primaries for both parties. Still, the attempt created one of the most well publicized satirical stunts ever created, and for that it will always be memorable.

So, though he might not be the greatest living American, Colbert could well be described as the greatest living satirist. Showing no signs of slowing down, I can’t wait to see what kind of craziness we can expect from Stephen in the future. We need visible satire to prevent ourselves from taking things too seriously, and Colbert is leading the way on this front. Truly an American hero.