We're all (still) Bucky Gunts

Who wouldn’t want to be Bucky Gunts?

A day after presenter Ricky Gervais garnered laughs when he joked about the now Emmy winning head of production for the NBC Olympics, folks still can’t seem to get enough of Gunts.

While reading the names of the nominees, Gervais quipped, “I hope it’s Bucky Gunts, ’cause I didn’t know you could say that on television. Let’s face it – we’re all Bucky Gunts here." Shortly thereafter, Gunts took to the stage in victory.

The audience erupted into applause when Gervais announced “And the Emmy goes to… Bucky Gunts!” Gunts won a Primetime Emmy Award last night for directing the Opening Ceremony of the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympic Games.

Thanks to social networking, Gunts quickly became a Twitter star with #buckygunts becoming a trending topic. On Monday, tweeps were still caught up in the Bucky Gunts mayhem with @MattBaines noting, “I can’t stop saying #BuckyGunts” and @SavannahSlipper remarking “I wonder where #BuckyGunts woke up this morning.”

Even National Public Radio media correspondent David Folkenflik weighed in tweeting, “Let the word go forth: I knew Bucky Gunts (a bit) before it was cool. And his sister Holly. & dad, the late Brent Gunts of WBAL [in Baltimore, Maryland]. #buckygunts"

(Full disclosure, the writer of this post once worked with Folkenflik and knew him before it was cool, though sadly as a native of Baltimore had only ever heard of the late Brent Gunts – not Bucky.)

Television blog Warming Glow theorizes that Gunts is “an early favorite for Name of the Year," and ponders whether he may have had an edge in the Emmy game. “I can’t help but wonder how much of his award comes from his talent, and how much comes from voters wanting to see 'Bucky Gunts' on the TV screen.”