On the May 4th, 2009 episode of the Colbert Report, Stephen Colbert spoke with writer, director and producer J.J. Abrams about his directoral role in the upcoming Star Trek film. Scattered throughout the episode were clues to a puzzle of a slightly different sort.
No stranger to alternate reality gaming, JJ Abrams has made a name for himself in the industry starting with a series of puzzles surrounding his television series Alias in 2001. Since then, JJ Abrams has made his mark on the industry with popular viral campaigns for Lost, Cloverfield, Fringe, and Star Trek. Now, it seems Abrams has inspired Stephen Colbert to test the puzzle solving skills of the Colbert Nation by hiding a handful of clues to the answer to his ongoing segment, “Where In the World and Where In Time Is Stephen Colbert Going to be in the Persian Gulf?” The segment deals with Colbert’s upcoming trip to somewhere in the Persian Gulf at some point in the near future to perform the show in front of American troops overseas. Colbert is not allowed to disclose further details for security reasons, so he discusses places he might visit.
Scattered throughout the episode, Colbert flashed six four character text strings in places including an audience member’s shirt, JJ Abrams’ cup, and the books on a bookshelf. The Colbert report has a history of engaging its audience, including recent efforts that include write-in efforts to name a module of the International Space Station “COLBERT” and remix an interview with Lawrence Lessig about remix culture.
The folks at Colbert Nation are hard at work cracking this puzzle.
Image courtesy of You’re On Notice!
field studies institute
meow wolf
scp afterworld
lorefi
black watchmen
escape rooms
Based on the 6 clues of 3 numbers followed by a letter you can use the numbers to more up or down the alphabet to spell out Kuwait.
346X X+3+4+6=K
283H H+2+8+3=U
433U U+4-3-3=W
462W W+4-6-2=A
122E E+1*2*2 = I
171M M+1*7*1= T
If he’s really taken tips from Abrams, the clues are meaningless 😛