The change has happened: SyFy is the new name of the SciFi Channel. Or as io9 put it, they’ve changed the name to a typo.

Will there now be lots of Abbot-and-Costello style comedy routines about SciFi-no-I’m-talking-about-SyFy? Are you kidding? First, fans will have to wear out the even more obvious joke. Advertising Age reports:

“According to research done exclusively for BNET Media by TNS Cymfony, syphilis jokes account for about four percent of all commentary about Syfy.” Ouch.

Proud to be numbered in that four percent is the Crotchety Old Fan, but I can’t fault his constructive and helpful approach. Click on the link and you’ll get the complete “CDC communiqué” for dealing with this new outbreak:

What is the treatment for SyFy?

SyFy is easy to cure in its early stages. A single intramuscular injection of penicillin, an antibiotic, A single blow to the head with a ballpeen hammer will cure a person who has had SyFy for less than a year. Additional doses blows are needed to treat someone who has had SyFy for longer than a year…

I predict Crotchety will be forced to post more medical advice assisting his readers who fall out of their chairs laughing.

The SyFy announcement also reveals why an independently-owned sf media site changed its name to Airlock Alpha:

In the 24 hours since NBC Universal announced it had a new name for SciFi Channel, it seems they have found themselves in a tug of war with Airlock Alpha founder and site coordinator Michael Hinman on where exactly the “Syfy” name came from. Last month, Airlock Alpha came into existence following a sudden rebranding of the site that had carried the name “SyFy” in some form or another for more than a decade. The move shocked many readers, and was described at the time as nothing more than a marketing move by the site as it prepares to launch Inside Blip…

Hinman has declined to disclose what he was paid for to give up the SyFy brand, but has made it clear that it was significant.

“All I can tell you is that the amount was far more substantial than anyone who was simply looking to get into the science-fiction news business would pay, even me,” Hinman said. “So we knew it was someone extremely well capitalized.”

[Thanks to David Klaus, Andrew Porter, plus Michael J. Walsh and Stu Hellinger via Smofs, for links used in this story.]