former colonel-in-chief of the norwegian army has been knighted -- and he's a penguin

Nils Olav is a lot of things, one of them is being a penguin, but now he's also a Norwegian knight. Norway is clearly struggling to find qualified humans for knighthood, so they've settled for the next best thing.

"He loves the attention he receives at the ceremony and takes his time inspecting the troops."

The BBC even covered this event - with video! But they buried the tragic truth about this monumental day:

However, the penguin honoured on Friday is unfortunately not the original Nils Olav.

He died in the 1980s and was replaced by a two-year-old penguin at the Zoo.

Imagine if Sir Elton John hadn't been knighted until 25 years after he died and he had a two-year-old in silly glasses stand in for him. For shame.

Nils, you deserved better.


Thanks to em, dogged penguin supporter, for forwarding me this.