Is Space Force’s Mad Buff a Real Energy Drink Company?

‘Space Force’ season 2 finds the titular agency in a slump following an “incident” between American and Chinese astronauts during a Lunar mission. With its budgets slashed and facing regular hack attacks from foreign agencies, team Space Force rallies under the unmistakable General Mark Naird (Steve Carell).

Of course, the General has to put his pride aside and does an embarrassing promo for a flashy energy drink company in exchange for funds. Tony, the space agency’s borderline-manic social media manager, sets the whole thing up but also cringes when he sees the results. The energy drink that sees Naird shooting fire from his eyes in the promo is (fittingly) called “Mad Buff.” Wondering whether you can get a can of Mad Buff too? Let’s take a look at whether the energy drink company from ‘Space Force’ is real or not.

Is Mad Buff a Real Energy Drink Company?

In season 2 episode 5, titled ‘Mad (Buff) Confidence,’ Tony brings in a company called Mad Buff to sponsor Space Force’s annual Battle of the Bots robot fighting competition. General Naird is skeptical of the whole affair but realizes that the agency desperately needs the money. For the $300k in sponsorship that the energy drink company offers, he even gets convinced to do a promotional video for them, holding a flashy red can next to his face. Of course, while shooting the promo, the General has no idea that the company plans to make fire shoot out of his eyes in the video’s final cut.

As one can imagine, the results are disastrous, and even Tony is embarrassed by the promo. Eventually, the deal with Mad Buff is dramatically changed, with an inspiring promo going out instead. It remains unclear whether Space Force gets the $300k in the end. On a funnier note, watching the generally high-energy Tony hopped up on a couple of sips of Mad Buff is absolutely hilarious.

So does Mad Buff exist? In a word: No. The company and the potent energy drink it seems to make are both fictional. Also, it is pretty unlikely that a government agency, especially one involved in defense, would have such a public partnership with a brand as brash as Mad Buff is made out to be. $300k sounds like a lot of money, but, as Naird reminds Tony, the cost of space missions runs in the billions, so the payment is unlikely to help make drastic changes to the space agency anyway.

Of course, there have been some intriguing tie-ups between energy drink companies and space activities in real life. The Red Bull Stratos was a highly publicized sky diving project that took place on October 14, 2012. As the world watched, Austrian skydiver Felix Baumgartner went up to the “edge of space” (approximately 24 miles into the stratosphere) in a helium balloon before freefalling and subsequently parachuting back to Earth. The entire event was sponsored by Red Bull and garnered the energy drink company an “astronomical” amount of publicity. More than 8 million people reportedly watched the event on YouTube.

Image Credit: BBC Earth Lab/YouTube

Of course, if it is Mad Buff’s potent (and frankly dangerous looking) energizing effects that you’re after, there are energy drinks available that contain very high levels of caffeine. Of course, these should be consumed carefully due to their potential side effects. And in case you were wondering, none of the real-life energy drinks will help shoot fire out your eyes.

Read More: Best TV Shows Like Space Force

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