What started as a joke by Boston reporter David Thorpe calling for the “exile” of Cuban-American rapper Pitbull to Alaska, has gone all the way and actually done it. Well, kind of.

Recently, Pitbull agreed to perform at any Walmart in the country and the chain asked Facebook users to choose (“Like”) where to send him. That is where Thorpe came in.

Thorpe, not really a fan of Pitbull, took to Facebook, Twitter, and various other media outlets to encourage people to exile the rapper to the remote Walmart of Kodiak, Alaska.

When the contest finally ended, Thorpe and his followers had done it. With 71,000 votes sending the Miami-based rapper to Kodiak. Tuesday, the official results were announced and Pitbull even made a TouTube video while at the Madrid, Spain stop of his current tour.

Pitbull, aware that the contest had been highjacked, said he knew Alaska was chosen as a result of “someone who thinks he was playing a prank.”

Attempting to be diplomatic about the results however, Pitbull, born Armando Perez, confusingly said, “You gotta understand that I would go anywhere in the world of my fans.”

While a nice sentiment, it seemed to forget the fact that it was not fans asking him to go to Alaska, but rather those wanting to exile him to a cold and unfamiliar climate of the coast of Alaska’s mainland.

Still, area officials are excited to have such a big star in their city of just 6,000.

Conventions and Visitors Bureau boss Janet Buckingham told the Miami Herald, “It’s going to be gigantic. We had [folk singer] Suzanne Vega in concert once. She did it in the high school gym, which has 600 seats.

“And Gary Sinise and his band played at the Coast Guard station. But we never had anyone here of the fame of Pitbull!”

Since Pitbull is being a good sport, we have just one thing to say to him.

Watch out for bears.