And then they it turns out they just bought the balloon from like Alibaba and painted it or something?

I believe they are referencing Former President Barak Obama's tweet.

>Cool clock, Ahmed. Want to bring it to the White House? We should inspire more kids like you to like science. It's what makes America great.

https://twitter.com/POTUS44/status/644193755814342656

https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2015/09/16/440890750...

I just looked up the conclusion of that. So awful. His whole family ended up moving to Qatar because of harassment.

Moving to Qatar is a very common response to harassment and a failed lawsuit against local government for $15M

It’s quite likely that was an extension of the joke, the repurposing of a comercial off the shelf item that already does the job the young inventor set out to do.