Apparently unchastened by the mockery of Anderson Cooper’s “flying pie chart” during the primaries, CNN is planning to introduce three-dimensional holograms to its broadcast on election night. Correspondents and interviewees at Obama and McCain headquarters will be “teleported” to the Situation Room, where their holograms will appear alongside real-life Wolf Blitzer in New York, reports Broadcasting & Cable (via TVNewser).

Hey, it worked for Star Trek.

Gimmicks could certainly help attract viewers on an intensely competitive night for the cable news networks, and John King’s “magic wall” has proven worthwhile. But this one seems like a dubious allocation of resources: “CNN will have 44 cameras and 20 computers in each remote location to capture 360-degree imaging data of the person being interviewed,” according to USA Today. The quantum-leaping correspondents will, if nothing else, provide wonderful fodder for Jon Stewart, who has long maligned the technological arms race on cable news. After the jump, watch one such “Daily Show” clip from February, plus “Saturday Night Live”‘s recent mockery of the magic wall.