Despite running as a joke, he won the election and served as the organisation's 48th president. In 2009, Scott became the UK organiser of International Talk Like a Pirate Day, and was subsequently nominated by his friends to run for student president at the University of York Students' Union, under the guise of his Talk Like a Pirate Day persona, 'Mad Cap'n Tom Scott'. This resulted in the Cabinet Office demanding the site be taken down Scott sent a 'polite response declining to take down the site' as of March 2022, the site is still live.

While at university, in 2004, Scott produced a website parodying the British government's ' Preparing for Emergencies' website, including a section explaining what to do in case of a zombie apocalypse. Originally from Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, Scott graduated from the University of York with a degree in linguistics.