For my money, Worf was comedy gold. “Death to the opposition”, calling prune juice “warriors’ drink”, “Captain I must protest. I am NOT a merry man”. He had so many funny moments which Michael Dorn handled so well.
To me the funniest thing about Worf was his constant frustration at the fact that nobody would listen to him. He's the Chief Security Officer, yet his advice is always rejected.
@@seraiharper5553 whenever I feel frustrated cuz someone ignored my advice I watch a supercut of Worf being denied and immediately get both enjoyment and perspective
I'd have paid real money for the makeup team to have modeled Worf as a TOS Klingon whenever they were back in time for "Trials and Tribble-ations" with no explanation whatsoever.
@@johnchedsey1306: honestly might have been an even funnier gag than what they actually did. Also maybe could have buried the "question" and avoided the whole mess Enterprise made by trying to force an explanation.
Enterprise "explaining" smooth Klingons was a stupid idea. Also it was not was future historians will find out. The real deal was that Ferengi sold skincare products for ridges to the Klingons, to enhance the ridges, but some batches were substandard and made the opposite. In anger the Klingon blew them up. Unfortunately, that made is problematic to get the other lotion with worked for quite a time. Only at time of discovery a new source was found which explains the totally different looking Klingons of that area too. It could have been so easy.
One of the best parts of the "Falling Tribbles" scene is when Kirk tells McCoy to figure out why the Tribbles are dying and McCoy say "I haven't figured out what keeps them alive". Kirk gives him a glare that is priceless.
There's another great bit in that same scene where Lurie estimates there must be thousands of Tribbles, Kirk estimates there must be hundreds of thousands, and then Spock chimes in with one million, seven hundred seventy-one thousand, five hundred sixty-one tribbles. Assuming a litter of twelve -- As Spock is elaborating his calculations... Ensign Leslie, the Red-Shirt standing immediately behind Spock, rolls his eyes, in an absolutely flawless, peerless gesture of physical comedy. Obviously Leslie is pretty tired of Vulcans and their need to be precise.
Put me in the camp that says the DS9 crew missed a great joke by having Worf beam over to the space station in Trials and Tribbleations and he just comes out the door in the TOS make up job. No one notices.
My favourite comedy episode has to be "A Piece of the Action". Kirk's driving, and Spock's deadpan reaction to it, is priceless. Also, Shatner embracing his 'gangster' persona is hilarious.
Something widely overlooked about that episode... and I recall reading this is true, but I can't find the original source... the writer of the episode intended it to be an allegory -- not about gangsters, but about how silly people look when they set up their whole society to mimic what's in an ancient Book... even _if_ that Book was given by Higher Beings... you still look pretty silly when you take some ancient Book as Gospel. Do I have to spell it out?
@Cary Charlebois. Those. are more of those moments I didn't mention in the comment I just posted. I. could have gone on and on, but restrained. myself. "As a taxi driver, you leave. much to be desired." "That bad?" Also, the whole "Right?"/"Check" routine.
I love when Trek does comedy and seriousness at the same time. That takes some finesse! Two of the finest examples is the aforementioned "Deja Q" with its wonderfully earnest scene of Q telling Data that he is a better than Q is. And the most criminally underrated episode of DS9 EVER: "In the Cards". This is episode is the epitome of tightrope walking as the B story is ultra serious as it is about the eve of the Dominion War and the A story is witty, light-hearted jaunt that has Jake and Nog trying to find a gift, a Willie Mays rookie card, to cheer up Captain Sisko. The two stories merge elegantly together to one of the biggest smile-getting episodes in Trek history.
I think most of the episodes with Q have hilarious moments. "Flowers! Is there a Jon Luck Pikerd here?", "That's a beautiful story. It gets you right here, doesn't it", "You hit me. Picard never hit me." "I'm not Picard", and Worf had a good one himself, "I'm not a merry man!".
My favourite moment of 'In the Cards' is when Jake tries to bluff Weyoun all 'my father, the CAPTAIN of the STATION, you know, my DAD?' and Weyoun says very calmly "I know who your father is."
Wayoun just walking into drinking the poisoned kanar while sisco and gul dukat do the mindgames banter. Or the whole nog stressing obrian out with bartering things for a drive. Or just good weyoun annoying odo with goood. Or the whole new generation dry humor, like picard is too stressed oit and its the threat troys mom will come does it., most things data, worf usually, The casino episode, personallyi find it absurd funny.
One of the reasons Shatner was able to shine in “The Trouble with Tribbles” is that Nimoy was such a great straight man. His deadpan, wry delivery makes for some of the best comedy in that episode. Kirk: “I heard you” Spock: “He simply could not believe his ears”. They were (will be?) the Martin and Lewis of the 23rd century…
Nimoy decided to do a deadpan Spock to contrast better with Shatner's flamboyant Kirk. Shatner, on the other hand, made Kirk flamboyant because he thought some of the scripts outlandish. Was it good? Bad? Take that as you will.
"It's like owning a cat, without having to worry about when it's going to kill you!" Okay, first of all, you don't own a cat, a cat owns *you* ! Secondly, worrying when your feline monarch is going to kill you is half the fun!
@@pauljackson3491 i have seen a 5 week old kitten take on a wolf/rottweiler mix. One that took out wild boar with her daddy. It won. It was the only animal I ever saw that dog fear. Cat's are nobody's pet.
@@pauljackson3491 A cat owns a human and then merely tolerates humans bizzare habit of keeping dogs as pets. Cats view dogs at the very bottom of the hierarchy. I've seen both a labrador and a German Shepard get beaten up by a cat. Dogs have no perception of size
Speaking of "Trials and Tribble-ations", I will forever think it should have been handled by putting Michael Dorn in the TOS Klingon makeup and acting like nothing is out of the ordinary.
That is actually brilliant. I hate when some fans get apeshit crazy over stupid stuff like that. TOS was done in the 60s, of course the sets and makeup were limited.
Hah! that would've been pretty funny yeah. I still think the way they went with it in the episode was best. Just "we don't talk about it!" and moving on. xD Loved that episode.
It may be that I actually like _Enterprise's_ answer coloring my take, but I think that they did it perfect as is in "Trials and Tribble-ations." (And, of course given my aforementioned comment, like where they took it later in "Affliction" and "Divergent;" but I will concede that I am in a minority on this point.)
@@KingZercules One of the most eyeroll-inducing habits of ST fans (for me at least) is the constant clamor to EXPLAIN things. Jeez, it was just an old TV show, one that the makers never thought would be the huge hit it was. It's like how everyone has turned Shakespeare into some kind of god when he was just a dude knocking out plays to keep his actors working and himself in shoe leather. Some things just don't have explanations!
Pre-emptively, I want to say that Dr. Pulaski was a rad character. I still prefer Dr. Crusher's style, but I always liked Dr. Pulaski. Even if she is just Miranda Jones in disguise. Who was just Dr. Mulhall in disguise.
Can't believe there was no mention of House of Quark. Gowron and the Klingon High Council going through all the ledgers with Quark was some of the funniest imagery in the whole franchise.
@@NeilCWCampbell Yes this. It's clear in a number of episodes that either 1) Klingons mostly pay lip service to the concept of honor and/or only adhere to the letter of the tradition or 2) other races understand honor a lot better than Klingons do. Actually, as I think on it, it's probably both.
Well, as Worf shamelessly brags in DS9's "Trials and Tribble-ations", the Klingons committed extensive Tribble-genocide, so maybe the Tribbles have good reason to resent them, eh?
Eh, I don't know. The genocide is because of Klingons hating Tribbles because of the screeching. So, really more of "hate begets hate; violence begets violence" sort of thing.
I was never really a fan of Seven however she was the centre of my favorite Voyager episodes. Her doing a Robert Picardo impression was hilarious and who wouldn't love an episode guest starring the Rock, Martok and Weyoun?
There is also a comedic plot point in "Into Darkness" where Kahn's blood is injected into a dead tribble as a means of formulating a serum to revive Kirk's dying body. I always chuckle at that development.
I imagine the telepathic conversation between Spock and the whales went more like this: SPOCK: Excuse me, huge fish, would you mind--- GEORGE: Mammal. S: I beg your pardon...? G: We're mammals, not fish. S: Ah. My apologies. G: S'okay, we get that a lot. S: Hm. Well anyway, this may sound like a strange inquiry, but can you speak to interstellar probes...? G: Inter-- wait, do you mean Jeff? S: Jeff? G: Yeah, Jeff - flies around in space, swings by every few years to catch up? Yeah, we talk all the time. Why, do you know him too...? S: He seems to be causing some-- G: _HEY, GRACIE!_ There's a guy over here says he knows Jeff! GRACIE: Oh! How's he doing...? How's his cousin Manny? I didn't think he was due a fly-by til next year! S: I just-- G: Gracie just asked how Jeff's doing. S: I don't-- G: Is he coming back early this time? Do we need to get the welcome wagon rollin' already...? S:The pr-- um, _Jeff_ is causing some problems in the future. G: The future...? S: Yes. G: You're from the _future...?_ S: I'm-- G: _HEY GRACIE! THIS GUY SAYS HE'S FROM THE FUTURE!_ GRACIE: _Whaaaaaaat?!?_ S: I am also an alien. G: _HE SAYS HE'S ALSO AN ALIEN!_ Hahaha! Oh yeah? Well, if you're an alien, show me something a human can't do! _(long pause)_ S: I am speaking to you telepathically right now through my hands while swimming underwater for an unusually long time. _(long pause)_ G: Okay, good point. Hmm. _HEY GRACIE, HUMANS CAN'T BREATHE UNDERWATER OR TALK THROUGH THEIR HANDS, CAN THEY?_ GRACIE: Well, some can talk _with_ their hands, like some sort of signalling-- G: No, this is _through_ his hands - like, he's talking and I'm hearing it, but the sound's not coming from his mouth. GRACIE: Oh. Well, in that case, no, they can't do that. G: Hmm. Neat-o. So you're an alien from the future and Jeff's kicking up a fuss back where you come from, right? S: That is the crux of the problem, yes. G: So why don't you just get some, y'know, _future_ whales to talk him down? I mean Jeff's a pretty reasonable guy. S: Um. I have some bad news. G: What? S: Whales are extinct in the future. They were hunted to extinction. G: By... whom...? S: Humans. G: _Reeeeally...?_ S: Sadly, yes. So now there are no whales left to speak on the humans' behalf and convince... _Jeff..._ to cease his rampage. G: So you're saying that you need _us_ to go save the skins of those same hairy air-breathers that hunted _our race to extinction...?_ S: Yes. Please. _(long pause)_ G: And just how did you expect this conversation to go...? S: I was rather _hoping_ it would go a little better. _(long pause)_ S: I did mention that _I_ am not a human...? G: That's how you got this far, buddy. S: Do you wish to confer with-- G: No, I don't think Gracie's gonna be too pleased about this, buddy. Let's just not tell her. S: Very well. G: So how is this supposed to work? Were you gonna have us record a message to play back to Jeff or something? S: No. We have the ability to transport you to the future with us in our starship. G: Wait - you can _take us_ to this future where those assholes have killed off my entire species...? S: Yes. We-- G: Ohhh, boy! _HEY, GRACIE! PACK YER BAGS! WE'RE GONNA GO KICK SOME FUTURE HUMAN TAILS!_ GRACIE: I don't think they have tails, hun. G: Well, whatever they have, we're going to the future to get some giant robot fishbowls with huge robot legs to go kick whatever it is they got! You got the technology for that in the future, right, Space Boy? _(long pause)_ G: So, bein' an alien and all, do you actually breathe water or something? S: No. I can hold my breath for far longer than a human, but I cannot actually _breathe_ water as you do. _(long pause)_ G: Well then, you, uh... you should probably be going, then? You've been down here a while now. S: Correct. I shall return to the surface. Live long and prosper. G: Yeah, long legs and whatever. Just get my giant robot fishbowl ready! And... scene!
quote" S: No. I can hold my breath for far longer than a human, but I cannot actually *breathe water as you do*." (long pause)" G & Gracie" Your knowledge and logic is faulty; we do not breath under water any more than you do. We are air-breathing mammals, hence why we breach the surface of the ocean to take in oxygen, and yes, we can hold our breath far longer than you - space boy."
@@andrewmurray1550 Well, I'm glad SOMEONE out there besides me remembered their grade school science lessons about whales breathing air instead of water! Good for you, Andrew! 🖖
The whales probably have a completely different understanding of the word “probe.” They probably tell eachother about the time a creature from above captured and “probed” them.
Piccard quoting Shakespeare out of context to save Lwaxana Troi from the Ferengi is one of the funniest things I've seen on any show. I love it so so much.
DS9, as with most things Trek, leads the field here. Some dedicated comedic episodes are brilliant. Magnificent Ferengi, House Of Quark, Trials And Tribble-Ations. There's about a gazillion little moments in the entire show, too. DS9 does great coworkers banter, looking at *you* Miles and Julian.
@@jimballard1186 I actually don't find that line _funny_ per say, so much as badass. His dismissive nonchalance reads, to me, as ballsy as hell. And more badass still? He pulls it off.
As much as people say that ds9 was "dark star trek" it could also be funny star trek. I feel that reducing the show to "dark trek" is a radical oversimplification of the show.
Don't care if it's just me but TNG's Barkley throwaway line "I never had problems with spiders" was the funniest line, considering the nightmare to come.
When I first started playing Field Hockey my team was atrocious. We were all 8 so, you know...We could only go up. We were so bad that we didn't score a single goal the whole season, up until our last game, in the second half my cousin sneaks through our only goal and we celebrated like we won the grand final, despite actually losing every game including that one. So I can really relate to the crew of DS9 and their manufactured triumph.
I can't believe you left out 'I, Mudd'. The counter point between Harry's explanation of how he got away from the Denebians and Kirk's matter-of-fact explanation of what Harry really meant was hysterical.
There's two exchanges that always absolutely kill me: in _Deja Q_ when the now-human Q asks "What must i do to convince you people?!" and Worf responds "Die.", not to mention Q's retort of "Oh, very clever Worf. Eat any good books lately?", and in _The Way of the Warrior_ when Quark says "I'll kill him!" after Rom disassembles his disruptor and Odo responds "With what?". Star Trek is a masterclass in comedy, especially in TNG and DS9.
The cupid episode spawned one of my favorite lines which was "I am not a merry man!" And then the scene where worf casually breaks the lute was hilarious, in my opinion.
Worf is an unsung hero of Trek comedy. “You are ten centimetres dilated. You may now give birth.” His immediate love of prune juice “A Warrior’s drink!” And of course, sometimes what you need is a good straight man to bounce the comedy off of.
Ah, Steve. Your bit about "warping around the sun in the opposite direction, as every temporal physicist knows, is how you travel to the future" made me laugh so hard I snorted.
nah, all you need is a cool sports car from 1980's, a velocity of 88mph, a spare supply of garbage (depending on if you have been to 2015 or not) and make sure the ignition works without head-butting the steering wheel and make sure you have a jerry-can of gasoline in the trunk in case you get stuck in 1885!
A Dr. Pulaski episode, that should be interesting. I still remember how shocked I was when they wrote her off by falling down an empty turbolift shaft. Did not see that coming.
One of my favorite moments in all of ST is Worf exclaiming "I am not a merry man!" and later destroying the lute or mandolin or whatever that little guitar was.
"Carbon Creek" is one of my favorite Enterprise episodes, and while not really a comedy has some great comic bits, some directly borrowed from "City on the Edge of Forever", also a non-comedy with some great comic scenes.
My favorite recurring gag in More Tribbles, More Problems is Kirk having to keep removing tribbles from his chair until he can't anymore & just decides to stand.
Imagine the following scene: There’s an away team that’s been on a planet for a while when some of them are needed back on the ship. So one of them taps their combadge and says “Three to beam up” The transport cycle completes and the officer looks at the crew members to their left and right then turns to the transporter chief and says, “You beamed up the wrong three”
“You just said three, sir.” “So you decided that in a ship wide emergency that I would need to bring back up Ensign T’ev from astrobotany and Lt. Coogan from xenometeorology? And not Commander Torsek from Engineering?” “No, sir. I locked the beam on you and widened the aperture until I had three signals.” “sigh… what’s the emergency anyway?” *transporter console sparks an explodes* “Uh… EPS conduits are malfunctioning and exploding critical hardware.” “Well Ensign T’ev… I guess in Cmdr Torvek’s absence, you’ll have to get to the… root… of the problem.”
"And then they flew off into Star Trek 5, where the true extent of their punishment became clear" might actually be funnier than anything written in a Star Trek episode. It's at least going to contend with the top spots.
One of my favourite comedy moments is in Q-Pid where Worf goes over and smashes Geordi's lute against the tree, but in the background you can see what looks like Gates breaking character and losing her shit over how funny it is. I absolutely love it!
I always liked, how Kirk repeats some words and sentences when he is confused in The Trouble with Tribbles "Storage Compartment? Storage Compartment?" "Chicken sandwich and coffee... this is my chicken sandwich and coffee."
The DS9 baseball game has the funniest Worf line to me, even better than the prune juice. When the Vulcans make the error sliding home and nog asks what he should do the camera pans to work very quickly and he says "find him and kill him"
Doesn't Enterprise have that one episode where they're all bombed out of their mind on space drugs and Reed is trying to come up with the now standard tactical alert systems used in Star Trek? There was some alright comedy in there.
I thought that the Ferengi episodes on DS9 were hilarious. If they ever want to make a live action comedy series making it revolved around the Ferengi could be a good way to do it.
I wouldn't say "hilarious", but some of the best and most experienced comedy actors in Hollywood were under those prosthetics, and I always enjoyed the quality and class of the performances.
But seriously, the biggest problem with STV is that they tried to replicate the success of STIV by inserting as many jokes as possible -- even though it was not appropriate to the story, with its themes of spiritual yearning and the problem of pain. You could greatly improve the movie just by cutting most of the jokes.
When you mentioned the Tribble's note of having it explode (due to it having a bomb, and having it claim that it would explode if it didn't eat), I kinda expected you to end the video with the Tribble exploding. Would've been a funny conclusion to an episode of "Trek, Actually" that deals with comedy in Trek.
A few of my favourite jokes from TOS have been: "I was making a little joke sir" "Very little, ensign" And that whole seen in the last five minutes of 'Friday's Child' was the bickering over the name of the baby. Bonus points for the who tidbit of McCoy cooing at the baby Worf is also really funny with his very literal thinking, the "NOT a Merry Man" bit just makes me wheeze
Some of the best scenes in Star Trek: First Contact were comedy scenes. Troi getting shit drunk at the bar and talking to Riker was worth the price of admission, in my opinion.
Star Trek is full of comedy, even if just little bits here and there, which I really appreciate, even if it does not always work. It was almost compulsory for each TOS episode to end with a joke and [rather forced] laughter around the captain's chair. All of the series had comedy. I loved the comedy in Discovery - Georgio had some great lines, and of course they brought in Tig Notaro too.
The end of the second episode with Harry Mudd was funny. He had the android duplicate of his ex-wife, and she was programmed to yell at until he tells her to shut up, which the real one would never do. There are several sets of identical twins playing androids in that episode, each wearing a necklace with a number, indicating what number each is in the series of otherwise identical androids. At the end, Mudd is accosted by at least three duplicates of Mrs. Mudd, one of whom wears the number 500 (indicating there are at least 497 others), and they do not stop yelling at him when he tells them.
I submit "In a Mirror Darkly" as a pretty funny Enterprise episode. And some other funny scene (in no particular order) : - Archer and Hoshi trading insults - the Reptile Xindi clinking live mice. We are eeevil! - Archer's face when the alien deletes a huge chunk of his data (guess he did not make a backup)
Enterprise had Singularity - between Trip/the Captain’s chair, Reed/the security alert and Archer/the preface was a very funny episode - loved it. Plus Acquisition was clearly written as a lighter episode using humour. Voyager also had many funny episodes, but sad to see both of these series were brushed over or ignored - otherwise I generally enjoy your analysis.
I think when Q appears on 1701d bridge with the mariachi band after getting his powers back is my all time favorite scene in all trek it always makes me smile no matter how many times I see it.
I can't believe you didn't even mention Little Green Men, which was the funniest Star Trek episode ever! Many of my family and friends are UFO cranks, and that explanation of the Roswell event just slays me.
Malcolm and Trip got a lot of nice humorous moments between them. And of course there were some good comedy beats in the bottle ep Shuttlepod One. And I agree about Phlox, an underrated character in my opinion.
Re: Enterprise’s lack of comedy episodes; I’d argue that Carbon Creek, while not scripted as such, has a fair share of lighthearted fish out of water moments to make me chuckle from time to time. Doesn’t hurt that it’s a nice change of pace for the series, and is able to both retcon something that didn’t need it albeit tongue in cheek. Seeing how Vulcans would fit in with 50s Americana is a really fun concept.
I think one of the biggest times I ever laughed was when Archer kept having to pause his log to make side comments about the Vulcans to Porthos in the pilot.
One of the things that, I think, is underplayed in "Take me out to the Holosuite" is the performance of Jake Sisko. He pitched a complete game against a squad of superior Vulcans who, presumably, had been practicing the game for longer than the Niner's team of (mostly) complete amateurs. Only giving up ten runs in that complete game is incredible considering the circumstances. Ben Sisko even says at the end when Jake is being hard on himself about the situation that if it hadn't been an entire team of Vulcans, that Jake would have probably only given up two or three runs. A nice behind the scenes bit is that Cirroc Lofton is Kenny Lofton's nephew and we see the nice nod of wearing a Braves hat earlier in the episode as a homage to his Uncle who was playing for Atlanta at the time. Also, another a nice bit of behind the scenes trivia from TMOTTH, Max Grodénchik was the only actor with any baseball playing experience and was actually pretty good. In order to make Rom seem incredibly incompetent, he played left-handed rather than right-handed.
I always interpreted the ending of "Take me out to the holosuite" as a call back to classic Trek's discussions between Kirk and Spock. Kirk would say to Spock: "Something, something, we are all humans" and Spock will reply: "Dude, you freakin' racist, I'm an alien and there are a lot more aliens onboard!" At the end of "Take m out to the holosuite", Solok is like: "You damn stupid incompetent humans, grrr... " and Dax answers: "You blind racist, here are more aliens than humans! Or did I forget to wear my spots today?"
I have often said that Trek can write humor but they can't explain it. That quick shot you had from The Outrageous Okana was a great example of that shortcoming. Another was that yes, it was funny when Data pushed Crusher into the water in Generations.
One of my favorite jokes in all of Trek is from Take Me Out to the Holosuite: when Miles is explaining the historical role of bubblegum in baseball, and how it's infused with flavor. Julian asks what flavor Miles chose, and he just says, 'Scotch'. 😙👌
The Trouble With Edward is one of the funniest things I seen in a long time. I thought it was just the absurdity and nostalgia that I just LMAO'd about of my chair at it. It would've never made it as a full episode but was perfect as a Short Trek. Star Trek comedy at it's best. Maybe Star Trek 4 as a whole might be the one thing that would push it out of the way a bit
I'm glad you tackled this. I think Star Trek comedy is underrated - Trouble with Tribbles, ANY episode with Harry Mudd, A Piece of the Action to name a few. And the following seasons do it as well - The Magnificent Ferengi, Take Me Out to the Holosuite, many of the episodes with Q, Trials & Tribble-ations, most of Body Parts, Real Life from Voyager and more! Great video, Steve - thanks!
I always thought Scotty beaming the tribbles over to the Klingon ship was funny, then I watched DS9 and learned of the campaign led by the Klingon empire to rid the galaxy of them. I can't help but think that it probably started with the tribbles on that Klingon ship. Kirk was taken aback by the idea that Scotty might have beamed them into space, he might however have doomed them to a fate worse than that. No tribble at all indeed.
I'm in a weird camp. I like Lower Decks. I don't think it's hilarious, but it does have what most current Trek shows (or indeed shows in general) lack, namely charm. It's characters are goofy, quirky, relatable, and the show has heart. They're more human than pretty much all of Discovery's cast put together.
Steve, I appreciate you being funny while talking about humor. This was delightful. One of the things I most recall about TOS is the wry bickering that went on, which was an amusing trope. teasing Spock to make him illicit emotion and the Vulcan denying it. Scotty McCoy and the Capn with their repartee. Even the villans had their sardonic moments. Again, marvellous job, cogently presented (the immense amount of work you do shows in the results) Thanks again, Jim Oaxaca
This video was a lot of fun, but I can't believe you skipped on who is arguably the most blatant comic relief character in the whole series, Lwaxana Troi Also - Rascals!
i found myself doing this with the comedy in doctor who. much of their humour tended to go over my head. especially the peter davision era. his comedy required a level of intelligence i barely perceived. but eventually i did get it. peter davison engaged in thinking person's humour.
I always the Enterprise two-part episode taking place in the Mirror Universe was something of a (subtle) comedy with all the over-the-top acting evil... like when Dr. Phlox was trying to kill the Tholian. Though maybe I just have a sick sense of humor. 😉
In the episode Day of the Dove, Gang slaps Kirk on the back, Kirk's 'wounded' reaction is very funny. In the TOS Nomad episode, "Excellent use of logic captain" "Didn't think I had it in me?" "No." Shatner's double-take is perfect. Maybe it's not the funniest show because some characters don't get their cues right away, A Piece of the Action. "right Spock? "Affirmative, Captain". "RIGHT SPOCK?" "Right!" It's possible that it could be difficult to teach Spock to play along comedically. And that the thing about Star Trek, it has funny elements. "Come to Quark's, Quark's is fun. Come right now, don't walk. Run!" I LOVED that part. But, if you can't see the funny from the 'structured funny', I pity you. Rom forms a Union, "The Structure", which s a serious issue, and yet Chief O'Brien's comments about his 'Union Man' ancestor provides both the tension for Rom and the humour for the audience. Try watching Doctor's Orders from Enterprise. It's a very good episode. Sorry, not to many laughs. If you're looking for 'structure' in the comedy.
Little Green Men, Take Me Out to the Holosuite, The Magnificent Ferengi, Trials and Tribble-ations, In the Cards, Looking for Par'Mach in All the Wrong Places, Our Man Bashir. As with all things, DS9 leads the way.
Small point that is a pet peeve of mine Voyage home is only the highest grossing film until star trek 2009 if you only use the us box office Outside the us both star trek 1 and first contact out performed it Small point maybe, but as an international fan it annoys me when Americans forget we exist
Not a full episode but Picard considering about making an entry himself for commander Riker day is easily one of the best comedic moments in all of Trek. That and waking up next to Q and calling Dr. Crusher Dr. Beverly. Or the numerous misunderstandings in Data’s day. Or Picard feeling awkward when Data stares at him aboard the Klingon ship on the way to Romulus. Basically comedy in Trek works best when it’s dry, subtle and the episode is not focused on comedy. Oh, and of course Picard and the horgon. That bit never get’s old
Great List. I would add DS9: In the Cards. This may be more of a feel good episode, but it always makes me laugh when Jake makes up the crazy story for Weyoun about him and Nog working for Star Fleet Intelligence. Love this one. Little Green Men and Take Me Out to the Holosuite are also wonderful. Thank you for the video!
The Kelvin verse timeline first movie where Kirk is brought on board by McCoy and he goes through all the medical treatments that part cracks me up all the time.
I really enjoyed your commentary, and I especially loved your description of ST4. It really helped me escape my stresses and laugh like I hadn't in a long, long time!
My favorite joke was actually intentional from Worf, which really humanized him. It was the episode One Little Ship and involves him claiming to have written poetry about the events of the episode. "This is the story of a little ship that took a little trip." Given how many jokes are about Worf and not from him, I really loved the moment. Man, DS9 was great for his character.
For my money, Worf was comedy gold. “Death to the opposition”, calling prune juice “warriors’ drink”, “Captain I must protest. I am NOT a merry man”. He had so many funny moments which Michael Dorn handled so well.
His delivery of the line "Die" in Deja Q is absolute gold. Riker's reaction is just as good and I'm not even sure it was scripted.
He is great as dry humored straight man. He even gets more used in like a fistful of datas, data is the other comedy goldmine.
The episode where he describes Klingon courting rituals to Wesley always gets me to laugh
To me the funniest thing about Worf was his constant frustration at the fact that nobody would listen to him. He's the Chief Security Officer, yet his advice is always rejected.
@@seraiharper5553 whenever I feel frustrated cuz someone ignored my advice I watch a supercut of Worf being denied and immediately get both enjoyment and perspective
I'd have paid real money for the makeup team to have modeled Worf as a TOS Klingon whenever they were back in time for "Trials and Tribble-ations" with no explanation whatsoever.
and better yet, none of his DS9 colleagues say a word in the episode!
@@johnchedsey1306: honestly might have been an even funnier gag than what they actually did. Also maybe could have buried the "question" and avoided the whole mess Enterprise made by trying to force an explanation.
@@johnchedsey1306 Exactly!
Enterprise "explaining" smooth Klingons was a stupid idea. Also it was not was future historians will find out. The real deal was that Ferengi sold skincare products for ridges to the Klingons, to enhance the ridges, but some batches were substandard and made the opposite. In anger the Klingon blew them up. Unfortunately, that made is problematic to get the other lotion with worked for quite a time. Only at time of discovery a new source was found which explains the totally different looking Klingons of that area too. It could have been so easy.
O’brien: Worf?! Is that you?
Worf, blankly: yes..? Why?
Bashir: uh, no reason!
And it’s never mentioned again.
One of the best parts of the "Falling Tribbles" scene is when Kirk tells McCoy to figure out why the Tribbles are dying and McCoy say "I haven't figured out what keeps them alive". Kirk gives him a glare that is priceless.
There's another great bit in that same scene where Lurie estimates there must be thousands of Tribbles, Kirk estimates there must be hundreds of thousands, and then Spock chimes in with one million, seven hundred seventy-one thousand, five hundred sixty-one tribbles. Assuming a litter of twelve -- As Spock is elaborating his calculations... Ensign Leslie, the Red-Shirt standing immediately behind Spock, rolls his eyes, in an absolutely flawless, peerless gesture of physical comedy. Obviously Leslie is pretty tired of Vulcans and their need to be precise.
@@kwohlmut Ensign Leslie is the best.
Put me in the camp that says the DS9 crew missed a great joke by having Worf beam over to the space station in Trials and Tribbleations and he just comes out the door in the TOS make up job. No one notices.
Data turning full cat dad in front of Worf, and Worf sneezing on the way out of Data's quarters, is the funniest scene in TNG.
My favourite comedy episode has to be "A Piece of the Action". Kirk's driving, and Spock's deadpan reaction to it, is priceless. Also, Shatner embracing his 'gangster' persona is hilarious.
Something widely overlooked about that episode... and I recall reading this is true, but I can't find the original source... the writer of the episode intended it to be an allegory -- not about gangsters, but about how silly people look when they set up their whole society to mimic what's in an ancient Book... even _if_ that Book was given by Higher Beings... you still look pretty silly when you take some ancient Book as Gospel. Do I have to spell it out?
Directed by the great James Komack a classic comedy episode.
@@kwohlmut I would love to find a source for that. It's quite interesting.
@Cary Charlebois. Those. are more of those moments I didn't mention in the comment I just posted. I. could have gone on and on, but restrained. myself. "As a taxi driver, you leave. much to be desired." "That bad?" Also, the whole "Right?"/"Check" routine.
Exactly! Surprised he didn't review that?
Our man Bashir is one of the funniest bits of Trek for me. Especially how Garrak just invites himself along for the spy thriller.
Especially considering Garak is on fire with his snarking against the spy genre tropes. It's delightful.
"Kiss the girl, get the key. They didn't teach me that in the Obsidian Order."
One of his best lines, out of so many over the course of the show
You forgot the hilarious gag of Chekov asking a COP for directions to the nuclear wessels....during the Cold War
Nuclear Weasels.
I love when Trek does comedy and seriousness at the same time. That takes some finesse! Two of the finest examples is the aforementioned "Deja Q" with its wonderfully earnest scene of Q telling Data that he is a better than Q is. And the most criminally underrated episode of DS9 EVER: "In the Cards". This is episode is the epitome of tightrope walking as the B story is ultra serious as it is about the eve of the Dominion War and the A story is witty, light-hearted jaunt that has Jake and Nog trying to find a gift, a Willie Mays rookie card, to cheer up Captain Sisko. The two stories merge elegantly together to one of the biggest smile-getting episodes in Trek history.
I think most of the episodes with Q have hilarious moments. "Flowers! Is there a Jon Luck Pikerd here?", "That's a beautiful story. It gets you right here, doesn't it", "You hit me. Picard never hit me." "I'm not Picard", and Worf had a good one himself, "I'm not a merry man!".
My favourite moment of 'In the Cards' is when Jake tries to bluff Weyoun all 'my father, the CAPTAIN of the STATION, you know, my DAD?' and Weyoun says very calmly "I know who your father is."
Agreed. Loved seeing Nog flex his Ferengi skills to trade for Siskos gift.
Wayoun just walking into drinking the poisoned kanar while sisco and gul dukat do the mindgames banter.
Or the whole nog stressing obrian out with bartering things for a drive.
Or just good weyoun annoying odo with goood.
Or the whole new generation dry humor, like picard is too stressed oit and its the threat troys mom will come does it., most things data, worf usually,
The casino episode, personallyi find it absurd funny.
One of the reasons Shatner was able to shine in “The Trouble with Tribbles” is that Nimoy was such a great straight man. His deadpan, wry delivery makes for some of the best comedy in that episode. Kirk: “I heard you” Spock: “He simply could not believe his ears”. They were (will be?) the Martin and Lewis of the 23rd century…
Nimoy decided to do a deadpan Spock to contrast better with Shatner's flamboyant Kirk. Shatner, on the other hand, made Kirk flamboyant because he thought some of the scripts outlandish. Was it good? Bad? Take that as you will.
And Spock, with his pointed ears saying that makes it twice as funny to me. :D
I'd like to have seen Spock use a few "colourful metaphors" in "Star Trek IV".
"Death to the opposition" and "I am not a merry man" prove Worf is an unwitting master of comedy
Don't forget "Find him and KILL him!" from "Take Me Out To The Holosuite"!
😆
"It's like owning a cat, without having to worry about when it's going to kill you!" Okay, first of all, you don't own a cat, a cat owns *you* ! Secondly, worrying when your feline monarch is going to kill you is half the fun!
The cat doesn't own you.
It allows you.
So dogs are people's pets, they are bigger than cats so cats are dog's pets and oddly people are cat's pets!
@@pauljackson3491 i have seen a 5 week old kitten take on a wolf/rottweiler mix. One that took out wild boar with her daddy.
It won. It was the only animal I ever saw that dog fear.
Cat's are nobody's pet.
@@pauljackson3491 oh, no way! Dogs are definatly cats pets! We are merely servants for our feline overlords
@@pauljackson3491 A cat owns a human and then merely tolerates humans bizzare habit of keeping dogs as pets. Cats view dogs at the very bottom of the hierarchy.
I've seen both a labrador and a German Shepard get beaten up by a cat. Dogs have no perception of size
Speaking of "Trials and Tribble-ations", I will forever think it should have been handled by putting Michael Dorn in the TOS Klingon makeup and acting like nothing is out of the ordinary.
That is actually brilliant. I hate when some fans get apeshit crazy over stupid stuff like that. TOS was done in the 60s, of course the sets and makeup were limited.
Hah! that would've been pretty funny yeah. I still think the way they went with it in the episode was best. Just "we don't talk about it!" and moving on. xD Loved that episode.
It may be that I actually like _Enterprise's_ answer coloring my take, but I think that they did it perfect as is in "Trials and Tribble-ations." (And, of course given my aforementioned comment, like where they took it later in "Affliction" and "Divergent;" but I will concede that I am in a minority on this point.)
@@scaper8 I like the irony that Enterprise just made both of Bashir’s guesses correct. Like “yep, both of them”
@@KingZercules One of the most eyeroll-inducing habits of ST fans (for me at least) is the constant clamor to EXPLAIN things. Jeez, it was just an old TV show, one that the makers never thought would be the huge hit it was. It's like how everyone has turned Shakespeare into some kind of god when he was just a dude knocking out plays to keep his actors working and himself in shoe leather. Some things just don't have explanations!
Pre-emptively, I want to say that Dr. Pulaski was a rad character. I still prefer Dr. Crusher's style, but I always liked Dr. Pulaski.
Even if she is just Miranda Jones in disguise. Who was just Dr. Mulhall in disguise.
Can't believe there was no mention of House of Quark. Gowron and the Klingon High Council going through all the ledgers with Quark was some of the funniest imagery in the whole franchise.
I swear, while trying to follow those ledgers, Gowron's eyes were somehow bulging out of his skull even more than usual.
I loved quarks dissection of their honour... somehow making it obvious that a battle hardened Klingon defeating a bartending ferengi proves nothing 🤣
@@NeilCWCampbell Yes this. It's clear in a number of episodes that either 1) Klingons mostly pay lip service to the concept of honor and/or only adhere to the letter of the tradition or 2) other races understand honor a lot better than Klingons do. Actually, as I think on it, it's probably both.
Well, as Worf shamelessly brags in DS9's "Trials and Tribble-ations", the Klingons committed extensive Tribble-genocide, so maybe the Tribbles have good reason to resent them, eh?
Eh, I don't know. The genocide is because of Klingons hating Tribbles because of the screeching. So, really more of "hate begets hate; violence begets violence" sort of thing.
I was never really a fan of Seven however she was the centre of my favorite Voyager episodes. Her doing a Robert Picardo impression was hilarious and who wouldn't love an episode guest starring the Rock, Martok and Weyoun?
"Body and Soul" is also my favorite Voyager episode, for the same reason. Also not much of a Seven fan but Jeri Ryan is brilliant in this one.
I love hpw generally she questions bad decision in a polite but sarcastic tone. Or things
There is also a comedic plot point in "Into Darkness" where Kahn's blood is injected into a dead tribble as a means of formulating a serum to revive Kirk's dying body. I always chuckle at that development.
I imagine the telepathic conversation between Spock and the whales went more like this:
SPOCK: Excuse me, huge fish, would you mind---
GEORGE: Mammal.
S: I beg your pardon...?
G: We're mammals, not fish.
S: Ah. My apologies.
G: S'okay, we get that a lot.
S: Hm. Well anyway, this may sound like a strange inquiry, but can you speak to interstellar probes...?
G: Inter-- wait, do you mean Jeff?
S: Jeff?
G: Yeah, Jeff - flies around in space, swings by every few years to catch up? Yeah, we talk all the time. Why, do you know him too...?
S: He seems to be causing some--
G: _HEY, GRACIE!_ There's a guy over here says he knows Jeff!
GRACIE: Oh! How's he doing...? How's his cousin Manny? I didn't think he was due a fly-by til next year!
S: I just--
G: Gracie just asked how Jeff's doing.
S: I don't--
G: Is he coming back early this time? Do we need to get the welcome wagon rollin' already...?
S:The pr-- um, _Jeff_ is causing some problems in the future.
G: The future...?
S: Yes.
G: You're from the _future...?_
S: I'm--
G: _HEY GRACIE! THIS GUY SAYS HE'S FROM THE FUTURE!_
GRACIE: _Whaaaaaaat?!?_
S: I am also an alien.
G: _HE SAYS HE'S ALSO AN ALIEN!_ Hahaha! Oh yeah? Well, if you're an alien, show me something a human can't do!
_(long pause)_
S: I am speaking to you telepathically right now through my hands while swimming underwater for an unusually long time.
_(long pause)_
G: Okay, good point. Hmm. _HEY GRACIE, HUMANS CAN'T BREATHE UNDERWATER OR TALK THROUGH THEIR HANDS, CAN THEY?_
GRACIE: Well, some can talk _with_ their hands, like some sort of signalling--
G: No, this is _through_ his hands - like, he's talking and I'm hearing it, but the sound's not coming from his mouth.
GRACIE: Oh. Well, in that case, no, they can't do that.
G: Hmm. Neat-o. So you're an alien from the future and Jeff's kicking up a fuss back where you come from, right?
S: That is the crux of the problem, yes.
G: So why don't you just get some, y'know, _future_ whales to talk him down? I mean Jeff's a pretty reasonable guy.
S: Um. I have some bad news.
G: What?
S: Whales are extinct in the future. They were hunted to extinction.
G: By... whom...?
S: Humans.
G: _Reeeeally...?_
S: Sadly, yes. So now there are no whales left to speak on the humans' behalf and convince... _Jeff..._ to cease his rampage.
G: So you're saying that you need _us_ to go save the skins of those same hairy air-breathers that hunted _our race to extinction...?_
S: Yes. Please.
_(long pause)_
G: And just how did you expect this conversation to go...?
S: I was rather _hoping_ it would go a little better.
_(long pause)_
S: I did mention that _I_ am not a human...?
G: That's how you got this far, buddy.
S: Do you wish to confer with--
G: No, I don't think Gracie's gonna be too pleased about this, buddy. Let's just not tell her.
S: Very well.
G: So how is this supposed to work? Were you gonna have us record a message to play back to Jeff or something?
S: No. We have the ability to transport you to the future with us in our starship.
G: Wait - you can _take us_ to this future where those assholes have killed off my entire species...?
S: Yes. We--
G: Ohhh, boy! _HEY, GRACIE! PACK YER BAGS! WE'RE GONNA GO KICK SOME FUTURE HUMAN TAILS!_
GRACIE: I don't think they have tails, hun.
G: Well, whatever they have, we're going to the future to get some giant robot fishbowls with huge robot legs to go kick whatever it is they got! You got the technology for that in the future, right, Space Boy?
_(long pause)_
G: So, bein' an alien and all, do you actually breathe water or something?
S: No. I can hold my breath for far longer than a human, but I cannot actually _breathe_ water as you do.
_(long pause)_
G: Well then, you, uh... you should probably be going, then? You've been down here a while now.
S: Correct. I shall return to the surface. Live long and prosper.
G: Yeah, long legs and whatever. Just get my giant robot fishbowl ready!
And... scene!
quote" S: No. I can hold my breath for far longer than a human, but I cannot actually *breathe water as you do*."
(long pause)"
G & Gracie" Your knowledge and logic is faulty; we do not breath under water any more than you do. We are air-breathing mammals, hence why we breach the surface of the ocean to take in oxygen, and yes, we can hold our breath far longer than you - space boy."
@@andrewmurray1550 Well, I'm glad SOMEONE out there besides me remembered their grade school science lessons about whales breathing air instead of water! Good for you, Andrew!
🖖
The whales probably have a completely different understanding of the word “probe.” They probably tell eachother about the time a creature from above captured and “probed” them.
Piccard quoting Shakespeare out of context to save Lwaxana Troi from the Ferengi is one of the funniest things I've seen on any show. I love it so so much.
DS9, as with most things Trek, leads the field here. Some dedicated comedic episodes are brilliant.
Magnificent Ferengi, House Of Quark, Trials And Tribble-Ations. There's about a gazillion little moments in the entire show, too. DS9 does great coworkers banter, looking at *you* Miles and Julian.
Well well well! Look who's first to comment!
Nerd!
See what I did there? ☺️
Who mourns for Morn?
One of my favorite lines in all of Trek is, "I am Quark, son of Keldar, here to face D'gor, son of...whatever."
@@jimballard1186 I actually don't find that line _funny_ per say, so much as badass. His dismissive nonchalance reads, to me, as ballsy as hell. And more badass still? He pulls it off.
As much as people say that ds9 was "dark star trek" it could also be funny star trek. I feel that reducing the show to "dark trek" is a radical oversimplification of the show.
Spock had some killer humorous lines. Deadpan humor can be the best.
Tuvok did well in that regard too.
Tpol had great sarcastic energy and zingers.
Vulcans can be secretly hilarious...
OG spock and bones are like laurel and hardy at times, they crack me up 😆
For me, the king of deadpan humour in sci-fi is, was and always Tommy Lee Jones' straight-faced Agent K in the first Men In Black movie.
The use of the Star Trek "something materializes" sounds (the Poing) really was the icing on the cake.
12:17
Don't care if it's just me but TNG's Barkley throwaway line "I never had problems with spiders" was the funniest line, considering the nightmare to come.
When I first started playing Field Hockey my team was atrocious. We were all 8 so, you know...We could only go up. We were so bad that we didn't score a single goal the whole season, up until our last game, in the second half my cousin sneaks through our only goal and we celebrated like we won the grand final, despite actually losing every game including that one. So I can really relate to the crew of DS9 and their manufactured triumph.
I can't believe you left out 'I, Mudd'. The counter point between Harry's explanation of how he got away from the Denebians and Kirk's matter-of-fact explanation of what Harry really meant was hysterical.
Harcort Fenton Mudd’s wife.
Star Trek IV was, and still is, one of my favorite 1980s comedies, period. I got into Star Trek because of that movie, not the other way around.
Yes the movie is really funny, and nemoy stesling the show
@@marocat4749”too much LDS in the 60’s” 😂
There's two exchanges that always absolutely kill me: in _Deja Q_ when the now-human Q asks "What must i do to convince you people?!" and Worf responds "Die.", not to mention Q's retort of "Oh, very clever Worf. Eat any good books lately?", and in _The Way of the Warrior_ when Quark says "I'll kill him!" after Rom disassembles his disruptor and Odo responds "With what?". Star Trek is a masterclass in comedy, especially in TNG and DS9.
The cupid episode spawned one of my favorite lines which was "I am not a merry man!" And then the scene where worf casually breaks the lute was hilarious, in my opinion.
My favorite Worf comedy was when he, uncomfortably, compliments the tea and the house of his hostess around season five. "Good tea. Nice house".
Where Worf breaks the lute and then lamely apologizes. :)
Worf is an unsung hero of Trek comedy.
“You are ten centimetres dilated. You may now give birth.”
His immediate love of prune juice “A Warrior’s drink!”
And of course, sometimes what you need is a good straight man to bounce the comedy off of.
@@alanbear6505 Pretty sure that was referencing Animal House
Ah, Steve. Your bit about "warping around the sun in the opposite direction, as every temporal physicist knows, is how you travel to the future" made me laugh so hard I snorted.
nah, all you need is a cool sports car from 1980's, a velocity of 88mph, a spare supply of garbage (depending on if you have been to 2015 or not) and make sure the ignition works without head-butting the steering wheel and make sure you have a jerry-can of gasoline in the trunk in case you get stuck in 1885!
A Dr. Pulaski episode, that should be interesting. I still remember how shocked I was when they wrote her off by falling down an empty turbolift shaft. Did not see that coming.
I am very glad you included "The Magnificent Ferengi"; I think it's a master class in how to effectively mix comedy and drama in a sci-fi show.
One of my favorite moments in all of ST is Worf exclaiming "I am not a merry man!" and later destroying the lute or mandolin or whatever that little guitar was.
and handing it back to Geordi ...with a semi-heartfelt apology: "Sorry...."
Gotta give credit where credit is due: That bit was originated by John Belushi in "Animal House"--but still perfectly executed by Michael Dorn!
Personal favorite is "A Fistful of Datas". All the tension of the first Dixon Hill episode, with the added hilarity of Brent Spiner devouring scenery.
And worf reacting very funny to data, data madsame is cursed 🤣
"Carbon Creek" is one of my favorite Enterprise episodes, and while not really a comedy has some great comic bits, some directly borrowed from "City on the Edge of Forever", also a non-comedy with some great comic scenes.
The opening scene of Voyager's "Tinker, Tenor, Doctor, Spy" still kills me every time.
My favorite recurring gag in More Tribbles, More Problems is Kirk having to keep removing tribbles from his chair until he can't anymore & just decides to stand.
Imagine the following scene: There’s an away team that’s been on a planet for a while when some of them are needed back on the ship. So one of them taps their combadge and says “Three to beam up”
The transport cycle completes and the officer looks at the crew members to their left and right then turns to the transporter chief and says,
“You beamed up the wrong three”
“You just said three, sir.”
“So you decided that in a ship wide emergency that I would need to bring back up Ensign T’ev from astrobotany and Lt. Coogan from xenometeorology? And not Commander Torsek from Engineering?”
“No, sir. I locked the beam on you and widened the aperture until I had three signals.”
“sigh… what’s the emergency anyway?”
*transporter console sparks an explodes*
“Uh… EPS conduits are malfunctioning and exploding critical hardware.”
“Well Ensign T’ev… I guess in Cmdr Torvek’s absence, you’ll have to get to the… root… of the problem.”
"And then they flew off into Star Trek 5, where the true extent of their punishment became clear" might actually be funnier than anything written in a Star Trek episode. It's at least going to contend with the top spots.
I laughed so hard I had to pause the video.
One of my favourite comedy moments is in Q-Pid where Worf goes over and smashes Geordi's lute against the tree, but in the background you can see what looks like Gates breaking character and losing her shit over how funny it is. I absolutely love it!
I am surprised "Little Green Men" wasn't mentioned , afterall it was a light-hearted episode , with some good running gags
I could have mentioned it. Probably should have. It's definitely a comedy episode, and a good one!
I always liked, how Kirk repeats some words and sentences when he is confused in The Trouble with Tribbles
"Storage Compartment? Storage Compartment?"
"Chicken sandwich and coffee... this is my chicken sandwich and coffee."
"And what of Lazarus? What of Lazarus?"
The DS9 baseball game has the funniest Worf line to me, even better than the prune juice.
When the Vulcans make the error sliding home and nog asks what he should do the camera pans to work very quickly and he says "find him and kill him"
I loved how every time acting grand nagus brunt was referenced with out the word acting, a ferengi enters frame correcting the error.
Doesn't Enterprise have that one episode where they're all bombed out of their mind on space drugs and Reed is trying to come up with the now standard tactical alert systems used in Star Trek? There was some alright comedy in there.
My mother used to drive us up the wall by calling it a comedy back in the 1970s. She got it, we didn't.
I’ve never really thought of The Trouble with Tribbles as a “comedy” episode. I’ve always seen it as more of a “lighthearted” episode.
The Spock/McCoy banter is some of the best of the show's lighter moments.
I thought that the Ferengi episodes on DS9 were hilarious. If they ever want to make a live action comedy series making it revolved around the Ferengi could be a good way to do it.
I wouldn't say "hilarious", but some of the best and most experienced comedy actors in Hollywood were under those prosthetics, and I always enjoyed the quality and class of the performances.
I think DS9 did well in humor. The magnificent ferengi episode deserved a shout out for it's hilarity
Let's also not forget A Piece of the Action from the TOS. Fizzbin!
The “because I’m a honest Tribble and not a lying cheating Klingon” killed me.
Star Trek V was a comedic masterpiece… granted, most of what I find hilarious wasn’t *intended* as such, but still
But seriously, the biggest problem with STV is that they tried to replicate the success of STIV by inserting as many jokes as possible -- even though it was not appropriate to the story, with its themes of spiritual yearning and the problem of pain. You could greatly improve the movie just by cutting most of the jokes.
When you mentioned the Tribble's note of having it explode (due to it having a bomb, and having it claim that it would explode if it didn't eat), I kinda expected you to end the video with the Tribble exploding. Would've been a funny conclusion to an episode of "Trek, Actually" that deals with comedy in Trek.
Tribbles cameoed in 'Star Trek III: The Search For Spock' when McCoy's looking for transport in the bar.
A few of my favourite jokes from TOS have been:
"I was making a little joke sir"
"Very little, ensign"
And that whole seen in the last five minutes of 'Friday's Child' was the bickering over the name of the baby. Bonus points for the who tidbit of McCoy cooing at the baby
Worf is also really funny with his very literal thinking, the "NOT a Merry Man" bit just makes me wheeze
Some of the best scenes in Star Trek: First Contact were comedy scenes. Troi getting shit drunk at the bar and talking to Riker was worth the price of admission, in my opinion.
Star Trek is full of comedy, even if just little bits here and there, which I really appreciate, even if it does not always work. It was almost compulsory for each TOS episode to end with a joke and [rather forced] laughter around the captain's chair. All of the series had comedy. I loved the comedy in Discovery - Georgio had some great lines, and of course they brought in Tig Notaro too.
The end of the second episode with Harry Mudd was funny. He had the android duplicate of his ex-wife, and she was programmed to yell at until he tells her to shut up, which the real one would never do. There are several sets of identical twins playing androids in that episode, each wearing a necklace with a number, indicating what number each is in the series of otherwise identical androids. At the end, Mudd is accosted by at least three duplicates of Mrs. Mudd, one of whom wears the number 500 (indicating there are at least 497 others), and they do not stop yelling at him when he tells them.
The tragic accident with the mechanical rice picker always brings a tear to my eye. Oh, the humanity!
City on the Edge of Forever is one of the great masterpieces of the series.
Ooh, "Bride of Chaotica"! I hadn't thought of that, but it's so good!
I submit "In a Mirror Darkly" as a pretty funny Enterprise episode. And some other funny scene (in no particular order) :
- Archer and Hoshi trading insults
- the Reptile Xindi clinking live mice. We are eeevil!
- Archer's face when the alien deletes a huge chunk of his data (guess he did not make a backup)
Enterprise had Singularity - between Trip/the Captain’s chair, Reed/the security alert and Archer/the preface was a very funny episode - loved it. Plus Acquisition was clearly written as a lighter episode using humour.
Voyager also had many funny episodes, but sad to see both of these series were brushed over or ignored - otherwise I generally enjoy your analysis.
I think when Q appears on 1701d bridge with the mariachi band after getting his powers back is my all time favorite scene in all trek it always makes me smile no matter how many times I see it.
I can't believe you didn't even mention Little Green Men, which was the funniest Star Trek episode ever! Many of my family and friends are UFO cranks, and that explanation of the Roswell event just slays me.
While Enterprise doesn’t have any specifically comedic episodes, there are lots of little moments of comedy. Phlox has quite a few.
I beg to differ. When Tripp was pregnant, when Dr Phlox's wife visited and flirted with Trip the whole way through.
Tpol ans shran always are fun, i like tpols sarcastic comments that are calling out weird stuff the crew does.
Malcolm and Trip got a lot of nice humorous moments between them. And of course there were some good comedy beats in the bottle ep Shuttlepod One. And I agree about Phlox, an underrated character in my opinion.
Re: Enterprise’s lack of comedy episodes; I’d argue that Carbon Creek, while not scripted as such, has a fair share of lighthearted fish out of water moments to make me chuckle from time to time. Doesn’t hurt that it’s a nice change of pace for the series, and is able to both retcon something that didn’t need it albeit tongue in cheek.
Seeing how Vulcans would fit in with 50s Americana is a really fun concept.
I think one of the biggest times I ever laughed was when Archer kept having to pause his log to make side comments about the Vulcans to Porthos in the pilot.
Another funny episode that I enjoy is Message in a Bottle on Voyager, very funny!
One of the things that, I think, is underplayed in "Take me out to the Holosuite" is the performance of Jake Sisko. He pitched a complete game against a squad of superior Vulcans who, presumably, had been practicing the game for longer than the Niner's team of (mostly) complete amateurs. Only giving up ten runs in that complete game is incredible considering the circumstances. Ben Sisko even says at the end when Jake is being hard on himself about the situation that if it hadn't been an entire team of Vulcans, that Jake would have probably only given up two or three runs.
A nice behind the scenes bit is that Cirroc Lofton is Kenny Lofton's nephew and we see the nice nod of wearing a Braves hat earlier in the episode as a homage to his Uncle who was playing for Atlanta at the time.
Also, another a nice bit of behind the scenes trivia from TMOTTH, Max Grodénchik was the only actor with any baseball playing experience and was actually pretty good. In order to make Rom seem incredibly incompetent, he played left-handed rather than right-handed.
I always interpreted the ending of "Take me out to the holosuite" as a call back to classic Trek's discussions between Kirk and Spock.
Kirk would say to Spock: "Something, something, we are all humans" and Spock will reply: "Dude, you freakin' racist, I'm an alien and there are a lot more aliens onboard!"
At the end of "Take m out to the holosuite", Solok is like: "You damn stupid incompetent humans, grrr... " and Dax answers: "You blind racist, here are more aliens than humans! Or did I forget to wear my spots today?"
I have often said that Trek can write humor but they can't explain it. That quick shot you had from The Outrageous Okana was a great example of that shortcoming. Another was that yes, it was funny when Data pushed Crusher into the water in Generations.
One of my favorite jokes in all of Trek is from Take Me Out to the Holosuite: when Miles is explaining the historical role of bubblegum in baseball, and how it's infused with flavor. Julian asks what flavor Miles chose, and he just says, 'Scotch'. 😙👌
"The Trouble with Tribbles" was my INTRODUCTION to Trek! Four days after Christmas 1967, I became a Trekker!
The Trouble With Edward is one of the funniest things I seen in a long time. I thought it was just the absurdity and nostalgia that I just LMAO'd about of my chair at it. It would've never made it as a full episode but was perfect as a Short Trek. Star Trek comedy at it's best. Maybe Star Trek 4 as a whole might be the one thing that would push it out of the way a bit
When the cloaked ship crushes the trash can I can’t help but smile.
I'm glad you tackled this. I think Star Trek comedy is underrated - Trouble with Tribbles, ANY episode with Harry Mudd, A Piece of the Action to name a few. And the following seasons do it as well - The Magnificent Ferengi, Take Me Out to the Holosuite, many of the episodes with Q, Trials & Tribble-ations, most of Body Parts, Real Life from Voyager and more!
Great video, Steve - thanks!
"I adore alliteration! Anyways..."
I always thought Scotty beaming the tribbles over to the Klingon ship was funny, then I watched DS9 and learned of the campaign led by the Klingon empire to rid the galaxy of them. I can't help but think that it probably started with the tribbles on that Klingon ship. Kirk was taken aback by the idea that Scotty might have beamed them into space, he might however have doomed them to a fate worse than that. No tribble at all indeed.
I'm in a weird camp. I like Lower Decks. I don't think it's hilarious, but it does have what most current Trek shows (or indeed shows in general) lack, namely charm. It's characters are goofy, quirky, relatable, and the show has heart. They're more human than pretty much all of Discovery's cast put together.
Steve, I appreciate you being funny while talking about humor. This was delightful. One of the things I most recall about TOS is the wry bickering that went on, which was an amusing trope. teasing Spock to make him illicit emotion and the Vulcan denying it. Scotty McCoy and the Capn with their repartee. Even the villans had their sardonic moments. Again, marvellous job, cogently presented (the immense amount of work you do shows in the results) Thanks again, Jim Oaxaca
This video was a lot of fun, but I can't believe you skipped on who is arguably the most blatant comic relief character in the whole series, Lwaxana Troi
Also - Rascals!
That's understandable. Steve has explained previously that he doesn't like the portrayal of Lwaxana. He's wrong of course. I love her.
i found myself doing this with the comedy in doctor who. much of their humour tended to go over my head. especially the peter davision era. his comedy required a level of intelligence i barely perceived. but eventually i did get it. peter davison engaged in thinking person's humour.
I always the Enterprise two-part episode taking place in the Mirror Universe was something of a (subtle) comedy with all the over-the-top acting evil... like when Dr. Phlox was trying to kill the Tholian. Though maybe I just have a sick sense of humor. 😉
In the episode Day of the Dove, Gang slaps Kirk on the back, Kirk's 'wounded' reaction is very funny.
In the TOS Nomad episode, "Excellent use of logic captain" "Didn't think I had it in me?" "No." Shatner's double-take is perfect.
Maybe it's not the funniest show because some characters don't get their cues right away, A Piece of the Action. "right Spock? "Affirmative, Captain". "RIGHT SPOCK?" "Right!" It's possible that it could be difficult to teach Spock to play along comedically.
And that the thing about Star Trek, it has funny elements.
"Come to Quark's, Quark's is fun. Come right now, don't walk. Run!"
I LOVED that part. But, if you can't see the funny from the 'structured funny', I pity you.
Rom forms a Union, "The Structure", which s a serious issue, and yet Chief O'Brien's comments about his 'Union Man' ancestor provides both the tension for Rom and the humour for the audience.
Try watching Doctor's Orders from Enterprise. It's a very good episode. Sorry, not to many laughs. If you're looking for 'structure' in the comedy.
"The Outageous Okona" is some sort of anti-comedy, like an art house film designed to be as unfunny as possible.
" ...and fly off into Star Trek V, where the true extent of their punishment becomes clear."
Oooohh.
Great episode! Steve's showing his comedic chops and spitting facts. This was an especially fun one.
I eagerly await the video analyzing if this episode of Trek, Actually is a comdey!
Little Green Men, Take Me Out to the Holosuite, The Magnificent Ferengi, Trials and Tribble-ations, In the Cards, Looking for Par'Mach in All the Wrong Places, Our Man Bashir.
As with all things, DS9 leads the way.
The Kirk & Scotty post-brawl scene in "Trouble With Tribbles" was a highlight. You can tell Bill and Jimmy loved playing that one out.
Small point that is a pet peeve of mine
Voyage home is only the highest grossing film until star trek 2009 if you only use the us box office
Outside the us both star trek 1 and first contact out performed it
Small point maybe, but as an international fan it annoys me when Americans forget we exist
Not a full episode but Picard considering about making an entry himself for commander Riker day is easily one of the best comedic moments in all of Trek. That and waking up next to Q and calling Dr. Crusher Dr. Beverly.
Or the numerous misunderstandings in Data’s day.
Or Picard feeling awkward when Data stares at him aboard the Klingon ship on the way to Romulus.
Basically comedy in Trek works best when it’s dry, subtle and the episode is not focused on comedy.
Oh, and of course Picard and the horgon. That bit never get’s old
Looking for par'Mach in All the Wrong Places is my go to comedy episode in DS9
My favorite comedy one was the Voyager episode with the Doctor singing at the start. Tinker, Tailor, Doctor, Spy?
Great List. I would add DS9: In the Cards. This may be more of a feel good episode, but it always makes me laugh when Jake makes up the crazy story for Weyoun about him and Nog working for Star Fleet Intelligence. Love this one. Little Green Men and Take Me Out to the Holosuite are also wonderful. Thank you for the video!
The Kelvin verse timeline first movie where Kirk is brought on board by McCoy and he goes through all the medical treatments that part cracks me up all the time.
I really enjoyed your commentary, and I especially loved your description of ST4. It really helped me escape my stresses and laugh like I hadn't in a long, long time!
No love for Tinker Tenor Doctor Spy? That was fucking hilarious.
My favorite joke was actually intentional from Worf, which really humanized him. It was the episode One Little Ship and involves him claiming to have written poetry about the events of the episode. "This is the story of a little ship that took a little trip." Given how many jokes are about Worf and not from him, I really loved the moment.
Man, DS9 was great for his character.