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Is Star Trek Actually Any Good at Comedy?

Steve Shives

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▶Chapters
0:00 - Intro
02:06 - "The Trouble with Tribbles"
10:28 - "More Tribbles, More Trouble"
12:43 - "Trials and Tribble-ations"
16:29 - "The Trouble with Edward"
20:54 - Those Funny Ferengi
23:45 - "Take Me Out to the Holosuite"
28:06 - Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
35:07 - Why Do People Think Star Trek Isn't Good at Comedy?
38:33 - Conclusion
39:47 - Shoutouts, Plugs, and Announcements

20 Comments

@Seanginty1 4 years ago

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.

@birchwwolf 4 years ago

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.

@JoeKenWA 4 years ago (edited)

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.

@dataportdoll 4 years ago

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.

@bernardoconnor1502 4 years ago

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.

@bendonatier 4 years ago

Our man Bashir is one of the funniest bits of Trek for me. Especially how Garrak just invites himself along for the spy thriller.

@les5503 4 years ago

"Death to the opposition" and "I am not a merry man" prove Worf is an unwitting master of comedy

@MultiMackD 4 years ago

You forgot the hilarious gag of Chekov asking a COP for directions to the nuclear wessels....during the Cold War

@wolfpackjew 4 years ago

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.

@carycharlebois5965 4 years ago (edited)

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.

@RedDragonGeoffClark 4 years ago

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.

@keithshields8649 4 years ago

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…

@Mackenzie_EV 4 years ago (edited)

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.

@KayleighBourquin 4 years ago

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.

@patrickdodds7162 4 years ago (edited)

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.

@AllanPichardo 4 years ago

The opening scene of Voyager's "Tinker, Tenor, Doctor, Spy" still kills me every time.

@gozerthegozarian9500 4 years ago

"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!

@Archanea 4 years ago

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.

@renatocorvaro6924 4 years ago (edited)

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.

@jbz4788 4 years ago

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”