Was that a mormon Joke?

[Guy Gardener]

"Too much LDS in college."

Took me twenty years to get that joke.

In my defense when I finally got it, it's been at least 5 years since I last watched Star Trek IV The Voyage Home.

 

[Basill]

I always took it to mean Kirk didn't know his late 20th century recreational drugs like he should, mistaking LDS for LSD. Of course... you've put a totally new spin on that one for me.

 

[JoeZhang]

"Too much LDS in college."

Took me twenty years to get that joke.

In my defense when I finally got it, it's been at least 5 years since I last watched Star Trek IV The Voyage Home.

em.. no? It's a joke that places off Kirk making a cultural reference to the 1960s and getting it wrong...

 

[Peach Wookiee]

Seeing as it's Kirk...I can see where you might think that...

 

[diankra]

I always took it to mean Kirk didn't know his late 20th century recreational drugs like he should, mistaking LDS for LSD. Of course... you've put a totally new spin on that one for me.

But.. it had never occured to me till this thread came up, but it's a pretty wrong slip to make: it means Kirk knows 20th century history well enough to almost know the letters LSD in connection with hippie/60s culture, but this 23rd century man who was supposedly a 'walking stack of books' doesn't know enough chemistry to know what the initials should be from the full name.

 

[cardinal biggles]

This is why over-analyzing a joke kills it.

 

[Maurice]

It's a double joke...he's misremembered the name of the drug, and what he says happens to be the initials for a religion. I laughed at both when the film first came out.

As to him misrembering, come on, the OP hasn't even got the quote right, and we expect Kirk not to make a mistake 300 years later?

 

[Guy Gardener]

My bad. I did say it had been 5 years.

It was a friend of mine mentioning LDS which had me loling uncontrollablly as i then instantly made the connection, but of course Kirk was trying to say LSD, so it's a question of what an educated 20th century female would have "heard" when he said LDS, that is if Gillian had ever had to oust one of these door knocking people trying to prey on her possible wavering theological convictions.

However if he'd said DSL, well that's a joke only a time traveler in the cinema would get since it was still some years before even dial up was invented for functional use by the masses... What the frak was with that computer from Whiz Kids? So I meant originally was it a Joke by the writers of the movie, not Kirk because it's funny when people don't know what they're saying as they open their mouths.

 

[KayArr]

I went to college in Utah for 2 years, and saw Voyage Home in a theater in Salt Lake City. The audience just roared, they were practically rolling in the aisles--I always felt it probably just got a modest chuckle in other states.

 

[JoeZhang]

My bad. I did say it had been 5 years.

It was a friend of mine mentioning LDS which had me loling uncontrollablly as i then instantly made the connection, but of course Kirk was trying to say LSD, so it's a question of what an educated 20th century female would have "heard" when he said LDS, that is if Gillian had ever had to oust one of these door knocking people trying to prey on her possible wavering theological convictions.

Well there is a cut line where she says "so you are dyslexic as well?" - which indicates that she knows he's on about drugs.

 

[A beaker full of death]

It was a friend of mine mentioning LDS which had me loling uncontrollablly as i then instantly made the connection

So if I mention the WWF do you get a visual of wrestling pandas?

 

[Guy Gardener]

My bad. I did say it had been 5 years.

It was a friend of mine mentioning LDS which had me loling uncontrollablly as i then instantly made the connection, but of course Kirk was trying to say LSD, so it's a question of what an educated 20th century female would have "heard" when he said LDS, that is if Gillian had ever had to oust one of these door knocking people trying to prey on her possible wavering theological convictions.

Well there is a cut line where she says "so you are dyslexic as well?" - which indicates that she knows he's on about drugs.

I now get the joke on at least two levels. But really, too much mormonism at Berkly has to be at least as brain deadening as what Tim Leary had to offer.

It was a friend of mine mentioning LDS which had me loling uncontrollablly as i then instantly made the connection

So if I mention the WWF do you get a visual of wrestling pandas?

The WWF sued the crap out of the WWF a coulpe years back even thoguh the WWF easily predated the WWF but the younger had more money to burn. For a short while slogan was "WW... Get he F out!" ...they're the WWE now and have been for half a decade.

Though I am laughing about the devils comments about bears being the worst bastards on the planet on Reaper.

 

[shatastrophic]

I always thought he meant acid, because he states Spock was part of the free speech movement at Berkley. Mormons never crossed my mind. I still have trouble making the connection but it is always the coolest when someone sees a different view or makes a connection that i didn't see with Trek Movies. Great Thread

 

[Smiley]

Kirk meant the drug, but he said the initials of a religious group. Thus, the joke works on more than one level, which makes it even funnier.

 

[Nerys Myk]

I've a feeling the Mormon connection was unintentional. Not even sure of "LDS" was commonly used to describe the Mormon Church back then.

 

[rocketscientist]

I've a feeling the Mormon connection was unintentional. Not even sure of "LDS" was commonly used to describe the Mormon Church back then.

When I first saw this movie, I just took the LDS as Kirk screwing up his terminology. That was understandable, he was trying to remember what he'd read of 20th century history. It got a decent laugh and just worked on that level, like all the fun jokes and humor in TVH.

Now that I'm married to an LDS girl, those three letters have a whole new meaning!

Think about it. The conservative mormon church associated with Berkely?!?!?

I don't know if that was an intentional joke by Nicholas Meyer. I'd love to know if it was.

Anyway, to the original poster, great observation!

 

[Maurice]

Oh, people knew what LDS meant back in 1986...at least in Nevada, where I lived at the time.

 

[rocketscientist]

Oh, people knew what LDS meant back in 1986...at least in Nevada, where I lived at the time.

Yeah, you're right.

But the question is, was Nick Meyer, or whoever put that joke in, intend that? Was it supposed to be just a perceived slip up, or did they intend the joke to work on that higher level?


It's kind of like the McCoy's observation about the bureacratic mentality at the end of ST IV, thinking that they'd just get a freighter as their new ship.
When they showed the movie in Russia, they were suprised that that line, not intended as a joke, got so many laughs.

Anyway, again, I'd love to know if Meyer had that in mind with that LDS line.

 

[Peach Wookiee]

He probably didn't, but it's still funny.

 

[THE_FETT]

I can say with 100% certainty that the joke only works on one level. LDS was just Kirk screwing up LSD. The entire movie ran on gags about how out of place the crew was in that era.