When was Star Trek first parodied or referenced?

[ScottDS]

I was watching a nutty little movie from 1967 called The President's Analyst, with James Coburn. At one point, a secret White House elevator opens and it's the Star Trek door swoosh! No doubt some sound editor found it in the Paramount SFX library and decided to use it. (This is a Paramount film.)

Anyway, it got me thinking. Does anyone know the first time they saw Star Trek parodied or referenced in another TV show? Saturday Night Live did their great Trek parody with Belushi and Co. but that wasn't until 1975. Surely there must have been something done earlier.

Any thoughts?

 

[Dale]

"Spock's Brain" was first broadcast September 20, 1968.

Does that answer your question?

 

[M'Sharak]

Anyway, it got me thinking. Does anyone know the first time they saw Star Trek parodied or referenced in another TV show?

Nimoy's appearance on Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In, if not even earlier. (Or less directly, his appearance on Malibu U in Spock haircut, lip-synching "The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins.")

 

[Redfern]

What about the famous Mad Magazine parody "Star Blecch", illustrated by Mort Drucker? When was that published, 1967? Or, are we limiting ourselves to filmed and videotaped media?

Here's the strip colorized at Kail's Animated tribute site:

http://startrekanimated.com/mad_main.html

Sincerely,

Bill

 

[ScottDS]

I wasn't limiting it to filmed or videotaped media. In fact, after I posted the first message, my first thought was "What about Mad Magazine?"

 

[Lonemagpie]

They've done a few Trek ones - I remember the Star Trek III and TNG ones...

 

[Chris3123]

They've done a few Trek ones - I remember the Star Trek III and TNG ones...

MAD has done parodies for all five shows, as well as all the movies except V, VI, and Nemesis, according to this site.

 

[M'Sharak]

What about the famous Mad Magazine parody "Star Blecch", illustrated by Mort Drucker? When was that published, 1967? Or, are we limiting ourselves to filmed and videotaped media?

Here's the strip colorized at Kail's Animated tribute site:

http://startrekanimated.com/mad_main.html

Sincerely,

Bill

I haven't seen that in decades and it was still incredibly familiar.

 

[ManOnTheWave]

Here's the strip colorized at Kail's Animated tribute site:

http://startrekanimated.com/mad_main.html

Sincerely,

Bill

c...c...colorized?

This was also the first thing that popped into my head.

 

[ToddPence]

I've got all the MAD magazines on CD-rom through 1995. There was also a Star Trek musical from a 1976 issue.

 

[Timewalker]

According to Wiki, Wayne & Shuster did their 3-part spoof "Star Schtick" in 1979.

I still remember it -- some of the jokes would be meaningless to people today who don't remember some of the political doings of back then (lots of Trudeau jokes), but it's still pretty funny.

 

[Newspaper Taxi]

I picked up their spoof of Star Trek: First Contact. It ended with Picard sitting at a normal looking table reading a newspaper and idly narrating what happened to everybody in the end.

 

[Anthony Sabre]

I don't know when it was first done but my two favorites are:

1) In Living Color - Star Trek: The Wrath of Farakhan

2) Galaxy Quest

 

[Forbin]

The 1980 Martin Mull film "Serial" had a cute little Trek joke.

Mull has had a nervous breakdown while trying to stay sane in the midst of the crazy population of his southern CA town. As he lies in bed recouperating, he discusses the craziness of the locals with his precocious 12-year-old neighbor kid. The kid utters some reassuring philosophy:

"In an insane world, the sane man must appear insane."

Mull: "That's deep. Where'd you hear that?"

Kid: "Star Trek."

Mull (sighs): "I miss that show."

Of course it was never actually said on Trek. But it was still funny in 1980.

 

[Forbin]

In my own Trek parody comic that I did in high school in the 70s, it was "Captain Jerk."

Everytime he signed off a message, he said "Jerk out." And someone would look at him, like "Did you just say.... nah."

 

[CaptainSerek]

In 1975, Saturday Night Live did a parody with John Belushi as Kirk, Chevy Chase as Spock and Dan Ackroyd as McCoy. I believe it is available on dvd.

 

[Atavachron]

On November 22, 1973 Flip Wilson had Nimoy on and he did the Vulcan nerve pinch on Flip.

And then there was this from 1975:

Star Trek

Atavachron

 

[Brannigan]

I still like the Frasier episode where Fraiser is at his sons Bar Mitzvah and instead of reading something in Hebrew, he reads it in Klingon on accident.

 

[Kail]

What about the famous Mad Magazine parody "Star Blecch", illustrated by Mort Drucker? When was that published, 1967? Or, are we limiting ourselves to filmed and videotaped media?

Here's the strip colorized at Kail's Animated tribute site:

http://startrekanimated.com/mad_main.html

Sincerely,

Bill

Hey, I'd forgotten that one. I didn't do a bad job on that.

 

[Flying Spaghetti Monster]

This might not really count, unless the conversation really happened... plus I'm not sure of the year... but in the film "Zodiac" when they get that psychologist to try to talk to the Zodiac killer on TV, hey ask him about his role on Trek between commercials.