![[Silly discussion] Was Q referring to The Muppets the entire time?](https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/muppet/images/f/f2/Pigsinspace203.jpg/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/250?cb=20060911054926){kind=link}
I was recently sent down a rabbit hole that led to this. I’ve spent the last hour or so watching the Pigs in Space skits from The Muppet Show. In The Muppet Show, Pigs in space was introduced in the 203rd episode. This episode aired in 1973, while the first episode of TNG didn’t air until 1987.
In that episode, First Mate Piggy refers to Captain Link Hogthrob as (you may have guessed it) “mon capitan.” This is easily just Miss Piggy being in character, but as soon as I heard that being afforded the distance of time alarms went off in my head.
I just think that it would be a hillarious in joke, especially if they stuck to the bit for as long as they did. Maybe it wasn’t just because Picard was French, but the writers chose to indirectly honor a show that honored Trek a lot. And maybe, just maybe, the writers made Picard French because of a reference to Pigs in Space.
Just a rambling fun thought, I guess.
Do Muppets exist in Trek?
They never mention Star Wars much less any other 20th century pop culture except indirectly like Dixon Hill. Which is odd given 20th century culture is Tom Paris’s hobby.
It’s quite the contrast with The Orville, where there are plenty of references to 20th /21st century culture, including the Kermit the Frog toy Capital Mercer keeps in his office.
I also liked how SG1 references other scifi. Like Colonel O’Neil wanting to name the spaceship the Enterprise.
The NX-01 routinely had movie nights where they showed early 20th century movies.
You know, that’s weird from an in-universe perspective. Even if artists overwhelmingly move to a new visual form (eventually holodeck stuff, but what was before that?), why do movie nights for art that would be in reality a niche interest?
I choose to believe that well into the 2100’s, Disney has only expanded their draconic hold on copyright law, and that stuff is just entering the public domain.
I wouldn’t expect art forms to be any more niche than any other facet of art appreciation is today.
Honestly, I can’t say. This is a goofy conspiracy theory at best.