To Baldly Go Where No Pun Has Gone Before: 30 Star Trek Dad Jokes

John Summers • Contributor

Sep 8, 2025 5:00 PM EDT

Star Trek gave us warp drives, phasers, and the moral dilemmas of exploring strange new worlds - but it also, somehow, gave us a bottomless well of dad jokes. I can't fully explain why, but for some reason the internet has fused Star Trek's stoic captains and serious storytelling with the absolute cheesiest puns imaginable. Maybe it's the contrast - seeing Jean-Luc Picard, with all his Shakespearean gravitas, become the unwilling face of a groan-worthy pun is comedy gold.

Maybe it's the sheer number of "facepalm" moments that slipped so perfectly into meme culture. Or maybe the series just lends itself naturally to wordplay (I mean, how can you resist "to baldly go"?). Either way, these 30 Star Trek memes prove that while the Enterprise crew may be on a mission to boldly explore the galaxy, the internet is on a mission to boldly ruin every moment with dad jokes—and honestly, we wouldn't have it any other way.