To boldly go...where Charles Dickens has gone before...

[Article involves casting spoilers for the video]

Funny or Die continues its tradition of featuring videos of famous people making fun of themselves, disproving Miss Piggy’s declaration from The Muppets that “A celebrity is not a peoples…”

This particular video, while amusing, may not be quite as good as its Star Trek-related…um, stars…might suggest, but the casting itself makes it worth a watch.

(Video contains NSFW language.)

Yes, that’s Patrick Stewart, best known for playing Captain Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek: The Next Generation, and Simon Pegg, who plays Montgomery ‘Scotty’ Scott in J.J. Abram’s Star Trek reboot, as well as leading roles in a number of British comedies, such as Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz (both of which he also co-wrote).

The choice of these two actors works well, since they’re both not only part of the Star Trek franchise (though Star Trek has nothing to do with the Olympics; but who cares?), but also acclaimed British thespians. Seeing as this Olympics is being hosted by London, and given the celebration of (quintessential) Britishness which characterised director Danny Boyle’s mostly fantastic opening ceremony, this seems fitting.

Similarly, the video features a lot of quirks satirising a caricatured view of Britain largely based on the works of Charles Dickens. Specifically, it revolves around Patrick Stewart as a Fagin-like character, complete with hat, coat, and bushy grey sideburns.

Which means that Patrick Stewart plays an almost Ferengi-like character. However, if he were to actually play a Ferengi…that would just be weird. Though if he did ever play such a role, no doubt he’d make it so his own.

Presumably when Patrick Stewart was offered the role in this video, he said/replied with “Make it so!” In fact, he probably says that every time he agrees with someone on a plan of action or asks someone to do something. And if they’re not Star Trek: The Next Generation fans, they might get a little confused.

Since Patrick Stewart and Simon Pegg are in the same video, this means that Picard and Scotty cross over. Is this the first time that this has happened? They were both in Star Trek: Generations (with Scotty played by James Doohan), but I don’t think they share the screen.

At the end of the video, the commentators question how Simon Pegg got to compete in the Olympic swimming event. Does the fact that he (played a character who) ran the London marathon in Run, Fatboy, Run count for nothing?

The video also has an element of self-awareness about it. Simon Pegg asks Patrick Stewart’s character if he’s Patrick Stewart, which he denies, and Patrick Stewart recognises Simon Pegg, congratulating him on his performance in Star Wars, at which Simon Pegg looks slightly perplexed. It’s probably meant to be a misunderstanding on Patrick Stewart’s part, but perhaps it’s actually a subtle reference to Simon Pegg’s only slightly less well-known role voicing the bounty hunter Dengar in Star Wars: The Clone Wars Season 5.

Maybe if they do another one of these videos, they should get William Shatner, George Takei, and Wil Wheaton, given that they’re all generally up for poking fun at themselves. However, to maintain the Britishness, they could also have Benedict Cumberbatch as the British literary icon Sherlock Holmes (the actor is in Star Trek 2, after all), and Olivia Williams (Dollhouse’s Adele DeWitt, who describes herself as “Sarcastic, unfeeling, British” in one episode). Okay, Dollhouse isn’t Star Trek, but Jonathan Frakes did direct an episode. Hey, it's no more tenuous than Charles Dickens, Star Trek, and the Olympics in the same video.

via MSN

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