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'SNL' Savages The Billionaire Space Race With On Point 'Star Trek' Spoof—And People Are Here For It
Saturday Night Live featured a sketch about a new Star Trek series and people are absolutely loving it.
Consistently dominating the airwaves for over 40 years and counting, Saturday Night Live (SNL) is a weekly live comedy sketch show featuring celebrities and an ensemble cast riffing on pop culture and politics.
Every week, the cast performs live from New York city in comedic sketches including over-the-top impersonations of famous politicians and celebrities.
SNL did a sketch on October 1 announcing the release of a new Star Trek series featuring the billionaire space race.
The billionaire space race took place earlier in 2021. It involved three billionaires: Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, Tesla CEO Elon Musk and English business magnate Richard Branson of Virgin fame.
During the race, these three billionaires each funneled inconceivable amounts of money into building their own rockets with the intent of flying to space.
They did this, notably, while also avoiding paying their fair share of taxes or paying employees a living wage, as many activists pointed out.
The four-episode SNL satire riffs on these billionaires in a Star Trek setting.
The series, rightfully called Star Trek: Ego Quest, features "Captain" Jeff Bezos (played by Owen Wilson), and his rag-tag team of space explorers which he calls his "crew of random weirdos."
Watch the trailer here:
Included in this crew are Jeff Bezos' brother (Luke Wilson), whose name escapes the narrator, science officer "rich kid from The Netherlands" and the oldest person to ever go to space (Heidi Gardner) who aptly quips:
"I'm tired!"
The crew is stationed aboard the S.S. New Shepherd.
Their objective?
"To fly around space, goofing off in a ship that looks like a penis."
The trailer claims:
"[It's] a midlife crisis of cosmic proportions."
At one point, Bezos bumps into billionaire rival Richard Branson.
They trade competitive yet friendly banter in which Bezos exclaims:
"Richard Branson, you maniac!"
To which Branson returns:
"What's up, Bezos, you nutter!"
They then agree to a ship race.
The trailer also throws a savage dig at Bezos, when an Amazon delivery guy (Kenan Thompson) beams aboard the ship to deliver a package to Bezos who is quite aloof with the delivery man.
Before he beams down, the delivery guy asks to use the bathroom, to which Bezos throws an empty plastic bottle to him.
This, of course, references the allegations Amazon workers are treated so poorly they have had to resort to urinating in bottles after being denied bathroom breaks.
The series villain is Elon Musk, who threatens:
"Space is only big enough for one weird White billionaire."
"You could say that beating you is my prime objective."
Fans on Twitter are ecstatic about the Star Trek: Ego Quest.
I JUST SCREAMED SO MANY TIMEShttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XD66suMp3J4\u00a0\u2026— The Disordered Cosmos by Chanda Prescod-Weinstein (@The Disordered Cosmos by Chanda Prescod-Weinstein) 1633276050
@nbcsnl Hysterical! Love Star Trek: Ego Quest! Talk to @StarTrekOnPPlus Could work,especially if you fly the \u201cpenis\u201d ship! @StarTrek— Denise Crosby (@Denise Crosby) 1633244378
STAR TREK Ego Quest on @nbcsnl was too short. Loved it!— @Conga1_PalmerReportReader (@@Conga1_PalmerReportReader) 1633233277
#SNL Last night was fantastic. I\u2019ve watched Star Trek Ego Quest multiple times.— Cat van Zyl (@Cat van Zyl) 1633290861
Star Trek if it was owned by Amazon https://twitter.com/TrekMovie/status/1444682094504984576\u00a0\u2026— Funnest Frontier Podcast \ud83d\ude01\ud83d\udd96 (@Funnest Frontier Podcast \ud83d\ude01\ud83d\udd96) 1633275602
Star Trek Ego Quest! OK, now we got a season premiere! #SNLpic.twitter.com/WstqKsFIdf— Joey D (@Joey D) 1633233300
I'm not the biggest fan of SNL, but that sketch about billionaires going to space is spot-on.https://youtu.be/XD66suMp3J4— Andreas Proschofsky (@Andreas Proschofsky) 1633273221
I\u2019ve watched this ten times now. It may be the greatest parody of the decade, including in production values. The only thing missing is seeing the live reactions of the real characters watching at home. #StarTrekEgoQuest #SNLPremierehttps://twitter.com/nbcsnl/status/1444784328177750018\u00a0\u2026— Greg Brian (@Greg Brian) 1633327491
SNL's Star Trek: Ego Quest was pretty funny. And pretty on point -- Bezos and crew in space, with Branson and Musky showing up, vying for dominance.— klia (@klia) 1633235211
okay trekkies why aren't we talking about this because i am losing my mindhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XD66suMp3J4\u00a0\u2026— Possum \ud83d\udd96\ud83c\udffb\u267f (@Possum \ud83d\udd96\ud83c\udffb\u267f) 1633310108
If the trailer was any indication, it seems audiences would be in for a laugh-filled riot poking fun at some of the most controversial men in the world.
How do we get this project greenlighted?