In the first season of Star Trek: The Original Series, Captain James T. Kirk is transported to a planet where he must face a reptilian species known as the Gorn. He enters into a physical fight with a Gorn, but the ’60s-era fight scene is laughably tame. Kirk begins by literally punching the Gorn in the back, and when the Gorn grabs Kirk’s leg, Kirk gracefully tumbles on the ground. When the Gorn physically retrains Kirk, the captain escapes by touching the sides of the Gorn’s head. The whole thing looks more like a dance number than a fight.
On social news site Reddit, one user summed up the Kirk vs. Gorn scene with a sarcastic critique: “Scientists wrote letters of praise to the film crew for the accuracy.”
The line has turned into a meme where people give other examples of bad scenes in TV shows and movies that depict a situation that couldn’t happen in real life.
Here’s a scene from Hard Ticket to Hawaii (1987) in which a man is immediately killed from catching a razor-edged frisbee:
And who can forget Nicolas Cage yelling “not the bees!” in The Wicker Man?
The meme likely stemmed from another post on Reddit that (earnestly) mentioned scientists praising the nuclear explosion nightmare scene from Terminator 2. The scene is still terrifying to watch today—especially after the president of the United States bragged about a “nuclear button” and an errant ballistic missile alert sent citizens into an existential panic.
But if you prefer not to think about realistic nuclear explosions (for today at least), this meme is great for highlighting campy scenes in old TV shows and films.