# I don't get todays Foxtrot (12/19/2010) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 20, 2010, 5:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-get-todays-foxtrot-12-19-2010/564806 "2010-12-20T05:58:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![pkbites](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pkbites/32/204_2.png) [@pkbites](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pkbites)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2010, 5:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-get-todays-foxtrot-12-19-2010/564806/1 "2010-12-20T05:58:45Z")
I guess I’m missing something. [What’s the gag?](http://www.foxtrot.com/) ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2010, 6:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-get-todays-foxtrot-12-19-2010/564806/2 "2010-12-20T06:01:14Z")
There’s a joke among Star Trek fans that the crewmen wearing red shirts are always the ones that get killed. Or in this case, the cookies wearing red shirts get eaten. ---
**Author:** ![Cell\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/df705f/32.png) [@Cell\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cell_Guy)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2010, 6:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-get-todays-foxtrot-12-19-2010/564806/3 "2010-12-20T06:02:56Z")
In the original Star Trek series members of the crew wearing red shirts had a very low life expectancy. They were usually the only ones to die on away missions. ETA: beaten to the punch by slow typing! ---
**Author:** ![Rhiannon8404](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rhiannon8404/32/17929_2.png) [@Rhiannon8404](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhiannon8404)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2010, 6:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-get-todays-foxtrot-12-19-2010/564806/4 "2010-12-20T06:03:28Z")
Whenever there was an away team on the original series of Star Trek, and it was all the main characters and one random guy…he would be wearing a red shirt, and he would be the one who would get killed. “Red shirt” has become synonymous with “the guy who’s going to die”. The cookies are all going to be eaten, therefore they are all going to die, therefore they have red shirts. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2010, 6:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-get-todays-foxtrot-12-19-2010/564806/5 "2010-12-20T06:04:03Z")
I recommend watching **Galaxy Quest** if you feel the need to do further research on this topic. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2010, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-get-todays-foxtrot-12-19-2010/564806/6 "2010-12-20T13:41:51Z")
When my daughter was four, she saw her first **Star Trek** (original series) episode. In the middle of it, she turned to me and asked, “Why all the red people fall down?” ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2010, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-get-todays-foxtrot-12-19-2010/564806/7 "2010-12-20T13:46:39Z")
And the REAL punchline is, of course, that he not only could be, but IS, a bigger geek than that because he made the doomed cookies red shirts. ---
**Author:** ![DivineComedienne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c67d28/32.png) [@DivineComedienne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DivineComedienne)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2010, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-get-todays-foxtrot-12-19-2010/564806/8 "2010-12-20T13:53:07Z")
We always referred to the guy in the red shirt as the ECM, or “Expendable Crew Member”" ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2010, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-get-todays-foxtrot-12-19-2010/564806/9 "2010-12-20T14:34:27Z")
Funny, cause each of the 4 members of my family individually commented that that was the funniest strip in Sunday’s paper! We corrupted them young… 😛 ---
**Author:** ![pkbites](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pkbites/32/204_2.png) [@pkbites](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pkbites)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2010, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-get-todays-foxtrot-12-19-2010/564806/10 "2010-12-20T16:42:18Z")
Thanks for the explanation folks. It now makes perfect sense to me.🙂 I never watched much Star Trek, so this strip didn’t make much sense to me. I did see the recent Star Trek movie, which I really liked. And I recall seeing an episode of Star Trek where Kirk & Spock go back in time and stay at a mission run by a pacifist woman who has to die or else Hitler wins the war. That was pretty good. Other than that nobody would ever call me a Trekkie. ---
**Author:** ![Tangent](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tangent/32/3098_2.png) [@Tangent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tangent)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2010, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-get-todays-foxtrot-12-19-2010/564806/11 "2010-12-20T17:00:37Z")
> [@pkbites](#): > > I did see the recent Star Trek movie, which I really liked. If you ever watch the movie again, watch for the “red shirt” in the sequence where Kirk, Sulu, and a third random crew member we haven’t seen before skydive down toward the drilling platform so they can blow it up. All of us Trek fans in the audience knew as soon as he showed up that he was doomed. ---
**Author:** ![johnspartan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a183cd/32.png) [@johnspartan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnspartan)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2010, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-get-todays-foxtrot-12-19-2010/564806/12 "2010-12-20T17:51:59Z")
> [@pkbites](#): > > Thanks for the explanation folks. It now makes perfect sense to me.🙂 > I never watched much Star Trek, so this strip didn’t make much sense to me. > > I did see the recent Star Trek movie, which I really liked. And I recall seeing an episode of Star Trek where Kirk & Spock go back in time and stay at a mission run by a pacifist woman who has to die or else Hitler wins the war. That was pretty good. > > Other than that nobody would ever call me a Trekkie. City on the Edge of Forever. The woman was Joan Collins. It’s unfortunate that that’s one of the few you saw because it’s fairly uniformly considered one of the best of the original \<70 episodes. 😉 Some of the others might seem pretty pale by comparison if that was the litmus. Still, if you get a chance, there are a few others you might also like. Try The Squire of Gothos on for size and see if you dig it 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2010, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-get-todays-foxtrot-12-19-2010/564806/13 "2010-12-20T18:01:00Z")
> [@pkbites](#): > > Thanks for the explanation folks. It now makes perfect sense to me.🙂 > I never watched much Star Trek, so this strip didn’t make much sense to me. > > I did see the recent Star Trek movie, which I really liked. And I recall seeing an episode of Star Trek where Kirk & Spock go back in time and stay at a mission run by a pacifist woman who has to die or else Hitler wins the war. That was pretty good. > > Other than that nobody would ever call me a Trekkie. > [@johnspartan](#): > > City on the Edge of Forever. The woman was Joan Collins. > > It’s unfortunate that that’s one of the few you saw because it’s fairly uniformly considered one of the best of the original \<70 episodes. 😉 > > Some of the others might seem pretty pale by comparison if that was the litmus. > > Still, if you get a chance, there are a few others you might also like. Try The Squire of Gothos on for size and see if you dig it 🙂 Also, Balance of Terror, Starfleet’s first look at Romulans. And The Enterprise incident. Another espionage story with Romulans. And The Corbomite Maneuver. Featuring Ron Howard’s bro. But it’s still a good one. Not to mention The Trouble with Tribbles. And both Harry Mudd episodes. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Rieux](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@Dr.Rieux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Rieux)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2010, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-get-todays-foxtrot-12-19-2010/564806/14 "2010-12-21T22:24:56Z")
> [@Tangent](#): > > If you ever watch the movie again, watch for the “red shirt” in the sequence where Kirk, Sulu, and a third random crew member we haven’t seen before skydive down toward the drilling platform so they can blow it up. All of us Trek fans in the audience knew as soon as he showed up that he was doomed. He wasn’t exactly random–he was the Chief Engineer. And he was carrying the explosives… ---
**Author:** ![AWB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bb73d2/32.png) [@AWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AWB)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2010, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-get-todays-foxtrot-12-19-2010/564806/15 "2010-12-22T01:50:30Z")
See my researched project: “[Star Trek Death](http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2048925&id=1168490711&l=ad7b168f9f)”. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2010, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-get-todays-foxtrot-12-19-2010/564806/16 "2010-12-22T01:59:04Z")
Note: We have a member here called _Der Trihs_. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2010, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-get-todays-foxtrot-12-19-2010/564806/17 "2010-12-22T02:02:23Z")
Just a note, the reason the red shirts died at such a prodigious rate compared to the blue and gold is the fact that the colours represented which division they were in. Gold was command. Blue was science and medical. Red was ‘ops’ - that is to say, everybody else. Including security, and engineering (who got dinged disproportionately, too, if I remember correctly). Obviously, since the security guys will be put into harms way more than anyone except the core cast (who aren’t going to die, usuakky), they die a lot. Often en masse. Funnily enough, if Memory Alpha’s count is correct, TNG continued the tradition of disproportionate red shirt deaths, despite swapping ops and command colours, as they seem to have killed off the flight commanders (a command position) more often than anyone. ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Knig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/cdc98d/32.png) [@Typo\_Knig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Knig)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2010, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-get-todays-foxtrot-12-19-2010/564806/18 "2010-12-22T04:12:10Z")
[Mamas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Redshirts](http://www.unc.edu/~lghaywoo/chimeraarchive/skits/Mamas.html)