Star Trek: Prodigy's Jankom Pog directly quoted Homer Simpson. We explore if The Simpsons is Star Trek canon after Futurama was shouted out in 2019.
Warning: SPOILERS for Star Trek: Prodigy Episode 7 - "First Con-tact."
A Homer Simpson (Dan Castellaneta) quote in Star Trek: Prodigy may have made The Simpsons canon in Star Trek. Newly arrived in the Gamma Quadrant, the teenage alien crew of the USS Prodigy led by Hologram Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) is still reeling from learning that the starship's original personnel were commanded by Captain Chakotay (Robert Beltran). Meanwhile, the Protostar's teens discovered the ship's transporter, which led to Jankom Pog (Jason Mantzoukas) seemingly quoting Homer Simpson.
The Simpsons have made numerous references to Star Trek throughout its 30+ year run. During its 1990s glory years, Leonard Nimoy made a few guest appearances as himself, as did George Takei. Meanwhile, Patrick Stewart provided the voice of Number One, the leader of the Stonecutters, in The Simpsons season 6 episode, "Homer the Great." But Jankom Pog's Homer quote in Star Trek: Prodigy came from The Simpsons season 5 classic, "Boy Scouts n the Hood." In that episode, Homer ruthlessly mocks Bart (Nancy Cartwright) for joining the Junior Campers, a boy scout league headed by Ned Flanders (Harry Shearer). In retaliation, Bart uses his Junior Campers skills to plant traps for his father: The underachiever (and proud of it) leaves a piece of pie on the kitchen floor next to an obvious rope noose. Before Homer idiotically goes for the dessert and gets caught in the trap, he utters, "Mmm. Floor pie."
Star Trek: Prodigy episode 7 directly lifted the hilarity of chasing a piece of pie left on the floor when Dal R'El (Brett Gray), Gwyn (Ella Purnell), and their friends toyed with the transporter and beamed the dessert around the USS Protostar. After it rematerializes in Engineering, the kids track the slice down and Jankom Pog says, "Mmm. Floor pie" just like Homer Simpson did. So the question is, was Jankom actually quoting The Simpsons' patriarch, Homer? It seems impossible that the teenage Tellarite could know what The Simpsons is given that he grew up millions of lightyears away from Earth in the Delta Quadrant and had no access to television. The most likely in-universe explanation for Jankom quoting Homer is that it was a complete coincidence and the Tellarite engineer was simply describing exactly what he saw - pie on the floor.
However, Star Trek: Discovery already muddied the waters of whether or not Matt Groening's beloved animated series are canon in the Star Trek universe. In Star Trek: Discovery season 2, Ensign Sylvia Tilly (Mary Wiseman) shouted out Futurama when she quipped that the cyborg Lt. Airiam (Hannah Cheesman) was "half-robot." Tilly pronounced it "robut" the way Dr. Zoidberg (Billy West) says the word on Futurama. This opened up a whole debate on how Futurama could be Star Trek canon when Star Trek is fiction in Futurama's canon, with the cast of Star Trek: The Original Series memorably appearing in the classic Futurama season 4 episode, "Where No Fan Has Gone Before." Ultimately, Star Trek: Discovery shouting out Futurama was good fun since the producers and cast are fans of the animated series. This is obviously the case with Star Trek: Prodigy also giving a hilarious nod to its fellow cartoon.
But if The Simpsons is a TV show that exists in Star Trek's canon, then Futurama actually already offered the explanation as to how Jankom Pog may have heard of Homer Simpson. In the Futurama season 1 episode "When Aliens Attack," Lrrr (Maurice LaMarche), the ruler of the planet Omicron Perseii 8, came to Earth demanding to know why the signal to his favorite Earth TV show, Single Female Lawyer, was cut. Lrrr established that it took thousands of years for a 20th century TV signal from Earth to reach Omicron Perseii 8. Perhaps it also took over 400 years for The Simpsons' TV signal to reach the Delta Quadrant and a young Jankom Pog saw Homer Simpson say, "Mmm. Floor pie" and accidentally made The Simpsons canon on Star Trek: Prodigy.
Star Trek: Prodigy streams Thursdays on Paramount+.
