Beam me up, Scotty

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"Beam me up, Scotty!" is a catch phrase that made its way into pop culture from the science fiction television series Star Trek. It comes from the command Captain Kirk gives his transporter chief, Montgomery "Scotty" Scott, when he needs to transport back to the ship.

Though it has become irrevocably associated with the series, the exact phrase was never actually spoken in any Star Trek television episode or film. Captain Kirk comes closest to saying the phrase in the Original Series episode "The Gamesters of Triskelion", by saying, "Scotty, beam us up"; in the animated episodes "The Lorelei Signal" and "The Infinite Vulcan", when he said, "Beam us up, Scotty"; in Star Trek IV, saying, "Scotty, beam me up"; and in Star Trek Generations, by saying, "Beam them out of there, Scotty". The phrase was used on a bumper sticker with the tag line "Beam me up Scotty. There's no intelligent life down here."

"Beam me up, Scotty" is similar to the phrase, "Just the facts, ma'am. Just the facts." attributed to Jack Webb's character of Joe Friday on Dragnet, as well as "It's elementary, my dear Watson", attributed to Sherlock Holmes. All three lines are the best known quotes from these works for many viewers, but not one is an actual, direct quotation^{[citation needed]}.

James Doohan, the actor who played Scotty, later chose this phrase as the title of his autobiography.

U.S. congressman James Traficant adapted the catch phrase "Beam me up" in his trademark one-minute rants on the floor of the House of Representatives.

The phrase has also been used in several films unrelated to Star Trek, as well as in the Dilbert comic strip.

The complete phrase was finally said by William Shatner in the audio adaptation of his novel Star Trek: The Ashes of Eden.

[edit] In popular culture

In an episode of Friends, Chandler reads a sticker in Phoebe's car that says, "Beam me up, Jesus".
In an episode of Family Guy, Meg Griffin accidentally runs over William Shatner, and he says "Beam me up, God".
In the second season South Park episode, "Roger Ebert Should Lay Off the Fatty Foods", a text above an archway in the planetarium reads "Me transmitte sursum, Caledoni!", which translates from Latin to "Bring me up, Scotsman!".
Astral Software's 1986 puzzle maze game, XOR, features teleportation portals inscribed with the letters "BMUS" - a reference to the phrase "Beam me up, Scotty".
In 1989 the German rock band Plan B published the LP The Greenhouse Effect containing the song "Beam me up, Scotty (this planet sucks)".
R Kelly uses a variant of the phrase in his single "Rock Star" when he states "call me Scotty, because I'm about to beam up".
In the 1998 Jerry Bruckheimer film Armageddon, the line is quoted by Steve Buscemi's character when he accepts taking part in the space mission to destroy the asteroid.
In the Stargate SG-1 episode "Tangent", Daniel Jackson asks Jacob Carter if he could just "beam out" Jack O'Neill and Teal'c, to which Carter replies, "Beam them out? What am I, Scotty?"
In Alan Bleasdale's BBC TV series Boys from the Black Stuff (1982), one of the characters mutters "Beam me up, Scotty..." when he sees the manic Yosser Hughes approaching.
In his song "Boat Drinks", about wishing he were somewhere else, somewhere that's warm, Jimmy Buffett included the line "Could you beam me somewhere, Mr. Scott?"
In the third season, twelfth episode of Robot Chicken, there is a skit wherein a nerd says "you know, there is actually no episode of Star Trek with the words 'Beam me up, Scotty' in it." before being brutally beaten and maimed.
In MC Lars' song "Space Game," he raps, "But no puny Vulcan death grip can paralyze me / I said beam me up Scotty, and then I got free."
Tay Dizm and T-Pain recorded a song titled "Beam Me Up."