I revisited this Onion video (“Trekkies Bash New Star Trek Film As, ‘Fun, Watchable”) after seeing the new Star Trek. This time I noticed a reference I didn’t recognize - at one point the on-screen text says, “Film blasted as ‘accessible to those who don’t even know what Pon Farr is.” Seeking to fully understand the piece, I fired up Wikipedia. Here’s what I learned:

- Pon Farr is a plot element introduced in the original series where, “Vulcan males and females go into heat every seven years, going into a blood fever, becoming violent, and finally dying if they do not mate with someone with whom they are empathically bonded.”

- In extremely unsurprising news, Wikipedia reports that, “Pon farr also occurs, and has been extensively elaborated from what is canon, in fan fiction.”

- The earliest known Pon Farr fan fiction is from before 1976. In these pre-Internet days, it was distributed using ‘samizdat,’ a technique originally developed to reproduce dissident literature in the Soviet Union.

- There is sub-genre of Star Trek Fan Fiction called “K/S” or “Kirk/Spock.” You can guess what that’s about, and how Pon Farr fits in. If you’re interested in learning more about K/S, don’t worry. It has it’s own Wikipedia page.

- According to Wikipedia, there is “at least” one fanzine dedicated to only publishing Pon Farr fan fiction. It’s called Fever. I found an old copy on eBay if anyone’s interested. The auction also contains a 10 minute video where two older women explain the appeal of K/S (warning: more boring than it sounds).

In conclusion, The Onion is unmatched in choosing the perfect references, even for throwaway text jokes.