Skeleton Crew Episode 5 pokes fun at the popular Star Wars lightsaber meme

The following is included spoilers for the latest episode of “Star Wars: Skeleton Crew”.

“Skeleton Crew” is a joy. While it's as far from “Andor” as “Star Wars” shows getit still manages to deliver fun, wacky and often scary adventures in a galaxy far, far away week after week. Skeleton Crew also combines the world-building and iconography of Star Wars with the awesome fun and danger of titles like Treasure Island, Indiana Jones, Peter Pen and The Goonies.

While it may be an all-ages show with kids, it is There are plenty of gruesome moments to be found in Skeleton Crew. After all, the show's kids fight against bloodthirsty pirates, more than willing to skin their enemies alive and boil their entrails for fun.

The Skeleton Crew doesn't need lightsabers and Jedi either, even if one of the main characters can use the Force. Still, Jude Law's pirate with a dozen fake names is one of the best new Star Wars characters in years, a villain who acts like he has a heart of gold but is more likely to ditch you than shoot you. in the face. He's also charismatic, funny, and has great chemistry with the show's new characters. Joe (Law) has particularly good chemistry with Wim (Ravi Cabot-Conyers), a wide-eyed kid who dreamed of being a Jedi and going on adventures, but now regrets leaving his home planet.

Their stories come to a boil in the latest episode, You've Got a Lot to Learn About Pirates, where Jod finally shows his true colors and betrays the children in an effort to collect Atin's treasure for himself. Seeing Jod threatening to kill one of his friends, Wim decides to confront the criminal and help by grabbing an old lightsaber from the pirate treasure room they're in, finally becoming the Jedi warrior he's always dreamed of being. Except things don't go exactly as planned, and instead we get a delightful homage to the popular Star Wars meme.

The latest episode of Skeleton Crew is a big homage to Indiana Jones, complete with a series of “Last Crusade”-inspired traps and puzzles that lead to the great pirate's treasure. At the very end of the episode, Jodh takes a knife to Fern's throat to force her to give up her captainship of Onyx Cinder. In an attempt to save her, Wim grabs a nearby lightsaber and ignites it. But not realizing that the real thing isn't what it looks like in pictures or holograms, he sets it on fire upside down. Turning the wrong way, the lightsaber almost stabs Vim in the leg.

It's a hilarious moment of misdirection and an honest kid's mistake, showing that actually being a Jedi or going on a space adventure isn't quite what he expected. But what makes it so good is that the scene is very reminiscent of the popular Mark Hamill meme on the set of Star Wars: Episode IV: A New Hope , which is like a clown pointing a lightsaber right at his face.

“It makes me cringe every time I see it,” Hamill once said of the meme The Hollywood Reporter. “I don't remember doing that in the movie. I think it's just a movie set, or Obi-Wan wouldn't look so nonchalant.” Granted, the popular image comes from a still, not the actual film, but that hasn't stopped it from becoming a meme that pokes fun at Luke's naivety and incompetence while using such an elegant weapon for a more civilized age.

However, as ridiculous as it is right now, it does reveal one undeniable truth: As cool as we'd all be to go on a big Star Wars adventure, there's a chance that most of us will accidentally kill ourselves. themselves with a lightsaber.

The new episode of Star Wars: The Skeleton Squad premieres Tuesdays at 6pm PT on Disney+.