# The Picard Song The Picard Song is a 2001 remix track by musician DarkMateria that sequences iconic Captain Jean-Luc Picard quotes from Star Trek: The Next Generation into a dance beat. The track sat obscure for three years before a 2004 YTMND page turned it into one of early web culture's most-recognized audio memes[2]. ## Origin On March 7, 2001, musician DarkMateria uploaded a track called "The Picard Song" to his personal site, assembling a remix out of memorable Captain Jean-Luc Picard quotes from Star Trek: The Next Generation[6][5]. The song sat in relative obscurity on the open web for roughly three years, circulated mostly through Star Trek fan pages[5]. The viral break came on April 25, 2004, when YTMND user ShittyMcShit created a single-serving page pairing DarkMateria's audio with a looping Picard image[2]. KYM documents the page drawing more than 3.8 million views and over 1,800 comments, with a 4.55/5 rating within roughly eight years of launch[1]. - **Platform:** Personal website (DarkMateria, 2001) / YTMND (viral spread, 2004) - **Creator:** DarkMateria - **Date:** 2001 ## Overview The Picard Song is built around chopped-up vocal samples of Patrick Stewart delivering lines as Captain Jean-Luc Picard, including "Make it so," "Engage," "There are four lights" and the full self-introduction "I am Captain Jean-Luc Picard of the USS Enterprise"[1]. DarkMateria arranged the clips over a four-on-the-floor dance backing so the quotes land as rhythmic hooks, which is the whole joke: a stoic Starfleet captain reprogrammed into club vocals[2]. The track's appeal online was never really about Star Trek lore. It worked because the YTMND format of the mid-2000s rewarded short, loopable audio paired with a single image, and the song's clipped Picard phrases locked perfectly into that stare-at-one-GIF-forever format[2]. Later Flash animations and YouTube video edits grafted matching Picard footage onto the audio, turning the song into a reusable backing track for fan remixes[3][4]. ## How It Spread After the YTMND page broke the song out, it jumped to Flash video communities fast. On May 21, 2004, Newgrounds user WarG0blin uploaded a Flash animation also titled "The Picard Song," setting crude Picard drawings to DarkMateria's track[1]. Urban Dictionary picked up a definition for "Picard Song" on June 21, 2004, with the submitter calling it "the best song ever on YTMND"[1]. A second Newgrounds Flash by user Jeremy Lokken followed on July 7, 2004[1]. The YouTube era kept it alive. On September 10, 2006, YouTuber CoJux posted "The Picard Video," cutting Picard clips to the DarkMateria audio; KYM notes it pulled over 2 million views and 5,600 comments within about six years[4][1]. CollegeHumor highlighted the Picard video in a 2007 feature post[1]. The track became a recurring reference point in web-nostalgia lists. On October 15, 2009, Urlesque ranked the Picard Song YTMND page fifth on "The 10 Best YTMND Single-Serving Sites of All Time"[1]. On March 23, 2011, the blog Dpad Damsels placed the Picard video second in a roundup of favorite geek music videos on YouTube[1]. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is The Picard Song? A 2001 remix track by musician DarkMateria that stitches famous Captain Jean-Luc Picard quotes from Star Trek: The Next Generation into a dance beat[6]. ### Where did The Picard Song come from? DarkMateria uploaded the song to his personal site on March 7, 2001, and it went viral after being featured on a YTMND page by user ShittyMcShit on April 25, 2004[1][2]. ### What does The Picard Song mean? The joke is that stoic Starfleet lines like "Make it so" and "Engage" get repurposed as club-ready vocal hooks, which lampoons the formal cadence of Patrick Stewart's Picard[1]. ### How do you use The Picard Song? The track is typically paired with looping Picard images on YTMND or set under fan-made Flash and YouTube video edits of Star Trek: The Next Generation footage[3][4]. ### Is The Picard Song still popular? It is a classic of early-2000s YTMND culture; the YTMND page was ranked fifth in Urlesque's 2009 roundup of best single-serving sites[1]. ## References 1. [https://picard.ytmnd.com]() 2. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/the-picard-song]() 3. [https://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/169996]() 4. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMkwevlNthQ]() 5. [https://web.archive.org/web/20071015075829/http://tborgax.homepage.dk/news_archive.html]() 6. [https://www.last.fm/music/DarkMateria]() --- Source: https://meme.com/memes/the-picard-song Published by meme.com — The Internet Meme Library