The Internal Revenue Service will soon be deciding whether to audit your taxes — but be aware, these are the same people who spent thousands of dollars of taxpayer money creating this incredibly clunky Star Trek spoof.




Shown at a 2010 training session, this Trek video was created in an IRS studio, using taxpayer dollars. There was also a Gilligan's Island spoof, but according to the IRS most of the $60,000 price tag went on the Trek video. The above video comes via Associated Press, which writes:

The production value is high even though the acting is what one might expect from a bunch of tax collectors. In the video, the spaceship is approaching the planet "Notax," where alien identity theft appears to be a problem. ... The agency said the "Star Trek" video "was a well-intentioned, light-hearted introduction to an important conference during a difficult period for the IRS."


The House Ways and Means Committee isn't as amused, seeing this as an example of government waste and overreaching.

Update: The whole thing is below. Watching the entire IRS spoof, I actually feel bad for these guys, especially when you see them joking about how they wanted to become rich and famous, so they became public servants. And the joke about not being able to afford coffee because they used up their per diem. Sad. It's still a terrible Star Trek spoof, though.