Shatner's toupee in pop-culture: Futurama (again).

The classic animated series Futurama already has one entry in our growing catalogue of references to Bill Shatner's toupee or baldness in popular culture. This second example occurs in the third season Futurama episode "I Dated a Robot" in which the character Fry steals the image of actress Lucy Liu in order to create an ideal robot lover.

During the episode, Fry and Leela visit a physical representation of the Internet. In this surreal place, the two characters walk past various stereotypical epitomes of the Internet - including two nerds arguing about whether Kirk of Picard is the better Star Trek captain (a somewhat passé discussion these days).

- "No way! Kirk could kick Picard's ass!"

- "Yeah, but at least Picard had the guts to admit he was bald!"

Watch the clip below:

Of course, technically speaking it is Shatner, not Kirk that is bald. Unless...did Kirk wear a toupee too?!?! Maybe he was bald but allergic to Scalpanox 5 (now there is an obscure reference that I'm sure at least one of our readers will help explain!).

You can buy Futurama Season 3 here.

Shatner's toupee in pop-culture: Futurama.

There are a surprising number of references to William Shatner's toupee in popular culture and we'll try to bring them all to you here at Shatner'sToupee. We thought we'd start with a reference in the animated series Futurama (this sci-fi series has died and come back to life as many times as Star Trek).

As fans of the series will know, the character of Zapp Brannigan is essentially designed to be a heavily exaggerated "Captain William Shatner". There are numerous references to both Kirk and Shatner's foibles - highly exaggerated, of course: Brannigan is a narcissistic, deeply insecure and somewhat pathetic egomaniac; he hides his weight by wearing a tight girdle under his velour uniform and he also wears a toupee. Here is a clip from the Futurama episode "Kif Gets Knocked Up a Notch" where Brannigan's toupee (or combover) secret is revealed to the audience for the first and only time thus far in the series thanks to an unwelcome gust of air...