Pulsed optical emission has been observed from the Crab and Vela pulsars (Manchester and Taylor 1977). The pulse profile of the Crab pulsar has a main pulse and a strong interpulse separated by about 40% of the pulsar period; the peak of the main pulse is just resolved at 20 μs resolution; the spectrum is peaked at about 1014.8 Hz; the pulse profile is constant over long time intervals; both the main pulse and the interpulse are strongly linearly polarized with position angle varying smoothly through each profile and with a minimum of polarization near each peak; the pulses are not significantly circularly polarized. A number of models have been proposed to explain the optical emission from the Crab pulsar but none is completely satisfactory. The spectral peak is too low for incoherent synchrotron emission, the pulse profile is too constant for inverse Compton scattering of radio emission and the similarity with the low-energy X-ray emission argues against coherent curvature emission.