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Prof_Pretorius
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28 Jan 2010, 11:14 pm

I'm asking if anyone has ever seen a movie or read a book with funny aliens??
It occurred to me that aliens are always very serious, or nice, or mean, but never amusing...
Why should that be the case ???
Why don't we imagine that aliens could be practical jokers???
Or absurd???


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ViperaAspis
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28 Jan 2010, 11:49 pm

What about a mix like mean AND funny like Mars Attacks?

Then there are things like "Earth Girls are Easy" with Jeff Goldblum / Geena Davis. But they aren't your typical "gray" aliens.


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Prof_Pretorius
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29 Jan 2010, 12:00 am

I'll have to look up "Earth Girls are Easy".

My impression of Mars Attacks is that the the aliens are simply difficult to get along with.


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29 Jan 2010, 12:30 am

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy?
Resistance is Useless!...;)


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29 Jan 2010, 12:26 pm

The tytlal, in David Brin's "Uplift" novels (particularly discussed in the Jijo trilogy), are extremely fond of elaborate practical jokes - almost everything they did on Jijo was part of a practical joke aimed at the entire rest of the Five Galaxies, which took several millennia to unfold...

Niven's kzinti do have a kind of rough sense of humor - you don't often see them making jokes in his stories, because usually kzinti are only in the stories when there's something violent going on, but Speaker-To-Animals (the direct translation of the kzin title for "Ambassador") did crack a few kzinti jokes in Ringworld. (Nessus the puppeteer had a sense of humor too - but in his case, it was a symptom of his mental illness. Since puppeteer laughter involves taking their attention off the world around them, they consider it as "an interrupted defense mechanism" - and as Nessus explains to Speaker, "no sentient being ever interrupts a defense mechanism.")

Motie humor usually revolves around either their fatalistic view of the world (since without FTL, their life cycle compels them to overbreed and collapse their civilization every few thousand years) or the rigid caste structure their DNA has evolved (as when one brown-and-white Mediator, when asked by a Master if she was positive about something, protested, "Am I a Brown [the Engineer caste], to be certain?"). It's not easy for the humans they encounter to understand, nor do they readily understand human jokes, although one of the Mediators sent to talk to the Empire of Man did try to tell an old Persian joke to explain why she was even sent to talk with the humans, with the Mote on the verge of collapse once again. She got the essence of the joke, but didn't quite understand how to deliver the punchline. (It was from the tale of a thief, condemned by the king to die for his crimes. He begged for mercy, and the king gave him one more year, on the condition that he teach the king's favorite horse to sing - if he succeeded within the year, he would be freed and rewarded, if he failed he would die. The other prisoners mocked the thief for agreeing to this, but the thief pointed out, "A lot of things can happen in a year. The king might die, the horse might die, I might die, the horse might learn to sing...")


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29 Jan 2010, 1:00 pm

Futurama. TV show, yes, but there are 4 movies as well.


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29 Jan 2010, 5:58 pm

I think one of the reasons is that a lot of humour is culture-based, and that you would be hard pressed to be able to create original humour that feels alien, but still be recognisable.


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Sand
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29 Jan 2010, 7:42 pm

Citizen in Space by Robert Sheckley. An hilarious collection of SF short stories. Also The Cyberiad by Stanislaus Lem. Two crazy robots do weird things.



Prof_Pretorius
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29 Jan 2010, 11:16 pm

I remember there was a character in the Fantastic Four comics, somebody from the planet Poppup. he came to earth to have fun, but his idea of fun was mass destruction. The character was innocent of diabolical intent, he just thought it amusing to destroy cities.


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30 Jan 2010, 10:54 am

^ Sorta like a "Myxalplik" without the evil streak? Speaking of little floating green guys, who was that little green alien guy who followed Fred Flinstone around? The Great Kazoo or something? Him too. I can't remember where he came from or why/how he went... odd. I must have missed the bracketing episodes.


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Prof_Pretorius
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04 Feb 2010, 10:27 am

ViperaAspis wrote:
^ Sorta like a "Myxalplik" without the evil streak? Speaking of little floating green guys, who was that little green alien guy who followed Fred Flinstone around? The Great Kazoo or something? Him too. I can't remember where he came from or why/how he went... odd. I must have missed the bracketing episodes.


He was 'The Great Gazoo' and I seem to remember that he was a criminal from another galaxy that had been sentenced to having to help the Flintstones as punishment. Now that you bring it up, that was quite the bizarre character to toss into a animated show about cave people. Granted, the show itself was odd, but I don't think I know of any other alien being sentenced to come to earth and help people as a punishment.


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04 Feb 2010, 12:20 pm

The 1999 film "Galaxy Quest" was hilarious and full of funny aliens.



ViperaAspis
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04 Feb 2010, 2:44 pm

Prof_Pretorius wrote:
ViperaAspis wrote:
^ Sorta like a "Myxalplik" without the evil streak? Speaking of little floating green guys, who was that little green alien guy who followed Fred Flinstone around? The Great Kazoo or something? Him too. I can't remember where he came from or why/how he went... odd. I must have missed the bracketing episodes.


He was 'The Great Gazoo' and I seem to remember that he was a criminal from another galaxy that had been sentenced to having to help the Flintstones as punishment. Now that you bring it up, that was quite the bizarre character to toss into a animated show about cave people. Granted, the show itself was odd, but I don't think I know of any other alien being sentenced to come to earth and help people as a punishment.


Ah! That's it. Thanks, Prof!


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05 Feb 2010, 8:48 am

Not specifically as a species trait, but I thought that individual Minbari, Cenaturi and Narn in B5 were fun. They made fun comments and had a sense of humour.


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Ambivalence
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05 Feb 2010, 10:12 am

Prof_Pretorius wrote:
I'm asking if anyone has ever seen a movie or read a book with funny aliens??

Of course, lots, but mostly individuals rather than entire species, 'cause that'd usually be silly. Though the the Culture are good candidates for a whole alien civilisation (well, pan-civilisational group of aliens and AIs) with a wicked sense of humour.


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Prof_Pretorius
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05 Feb 2010, 11:27 am

Ambivalence wrote:
Prof_Pretorius wrote:
I'm asking if anyone has ever seen a movie or read a book with funny aliens??

Of course, lots, but mostly individuals rather than entire species, 'cause that'd usually be silly. Though the the Culture are good candidates for a whole alien civilisation (well, pan-civilisational group of aliens and AIs) with a wicked sense of humour.


After I saw "The Brother From Space" I got the idea of an alien race coming to earth and selling us various bits of their technology, none of which works. They're like a race of used car salesmen who get big laughs out of conning us into buying futuristic gadgets that break down almost immediately.


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