...it's like TV Tropes, but LINKED DATA!
Aliens Steal Cable
- 651 statements
- 123 feature instances
- 104 referencing feature instances
Aliens Steal Cable | type |
FeatureClass | |
Aliens Steal Cable | label |
Aliens Steal Cable | |
Aliens Steal Cable | page |
AliensStealCable | |
Aliens Steal Cable | comment |
For about a hundred of our Earth years, our planet has been a noisy little mudball when it comes to radio signals. A very common plot amongst science fiction authors is to depict aliens as having made contact with Earth culture via stray TV broadcasts. One bit of science that these writers surprisingly get right consistently is that radio signals propagate at light speed. Given that on TV distances are conveniently measured in light years, it's an easy conversion formula: aliens 50 light-years from Earth are just now getting TV signals sent in the 1970's, thus the visitor that shows up, having skipped the intervening distance via Faster-Than-Light Travel, will talk and dress like a Disco Dan in an attempt to fit in. Hilarity ensues, or it provides a vital clue to the protagonist that something isn't quite right about this guy. There are some major technical problems with this concept, but most writers will ignore them. First of all, non-directional broadcast signals (like TV and radio signals) cannot be received beyond a fraction of a light year even by much more powerful telescopes than the ones available, so it shouldn't be that surprising that we have not been receiving any of their transmissions, even if they have radio technology (or maybe they all read books on their planet). Directed radio signals (like radar signals) can be possibly received thousands of light years away but can be detected in a far smaller area and may not even be recognized as sign of extra-terrestrial life.note The infamous "Wow! signal" is an example of this; although it demonstrates all the characteristics of an interstellar signal, no one is sure whether it was natural or artificial. Another scientific theory is that they've developed a different form of communication that doesn't depend on radio broadcasts, and all of their surviving transmissions from when they did have already passed us by.note Ignoring the fact that space is both vast and far nosier than we could ever be. Accounting for radio bursts from sources such as rapidly rotating black holes, pulsars, neutron stars, quasars, and magnetars, etc, etc and that's not even including collisions or other cataclysmic events like super/hypernovas, there's simply too much background noise and radiation for exosolar civilizations to make themselves heard. One thing's for sure though, we humans are using fewer huge and ultra powerful transmitters as time goes on, and using more and more much smaller devices with much more complex signals. A skilled alien equivalent of SETI might crack FM Radio or maybe conventional analogue TV, but the stuff coming out of a mobile phone base station doesn't even have an obvious carrier wave frequency. That leaves a 100 year long 'pulse' of intelligible broadcasts, with silence before and low power white noise after, and such a thing might be easily missed in the vastness of space if a SETI program didn't happen to be looking the right way with the right kit at the right time. The trope name is somewhat of a misnomer as cable television is based on a landline, essentially closed circuit television, and not transmitted via airwaves. This means that aliens could only freely monitor the airwaves for VHF and UHF broadcast channels throughout most of the history of television. But they would not have had access to channels such as HBO, Cinemax, MTV, Nickelodeon, Playboy Channel, or any of the old Cablevision/Pay TV stations prior to the total transition to digital. Today, even though most TV is subscription based, therefore, not accessible without an internet account, aliens may still find a way to hack into it with some added effort. However, these signals, originating from microwave towers and satellites pointing directly at Earth, will not reach out into space like radio waves do. Consequently, in this case, the aliens would probably need to be stationed somewhere hidden on Earth, rather than the traditional scenario of picking them up on their own homeworld's verion of SETI. Regardless, misunderstandings and misinterpretations about Earth culture and human behavior from tiny snippets of old sitcoms are comedy gold especially if it means they expect Earth to be like that, if they learn their English from it it justifies Aliens Speaking English and so the concept keeps coming back up. Compare Alien Arts Are Appreciated and Aliens Steal Cattle. See also Do Not Adjust Your Set for when the aliens are broadcasting to us instead. |
|
Aliens Steal Cable | fetched |
2024-01-22T05:29:04Z | |
Aliens Steal Cable | parsed |
2024-01-22T05:29:04Z | |
Aliens Steal Cable | processingComment |
Dropped link to CoolOldGuy: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
Aliens Steal Cable | processingComment |
Dropped link to CosmosASpacetimeOdyssey: Not an Item - UNKNOWN | |
Aliens Steal Cable | processingComment |
Dropped link to DefectorFromDecadence: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
Aliens Steal Cable | processingComment |
Dropped link to FanFic: Not an Item - CAT | |
Aliens Steal Cable | processingComment |
Dropped link to Filk: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
Aliens Steal Cable | processingComment |
Dropped link to FilmAtEleven: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
Aliens Steal Cable | processingComment |
Dropped link to FridgeBrilliance: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
Aliens Steal Cable | processingComment |
Dropped link to Homage: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
Aliens Steal Cable | processingComment |
Dropped link to MagicalLand: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
Aliens Steal Cable | processingComment |
Dropped link to Masquerade: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
Aliens Steal Cable | processingComment |
Dropped link to OrdinaryHighSchoolStudent: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
Aliens Steal Cable | processingComment |
Dropped link to PlayedWith: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
Aliens Steal Cable | processingComment |
Dropped link to RobotOrSpacemanAlterEgo: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
Aliens Steal Cable | processingComment |
Dropped link to ScaryMovie3: Not an Item - UNKNOWN | |
Aliens Steal Cable | processingComment |
Dropped link to Sentai: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
Aliens Steal Cable | processingComment |
Dropped link to SpaceX: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
Aliens Steal Cable | processingComment |
Dropped link to SpeaksInShoutOuts: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
Aliens Steal Cable | processingComment |
Dropped link to SplitEnz: Not an Item - UNKNOWN | |
Aliens Steal Cable | processingComment |
Dropped link to StarControlII: Not an Item - UNKNOWN | |
Aliens Steal Cable | processingComment |
Dropped link to StarfishAliens: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
Aliens Steal Cable | processingComment |
Dropped link to TheManWhoFellToEarth: Not an Item - UNKNOWN | |
Aliens Steal Cable | processingComment |
Dropped link to TokenNonHuman: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
Aliens Steal Cable | processingComment |
Dropped link to germanslovedavidhasselhoff: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
Aliens Steal Cable | processingComment |
Dropped link to invoked: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
Aliens Steal Cable | processingUnknown |
ScaryMovie3 | |
Aliens Steal Cable | processingUnknown |
TheManWhoFellToEarth | |
Aliens Steal Cable | processingUnknown |
SplitEnz | |
Aliens Steal Cable | processingUnknown |
CosmosASpacetimeOdyssey | |
Aliens Steal Cable | processingUnknown |
StarControlII | |
Aliens Steal Cable | isPartOf |
DBTropes | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_109b49e1 | type |
Aliens Steal Cable | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_109b49e1 | comment |
A close-range version in Predator 2, which opens with the Predator using thermal imaging, radio frequency scanning, and directional microphones to scan Los Angeles for potential targets. It soon zeroes in on the massive shootout between the police and a Columbian gang that's being covered live by media camera crews. | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_109b49e1 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_109b49e1 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Predator 2 | hasFeature |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_109b49e1 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_1196196e | type |
Aliens Steal Cable | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_1196196e | comment |
Scooby-Doo and the Alien Invaders used this in an interesting meta-story way; an alien flower-child (due to having studied American pop-culture via its 1960's broadcasts and assuming it represented basic human behavior) became the Love Interest for Shaggy, who, having been Totally Radical when Scooby-Doo was originally on, and not having changed in the interim, was a perfect match. | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_1196196e | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_1196196e | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Scooby-Doo and the Alien Invaders | hasFeature |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_1196196e | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_15c6ea11 | type |
Aliens Steal Cable | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_15c6ea11 | comment |
Wonder Woman (1942): The women of Mercury have listened to Earth radio broadcasts, and gotten some rather twisted ideas from them which lead to their enslaving of their men. | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_15c6ea11 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_15c6ea11 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Wonder Woman (1942) (Comic Book) | hasFeature |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_15c6ea11 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_15c73c2f | type |
Aliens Steal Cable | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_15c73c2f | comment |
Wonder Woman (2006): The young khund woman Kho Kharhi watches MTV and has picked up earth slang from it. She goes on to become a Green Lantern. | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_15c73c2f | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_15c73c2f | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Wonder Woman (2006) (Comic Book) | hasFeature |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_15c73c2f | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_193287c8 | type |
Aliens Steal Cable | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_193287c8 | comment |
Inverted in Subnautica: the enigmatic beings known as the Warpers communicate with each other via alien broadcasts, three of which your radio can intercept. The first transmission, partially translated, establishes that they're on patrol for "new biological subjects". The second reveals that only one target remains unaccounted for. The third is completely incomprehensible. | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_193287c8 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_193287c8 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Subnautica (Video Game) | hasFeature |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_193287c8 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_1ad6e2b5 | type |
Aliens Steal Cable | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_1ad6e2b5 | comment |
Astral and his foes the Barians do this in Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL. | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_1ad6e2b5 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_1ad6e2b5 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL | hasFeature |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_1ad6e2b5 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_1af5d573 | type |
Aliens Steal Cable | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_1af5d573 | comment |
Contact, which the film is based on, has the same thing happen: aliens send back Hitler's broadcast in 1936. Arroway and her colleagues similarly quell fears by saying that the aliens wouldn't know the context, although the President's still rather mortified to learn that all the garbage on TV has been transmitted to the whole universe. However, we learn that the aliens specifically chose to beam back that transmission because they did understand the cultural context and wanted to warn us against following that particular route. | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_1af5d573 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_1af5d573 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Contact | hasFeature |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_1af5d573 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_1bd69d53 | type |
Aliens Steal Cable | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_1bd69d53 | comment |
The Adventures of Pete & Pete: Big Pete befriends a boy who dresses like he's from the 1950's, and who is obsessed with Johnny Unitas and the 1958 NFL Championship Game, which is credited with putting the NFL in the public consciousness and essentially making pro football "big", which featured Unitas leading the Colts to a 23-17 overtime victory over the New York Giants. | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_1bd69d53 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_1bd69d53 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
The Adventures of Pete & Pete | hasFeature |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_1bd69d53 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_1bdeba5a | type |
Aliens Steal Cable | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_1bdeba5a | comment |
X-Men books: The Spineless Ones, the residents of the Mojoverse have had their dreams bombarded with TV transmissions from Earth for thousands of their years (time works differently in their dimension). Sort of like the Star Trek Iotians, this exposure turned them into a Dimension of Hats organized around emulation of television, to the point that their Dimension Lord is whichever network executive has the best ratings. It was later established that the initial transmissions were sent by one of their own, a scientist named Arize, who had a rare immunity to the effects of the TV transmissions on his people (they could actually perceive them on a subconscious level, and their inability to filter out multiple transmissions at once—i.e., no natural equivalent to a channel tuner—drove most Spineless Ones mad to varying degrees). With the best of intentions, Arize came to Earth and attempted to change his people's nature by gathering media he deemed positive and broadcasting it across the dimensions—only for the temporal differences between Earth and Mojoworld to result in Arize's broadcast becoming the transmissions that originally sparked both their madness and their obsession with video entertainment. During a time travel trip to the Skrull planet in a short story arc in 1999 (long story), Shadowcat knocks out her counterpart and infiltrates the Skrull compound. The fake mutants complain to each other the information the Skrulls gleam from Earth about mutants is "ill-informed and confusing". The next shot is Shadowcat accompanying the other false X-Men into a garage where other metamorphosed Skrulls are watching transmissions from Earth so that they can get more "in character". |
|
Aliens Steal Cable / int_1bdeba5a | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_1bdeba5a | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
X-Men (Comic Book) | hasFeature |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_1bdeba5a | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_221d7841 | type |
Aliens Steal Cable | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_221d7841 | comment |
Santa Claus Conquers the Martians, which was featured on Mystery Science Theater 3000 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_221d7841 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_221d7841 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Santa Claus Conquers the Martians | hasFeature |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_221d7841 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_26935a7f | type |
Aliens Steal Cable | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_26935a7f | comment |
This trope is a part of the origin of The Savage Dragon. He was a warlord who wanted to subjugate Earth despite the fact that his race is pretty peaceful. They decide to rip out chunks of his brain in order to give him amnesia (he has a healing factor). Since they were monitoring Earth for years, they used their satellite feeds to give Dragon new memories and dumped him in Chicago. | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_26935a7f | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_26935a7f | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
TheSavageDragon | hasFeature |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_26935a7f | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_2a139e05 | type |
Aliens Steal Cable | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_2a139e05 | comment |
In an episode of The Orville, Alara gives the Calivon thousands of episodes of human reality TV in exchange for them releasing Ed and Kelly from their People Zoo. The Calivon are entranced by what they're already calling their best exhibit ever. | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_2a139e05 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_2a139e05 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
The Orville | hasFeature |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_2a139e05 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_2a8cbe4d | type |
Aliens Steal Cable | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_2a8cbe4d | comment |
In Meet Dave, the aliens dress their spaceship in all white based on the clothes from Fantasy Island. This is the only signal they have intercepted. When asked to introduce "himself", they look at the most common male name on Earth and pick... Ming Cheng. For reference, both The Captain and the ship are played by Eddie Murphy. | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_2a8cbe4d | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_2a8cbe4d | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Meet Dave | hasFeature |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_2a8cbe4d | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_2c464409 | type |
Aliens Steal Cable | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_2c464409 | comment |
In Black Hammer, the alien robot TLK-E WLK-E wanted to learn about species and cultures beyond her home planet, so she built probes and launched them into space. Naturally, the probes picked up television signals from Earth. | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_2c464409 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_2c464409 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Black Hammer (Comic Book) | hasFeature |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_2c464409 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_2f230a09 | type |
Aliens Steal Cable | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_2f230a09 | comment |
In Chaos Fighters II: Historical Chronicles-Beyond The Earth, this trope is used to explain why people in Vertrifo speaks English. They steal cable using magic, though. | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_2f230a09 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_2f230a09 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Chaos Fighters | hasFeature |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_2f230a09 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_31a48eed | type |
Aliens Steal Cable | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_31a48eed | comment |
The Outer Limits (1995): Discussed in "Final Exam". Seth Todtman asks Dr. James Martin if he has ever wondered why Earth has never received any alien transmissions such as "I Love Lucy with two headed green guys playing both Lucy and Ricky." Seth believes it is because every advanced species eventually reaches the stage where it discovers how to build a cold fusion device, as he has done, and ends up destroying itself. | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_31a48eed | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_31a48eed | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
The Outer Limits (1995) | hasFeature |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_31a48eed | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_32940d8 | type |
Aliens Steal Cable | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_32940d8 | comment |
In Melonpool Melotians can pick Earth television signals through their antennae. They prefer TV sets, though. The protagonist, Mayberry Melonpool, is a couch potato even by his home's standards. | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_32940d8 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_32940d8 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Melonpool (Webcomic) | hasFeature |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_32940d8 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_34fd3cf6 | type |
Aliens Steal Cable | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_34fd3cf6 | comment |
Played with in Aqua Teen Hunger Force, in which the Plutonians are literally stealing the cable of Master Shake and company. They have a cable splitter patched through a Fargate to their spaceship, and use the "Universal Remonster" (a teddy bear with remote controls for arms and legs) to control it. | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_34fd3cf6 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_34fd3cf6 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Aqua Teen Hunger Force | hasFeature |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_34fd3cf6 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_38ecf7 | type |
Aliens Steal Cable | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_38ecf7 | comment |
In DC: The New Frontier, Martian Manhunter initially learns about human culture by watching TV. This is part of why he goes on to assume his eventual identity of John Jones, who is a Hardboiled Detective based on the ones he saw there. | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_38ecf7 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_38ecf7 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
DC: The New Frontier (Comic Book) | hasFeature |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_38ecf7 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_39de8f2a | type |
Aliens Steal Cable | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_39de8f2a | comment |
Inverted in Aliens!, where Merwin locks on to a Galactic Federation broadcast as part of his mission to research and capture alien life. | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_39de8f2a | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_39de8f2a | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Starlight Series / Fan Fic | hasFeature |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_39de8f2a | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_3a4e94f0 | type |
Aliens Steal Cable | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_3a4e94f0 | comment |
In Madballs: Escape from Orb, after fleeing their home planet, the Madballs intercept some TV transmissions from Earth, including a rock concert which inspires them to make Earth their new home. | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_3a4e94f0 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_3a4e94f0 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Madballs | hasFeature |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_3a4e94f0 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_3c347b02 | type |
Aliens Steal Cable | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_3c347b02 | comment |
In Bill & Ted's Excellent Comic Book, the Dimension of Utter Boredom managed to pick up a transmission of Wyld Stallyns playing the Battle of The Bands in Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey. Two denizens kidnap the duo's wives and children in order to get Bill and Ted's attention and persuade them to play a gig there. Bill and Ted Save The Universe reveals that Bill and Ted's mothers have been travelling the galaxy for years, using Wyld Stallyns albums from the future to bring peace to alien planets. |
|
Aliens Steal Cable / int_3c347b02 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_3c347b02 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Bill & Ted's Excellent Comic Book (Comic Book) | hasFeature |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_3c347b02 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_3defe34c | type |
Aliens Steal Cable | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_3defe34c | comment |
Discussed when Guru tells Dende that his parents being dead means he could be like Batman. When Dende mentions he has no idea who that is, Guru shouts "See, this is why we need TV!". Guru probably found out through Space Hulu himself, given Namekian's antenna give them Wi-Fi. | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_3defe34c | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_3defe34c | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Discussed Trope | hasFeature |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_3defe34c | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_3f3abe9 | type |
Aliens Steal Cable | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_3f3abe9 | comment |
In the Rick and Morty episode, The Wedding Squanchers, Rick mentions that Bird Person has an Oscars party every year but it takes light years for our TV signals to reach his planet and not to tell him that Braveheart wins. | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_3f3abe9 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_3f3abe9 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Rick and Morty | hasFeature |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_3f3abe9 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_3f8a321d | type |
Aliens Steal Cable | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_3f8a321d | comment |
Amazing Stories did this one in a episode called "Fine Tuning", which both is a direct example of, and a subversion of, this trope. Aliens catch our signals and re-create our shows for their own audience, and said re-creations are later viewed on Earth. | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_3f8a321d | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_3f8a321d | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Amazing Stories | hasFeature |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_3f8a321d | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_44014b66 | type |
Aliens Steal Cable | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_44014b66 | comment |
Contact: The extraterrestrials in the Vega system receive the first transmission strong enough to reach outer space — a transmission of Adolf Hitler's opening speech at the 1936 Olympic Games; the aliens send the signal back to Earth, combined with a sequence of prime numbers and blueprints for a machine. The scientists of the film also point out that the aliens could not possibly have understood the historical context of the transmission (or even what was being said) and state that their transmitting it back would simply have been to show that it had been received (as well as to carry the blueprints). They mock the idea held by the government and military officials that it must mean they've made contact with alien Nazis. | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_44014b66 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_44014b66 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Contact | hasFeature |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_44014b66 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_467c89f7 | type |
Aliens Steal Cable | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_467c89f7 | comment |
A major plot point in Super Dimension Fortress Macross, starting with the Miss Macross pageant and culminating in the battle against the Bodolza fleet. It neatly sidesteps the distance and signal strength issues by having the transmission come from the titular ship, and the Zentradi warships chasing it are (in astronomical distances) a stone's throw away. | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_467c89f7 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_467c89f7 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Super Dimension Fortress Macross | hasFeature |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_467c89f7 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_494e23 | type |
Aliens Steal Cable | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_494e23 | comment |
Nyaruko: Crawling with Love!: Much like Sgt. Frog, the series says that Earth has the best entertainment media in the galaxy, so much so that there are limits on exports and smugglers are a major problem. Nyarko's original assignment to Earth had her basically acting as an intergalactic customs agent by enforcing the export limits, breaking up a smuggling ring, and protecting Ordinary High-School Student Mahiro Yasaka from the ring (as well as smuggling some anime goods back for herself). As a consequence of this trope, pretty much every alien in the series is a massive Otaku for one form of media or another; Nyarko loves Anime and Tokusatsu, Cuuko is a Gamer Chick, etc., and they all drop references practically every other sentence. It also provides an example of this trope taken a step further, with Aliens Saving Cable. In one episode Mahiro sees Cuuko reading a volume of "Shonen Blood", a real-world manga anthology that folded after six issues, and Nyarko tells Mahiro that sometimes alien companies will buy the rights to entertainment that bombed on Earth but was popular in space in order to keep it running. |
|
Aliens Steal Cable / int_494e23 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_494e23 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Nyaruko: Crawling with Love! | hasFeature |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_494e23 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_50ad687c | type |
Aliens Steal Cable | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_50ad687c | comment |
Not aliens, but demons: Neighbors from Hell shows that Balthazar was chosen specifically by Satan to go live on Earth as a human to get to the drill that threatens their home because he watches a lot of TV and therefore is already (theoretically) familiar with life on Earth. | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_50ad687c | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_50ad687c | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Neighbors from Hell | hasFeature |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_50ad687c | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_50b9086a | type |
Aliens Steal Cable | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_50b9086a | comment |
Ready Jet Go!: "How We Found Your Sun" reveals that the Propulsions discovered Earth by picking up a primitive radio signal playing a 1950s rock and roll song called "Jet Propulsion", which they found catchy. This is also how our young hero Jet Propulsion got his "Earth" name. | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_50b9086a | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_50b9086a | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Ready Jet Go! | hasFeature |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_50b9086a | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_53a4065a | type |
Aliens Steal Cable | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_53a4065a | comment |
In the Transformers: Shattered Glass prose stories, the Transformers tune into broadcast signals to study Earth culture in preparation for travelling there, with some Transformers adopting aspects of Earth culture they find appealing. Unfortunately, they also believe based on old scifi serials that Earth's weaponry is primitive compared to their own, which leads to them arriving at Earth and getting shot down by a nuke they weren't expecting. Oops. | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_53a4065a | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_53a4065a | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Transformers: Shattered Glass (Comic Book) | hasFeature |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_53a4065a | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_53dc3731 | type |
Aliens Steal Cable | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_53dc3731 | comment |
Referenced in Atomic Robo by Carl Sagan, during an "unmanned" mission to mars. | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_53dc3731 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_53dc3731 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Atomic Robo / Comicbook | hasFeature |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_53dc3731 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_5562da6a | type |
Aliens Steal Cable | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_5562da6a | comment |
3rd Rock from the Sun: The Solomons once mentioned that they chose to pose as Caucasian humans because their species skimmed Earth broadcasts before sending them and most of the people depicted were white. Once they arrive on the planet they become avid television watchers, claiming it's one of the reasons they stayed so long. | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_5562da6a | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_5562da6a | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
3rd Rock from the Sun | hasFeature |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_5562da6a | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_5c897f4a | type |
Aliens Steal Cable | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_5c897f4a | comment |
Schlock Mercenary is probably the lone example to go for plausibility. Aliens with FTL travel probe the radio spheres created by inhabited planets. They're not even trying to decode the signal, just confirm the presence of one to study its most distinctive feature: Every radio sphere in this section of space is in fact a radio shell, hollow after the first couple decades because the locals were killed by Eldritch Abominations once they were noticed. | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_5c897f4a | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_5c897f4a | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Schlock Mercenary (Webcomic) | hasFeature |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_5c897f4a | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_5cdd252 | type |
Aliens Steal Cable | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_5cdd252 | comment |
The alien invaders of The Killing Star ultimately decide that humankind is a threat because they intercepted old episodes of Star Trek sent out centuries ago and concluded that all of the Rubber-Forehead Aliens were an indication that humans were so xenophobic that they would never accept relations with an alien species that was not humanoid. | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_5cdd252 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_5cdd252 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
The Killing Star | hasFeature |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_5cdd252 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_5cec267a | type |
Aliens Steal Cable | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_5cec267a | comment |
In Defiance the Omec found Earth by following broadcasts of Elvis that they picked up when they were around Gliese 581. | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_5cec267a | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_5cec267a | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Defiance | hasFeature |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_5cec267a | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_5cfb879b | type |
Aliens Steal Cable | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_5cfb879b | comment |
When Serifan of Forever People shows up in the "Disordered" episode, he dresses like a Cowboy because he is a big fan of Earth Westerns. | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_5cfb879b | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_5cfb879b | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
New Gods (Comic Book) | hasFeature |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_5cfb879b | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_5dfae349 | type |
Aliens Steal Cable | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_5dfae349 | comment |
Ziggy at least twice had aliens show up referencing Star Trek: one set who, like the Thermians from Galaxy Quest, didn't realize it was fiction and wanted to join the Federation ("Take us to Captain Kirk!"), and a couple of others who decided to complain to Ziggy about how silly the plots were getting "lately." | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_5dfae349 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_5dfae349 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Ziggy (Comic Strip) | hasFeature |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_5dfae349 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_6059314b | type |
Aliens Steal Cable | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_6059314b | comment |
The webcomic xkcd provides a helpful chart for identifying quotes and internet memes relevant that have reached specific star systems. | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_6059314b | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_6059314b | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
xkcd (Webcomic) | hasFeature |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_6059314b | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_62570927 | type |
Aliens Steal Cable | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_62570927 | comment |
Every once and a while in the Marvel Universe, Skrulls will decide to entertain themselves with their shapeshifting abilities and a dash of Earth culture. The world Kral is an entire planet of Skrulls imitating gangster movies from the 1950s. On Earth, four Skrulls apparently devoted themselves full time to their favorite Earth entertainers and became the Skrull Beatles. | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_62570927 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_62570927 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Marvel Universe (Franchise) | hasFeature |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_62570927 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_627ec0c0 | type |
Aliens Steal Cable | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_627ec0c0 | comment |
The Next Frontier is a rare example of this trope from the perspective of the aliens, and avoids falling into many of the Fridge Logic pitfalls mentioned above.note Largely because the author actually read this page during the writing process. The aliens only pick up a useful transmission because they're specifically looking for it, but have to get quite close to the inhabited parts of the system before they can pick up something they can decypher. It also justifies their ability to pick up the local language from it; they're specifically looking for children's TV aimed at preschoolers, which is ideally adapted to give the linguistics departments of several universities on their home planet something to work with. | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_627ec0c0 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_627ec0c0 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
The Next Frontier / Fan Fic | hasFeature |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_627ec0c0 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_62aa95a6 | type |
Aliens Steal Cable | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_62aa95a6 | comment |
The Lost Fleet The Wooareek receiving devices have downloaded all of mankind's art and culture, although, due to their Innocent Aliens nature, their scientists only distribute this information amongst the general Wooareek populace after getting formal permission to do so from humans. | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_62aa95a6 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_62aa95a6 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
The Lost Fleet | hasFeature |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_62aa95a6 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_63230cb | type |
Aliens Steal Cable | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_63230cb | comment |
Dragon Ball Z Abridged: Apparently, aliens don't even need to steal cable in this universe: they have Space Hulu. That's how Vegeta knows who The Three Stooges are. Discussed when Guru tells Dende that his parents being dead means he could be like Batman. When Dende mentions he has no idea who that is, Guru shouts "See, this is why we need TV!". Guru probably found out through Space Hulu himself, given Namekian's antenna give them Wi-Fi. |
|
Aliens Steal Cable / int_63230cb | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_63230cb | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Dragon Ball Z Abridged (Web Video) | hasFeature |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_63230cb | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_63e72a51 | type |
Aliens Steal Cable | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_63e72a51 | comment |
Book four of 2000 AD's Nemesis the Warlock is set in the Gothic Empire, populated by a race of shapeshifting aliens who received the first large scale radio transmissions of the 1920's. They promptly based their society on what they thought was Earth's pre-1914 Golden Age, particularly on Victorian society and the British Empire (even with their own version of Jack the Ripper). Also in 2000AD, a one-off story was set in the aftermath of a nuclear holocaust, where ragged survivors are consternated to make first contact with alien visitors. Who have been prompted to visit to demand why the BBC abruptly stopped broadcasting and left EastEnders with unresolved cliffhangers. And can we talk about Coronation Street? The aliens are addicted to earthly soap operas. |
|
Aliens Steal Cable / int_63e72a51 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_63e72a51 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
2000 AD (Comic Book) | hasFeature |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_63e72a51 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_64d714a | type |
Aliens Steal Cable | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_64d714a | comment |
Spaced Invaders has Martians hearing Orson Welles' famous reading of The War of the Worlds and thinking that the rest of the army is on Earth, so they go to find them. | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_64d714a | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_64d714a | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Spaced Invaders | hasFeature |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_64d714a | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_6744d821 | type |
Aliens Steal Cable | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_6744d821 | comment |
In The Owl House, items from the human realm regularly end up on the Boiling Isles through a combination of Eda selling stuff she stole using her Portal Door or thing just washing up along the shoreline due to Titan's Blood induced Reality Bleeds. It's unclear to what extent this has affected pop culture on the Isles, though Amity is shown to be a fan of the Good Witch Azura book series. | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_6744d821 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_6744d821 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
The Owl House | hasFeature |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_6744d821 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_67cdde7d | type |
Aliens Steal Cable | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_67cdde7d | comment |
A one-panel comic from Dragon featured a monitor screen in the Oval Office with an alien saying "we've been monitoring your transmissions for some time, and if you don't put Farscape back on the air you can kiss New York goodbye." | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_67cdde7d | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_67cdde7d | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Dragon (Magazine) | hasFeature |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_67cdde7d | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_68a59532 | type |
Aliens Steal Cable | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_68a59532 | comment |
In an article on The Best Page in the Universe Maddox claims that Wireless internet may very well destroy our chances of contacting intelligent life" due to aliens detecting poorly spelt e-mails and concluding that humanity must be too moronic to be worth visiting. | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_68a59532 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_68a59532 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
The Best Page in the Universe (Website) | hasFeature |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_68a59532 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_6a989b15 | type |
Aliens Steal Cable | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_6a989b15 | comment |
When the Tripods Came by John Christopher had aliens stealing television—and then using it to take over the world. | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_6a989b15 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_6a989b15 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
The Tripods | hasFeature |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_6a989b15 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_6b616153 | type |
Aliens Steal Cable | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_6b616153 | comment |
Phule's Company: In the novel No Phule Like an Old Phule, the Zenobians revere a figure called L'Vis which is actually from an old broadcast of Elvis. | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_6b616153 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_6b616153 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Phule's Company | hasFeature |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_6b616153 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_6ee28fa8 | type |
Aliens Steal Cable | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_6ee28fa8 | comment |
Inverted in Commander Keen 4: Billy's radio receives signals from many light years away and consequently picks up a lot of alien sitcoms. | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_6ee28fa8 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_6ee28fa8 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Commander Keen (Video Game) | hasFeature |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_6ee28fa8 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_6f48e446 | type |
Aliens Steal Cable | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_6f48e446 | comment |
The Scrin frequently gather data from human networks in Command & Conquer: Tiberium Wars. At the beginning of the Scrin campaign, the mothership's AI taps into satellite communications to run a cryptanalysis on the television broadcasts that appear throughout the other campaigns, learning Machine Monotone English from them. In an interesting subversion of this trope, the Scrin expect from experience that Tiberium drove humanity to near-extinction but after almost getting blown out of the sky by GDI ion cannons, they tap into military frequencies and eventually conclude that humanity is fragmented yes, but they're also "warlike to the extreme". Finally, the Supervisor intercepts the cutscene where Kane explains the part of his plan involving the Liquid Tiberium Bomb]] and realizes they've been duped into invading at least a century earlier. | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_6f48e446 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_6f48e446 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars (Video Game) | hasFeature |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_6f48e446 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_7157c9c4 | type |
Aliens Steal Cable | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_7157c9c4 | comment |
The protagonist of the 2017 comic based on Centipede works for the planet Sty-Rek's interstellar outreach program, monitoring radio waves and internet from other planets. He has a particular fascination with Earth culture and often quotes our movies. | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_7157c9c4 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_7157c9c4 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Centipede (Video Game) | hasFeature |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_7157c9c4 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_75411dda | type |
Aliens Steal Cable | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_75411dda | comment |
Explorers: The aliens do little but quote classic Earth movies and songs that they've received. It's eventually revealed that the aliens are children, which explains why they're so obsessed with entertainment. | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_75411dda | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_75411dda | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Explorers | hasFeature |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_75411dda | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_755b343f | type |
Aliens Steal Cable | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_755b343f | comment |
Halo: the explanation for why the Grunts speak in English even when other Covenant races don't is that Grunts, who have a natural knack for linguistics, are tasked with spying on human broadcasts for espionage purposes. But it also means the Grunts picked up a lot of human pop culture (mention is made of a black market for human entertainment among them). Later games imply that automatic translators are becoming more commonplace as humanity learns to decipher Covenant languages. | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_755b343f | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_755b343f | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Halo (Franchise) | hasFeature |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_755b343f | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_7668653a | type |
Aliens Steal Cable | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_7668653a | comment |
In Mass Effect 2, Legion mentions that the geth regularly mine the extranet for information on organics, seeking to better understand them. Not only that, but they also perform social experiments by implanting false information to see what will happen, such as one time when they intentionally falsified a report claiming a star cluster resembled a salarian goddess, that lead to several parties trying to lay claim to it before discovering it didn't actually exist. If they didn't lack emotions, you could almost suspect the geth enjoy actively Trolling the galactic community. | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_7668653a | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_7668653a | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mass Effect 2 (Video Game) | hasFeature |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_7668653a | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_76df0622 | type |
Aliens Steal Cable | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_76df0622 | comment |
The Kymellian Aelfyre Whitemane, who gave Power Pack their powers, fell in love with the human culture. He presumably gained access to books and films by somehow remotely connecting to the internet. | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_76df0622 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_76df0622 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Power Pack (Comic Book) | hasFeature |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_76df0622 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_78ec49bd | type |
Aliens Steal Cable | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_78ec49bd | comment |
In the sixth book of the Young Wizards series, Kit resorts to wizardry when trying to set up a belligerent entertainment system. This has some odd consequences when, in a fit of rebellion, the components invert this trope and begin stealing cable from other planets. By the end of that book, his family's been subjected to an alien soap opera involving several additional genders and his sister's ordered a curling iron/disintegrater ray from an intergalactic shopping network. This continues for the rest of the series so far. | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_78ec49bd | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_78ec49bd | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Young Wizards | hasFeature |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_78ec49bd | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_79d01256 | type |
Aliens Steal Cable | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_79d01256 | comment |
Subverted in Cat Planet Cuties. The Catians are very interested in human media, but they want to buy it. Interstellar copyright laws are Serious Business, as it turns out. | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_79d01256 | featureApplicability |
-0.3 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_79d01256 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Cat Planet Cuties | hasFeature |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_79d01256 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_7a8e5c7e | type |
Aliens Steal Cable | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_7a8e5c7e | comment |
The Transformers: The Movie: The Junkions apparently learned English from watching Earth TV broadcasts. Which explains lines like "Steady as she goes, Bob! Snoopy visitors get mud in the eye, by and by! Film at 11!", and the battle cry "Destroy Unicron! Kill the Grand Poobah! Eliminate even the toughest stains!" Their quick friendship with the Autobots becomes Fridge Brilliance from that perspective: the Junkions have a mutual interest in protecting Earth from the Decepticons to allow the humans to keep coming up with new shows. This becomes a plot point in a Season 3 episode where the Quintessons insert subliminal messages into their signals to turn them feral. And then the signals spread all over the cosmos... The key difference between Movie!Bumblebee and G1!Junkions is that the Junkions are capable of saying anything but choose to parrot TV and radio clichés with their own voices, whereas Bumblebee, who can no longer speak (or speak well, at least), hacks together bits and pieces of actual audio clips from the radio. Kup is implied to watch Earth television as well, but less so than the Junkions. Fitting for his "old guy" image, the way he uses TV phrases (knowing only basic ones) is akin to an old man trying to use new slang. |
|
Aliens Steal Cable / int_7a8e5c7e | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_7a8e5c7e | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
The Transformers: The Movie | hasFeature |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_7a8e5c7e | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_7b039953 | type |
Aliens Steal Cable | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_7b039953 | comment |
In Avatar Troll Fic Avatars II: When Qwaritch Takes Revenge, the Navis watch Watchmen at the end of Book II. They apparently have a special meteorite that humans used to make televisions, and used it to invent the television. | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_7b039953 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_7b039953 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Avatar | hasFeature |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_7b039953 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_7bc16c4f | type |
Aliens Steal Cable | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_7bc16c4f | comment |
Earth Girls Are Easy: Aliens catch TV footage of aerobicizing girls and decide to visit the place. Once here they pick up the language from TV, and end up sounding like James Dean and Jerry Lewis. | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_7bc16c4f | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_7bc16c4f | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Earth Girls Are Easy | hasFeature |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_7bc16c4f | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_7f640c5a | type |
Aliens Steal Cable | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_7f640c5a | comment |
Inverted in The Sims 4. If you can invent and upgrade the satellite dish while in the Scientist profession, you can steal alien cable. | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_7f640c5a | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_7f640c5a | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
The Sims 4 (Video Game) | hasFeature |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_7f640c5a | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_7fd403f8 | type |
Aliens Steal Cable | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_7fd403f8 | comment |
The Thermians in Galaxy Quest take the fictional events of old television shows seriously, calling them "historical documents". Besides thinking that the main characters really are space explorers as opposed to the actors who played them, they weep for "those poor people" stranded on Gilligan's Island. It is explained that the Thermians have no concept of lying of any sort, which includes fiction in storytelling. Or at least, they had no concept of it until the Big Bad came along and was only too happy to teach it to them first-hand, which might have left a bad first impression of the concept on them. | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_7fd403f8 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_7fd403f8 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Galaxy Quest | hasFeature |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_7fd403f8 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_81692f99 | type |
Aliens Steal Cable | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_81692f99 | comment |
The Spineless Ones, the residents of the Mojoverse have had their dreams bombarded with TV transmissions from Earth for thousands of their years (time works differently in their dimension). Sort of like the Star Trek Iotians, this exposure turned them into a Dimension of Hats organized around emulation of television, to the point that their Dimension Lord is whichever network executive has the best ratings. It was later established that the initial transmissions were sent by one of their own, a scientist named Arize, who had a rare immunity to the effects of the TV transmissions on his people (they could actually perceive them on a subconscious level, and their inability to filter out multiple transmissions at once—i.e., no natural equivalent to a channel tuner—drove most Spineless Ones mad to varying degrees). With the best of intentions, Arize came to Earth and attempted to change his people's nature by gathering media he deemed positive and broadcasting it across the dimensions—only for the temporal differences between Earth and Mojoworld to result in Arize's broadcast becoming the transmissions that originally sparked both their madness and their obsession with video entertainment. | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_81692f99 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_81692f99 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Star Trek (Franchise) | hasFeature |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_81692f99 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_85279c9c | type |
Aliens Steal Cable | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_85279c9c | comment |
This is a game mechanic in The Fermi Paradox, with radio signals from Earth and other planets with sapient life on them capable of being detected by alien civilizations, allowing them to know of the existence of other sapient beings. Whether they react positively or negatively depends on the player, although it's also possible for them to not even notice the signal. | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_85279c9c | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_85279c9c | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
The Fermi Paradox (Video Game) | hasFeature |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_85279c9c | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_85a5a3b9 | type |
Aliens Steal Cable | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_85a5a3b9 | comment |
In Transformers: Prime, Knock Out sometimes watches horror movies at drive-in theaters, so he thinks the best way of fighting off a horde of Terrorcons is by Removing the Head or Destroying the Brain. Unfortunately, he ends up being Wrong Genre Savvy. | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_85a5a3b9 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_85a5a3b9 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Transformers: Prime | hasFeature |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_85a5a3b9 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_85ec15e7 | type |
Aliens Steal Cable | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_85ec15e7 | comment |
The eponymous short story of Instead of Three Wishes features elves that steal cable and electricity — the elvish Prince Mechemel's mother is largely bed-bound and she enjoys watching cable TV to pass the time. Unlike the rest of the court that largely shuns the human realm, the elderly Queen has unique (if somewhat skewed by infomercials and cable news) insight into modern culture. | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_85ec15e7 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_85ec15e7 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Instead of Three Wishes | hasFeature |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_85ec15e7 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_8d8157e0 | type |
Aliens Steal Cable | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_8d8157e0 | comment |
In Lexx, aliens are tipped off to the existence of life on Earth by Marconi's experiments with transatlantic radio. | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_8d8157e0 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_8d8157e0 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Lexx | hasFeature |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_8d8157e0 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_90a3a7f4 | type |
Aliens Steal Cable | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_90a3a7f4 | comment |
Kim Possible: Warmonga, an amazonian Green-Skinned Space Babe from a race of compulsive conquerors, declares Dr. Drakken to be a figure from her native mythology based on his odd blue skin color after seeing him on a TV broadcast. The show was an American Idol parody called American Starmaker, and his appearance on it was in a previous episode. Unlike other examples, she didn't wait for the broadcast to reach her home world, she happened to be about 1 light year away on patrol when she picked it up. | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_90a3a7f4 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_90a3a7f4 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Kim Possible | hasFeature |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_90a3a7f4 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_90c73dda | type |
Aliens Steal Cable | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_90c73dda | comment |
Animorphs The books used a version of this, albeit without the "long distance" part (but, interestingly, still using the trope as an Homage to 1980s TV): the body-snatching aliens first visit Earth in 1991, and panic upon discovering, while in orbit, news reports indicating that humans have mastered Faster-Than-Light Travel and Energy Weapons. They quickly realize that it's not real, and conclude that human indulgence in escapism makes us an even better target. They decide to land in Hollywood, (instead of New York, Washington Dee Cee, or Ellay) because it is obviously the most important due to the amount of times it is mentioned in the decidedly factual parts of television broadcasts. Also contains a quite literal version—Ax literally steals cable for his home on Earth, and records everything for later reference. His excuse is to screen for Yeerk propaganda (which actually works several times), more often than not, he watches soap operas and 'These Messages' which he finds more amusing than most other shows. (To be fair, he also assumed that people wouldn't hang wires outside unless they were free to take.) Not to mention that Andalite kids apparently watched (or rather, pretended to watch while basically doing anything but) human television in school. They watched the news, entertainment, and... |
|
Aliens Steal Cable / int_90c73dda | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_90c73dda | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Animorphs | hasFeature |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_90c73dda | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_93ef56a7 | type |
Aliens Steal Cable | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_93ef56a7 | comment |
In Pixels, the aliens interpret TV signals as communication and respond with modified television footage. | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_93ef56a7 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_93ef56a7 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Pixels | hasFeature |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_93ef56a7 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_980c3316 | type |
Aliens Steal Cable | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_980c3316 | comment |
Mister Mind's first appearance in Shazam! has him following his favourite radio broadcasts to Earth then vowing to conquer the planet when he finds out that Edgar Bergen's dummy, Charlie McCarthy isn't real. | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_980c3316 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_980c3316 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Shazam! (Comic Book) | hasFeature |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_980c3316 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_996edf24 | type |
Aliens Steal Cable | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_996edf24 | comment |
Wonder Woman: Wonder Woman (1942): The women of Mercury have listened to Earth radio broadcasts, and gotten some rather twisted ideas from them which lead to their enslaving of their men. Wonder Woman (2006): The young khund woman Kho Kharhi watches MTV and has picked up earth slang from it. She goes on to become a Green Lantern. |
|
Aliens Steal Cable / int_996edf24 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_996edf24 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Wonder Woman (Franchise) | hasFeature |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_996edf24 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_9a7088bc | type |
Aliens Steal Cable | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_9a7088bc | comment |
Star Trek: The Original Series Trelane, the eponymous "Squire of Gothos", wasn't receiving radio signals, but clearly was limited by speed-of-light transmission when he thought that 18th-century fashions and behavior were the latest things for Earth people, there on his planet some 600 light years from Earth. Then again, he was merely a child from a race of Sufficiently Advanced Aliens and might be excused from making such a mistake. In another episode ("A Piece of the Action"), it was discovered that the people of Iotia had based their entire culture on a book left behind by an earlier survey ship: "Chicago Mobs of the 20s." Hilarity ensues when Kirk, Spock, Bones and even Scotty have to deal with cliche gangsters, curious local customs and slang, and the enigma of manual transmission. The Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "First Contact" had an interesting reversal of this trope; here, the Federation monitors an alien civilization who are about to become capable of interstellar travel, and when introducing one of their head scientists to the greater galaxy notes that, among other things, they've been looking at their radio transmissions to learn more about them, causing her to comment, "I hope you don't judge us by our popular entertainment!" Also Star Trek: The Next Generation: In "The Royale", the crew finds a planet with weird simulation of a cliche '30s-style gambling casino. As it turns out, aliens had accidentally made a few humans crash many years ago and tried to construct the only survivor a surrogate home based on the novel he had with him. Bad luck for him - He hated the book. A Star Trek: Voyager episode has the titular ship end up in Earth's orbit during the 90s. Neelix and Kes are tasked with monitoring Earth transmissions for any mention of a crashed timeship or any indication that the Voyager has been detected. Both end up absolutely enamored with soap operas and other shows. |
|
Aliens Steal Cable / int_9a7088bc | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_9a7088bc | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Star Trek: The Original Series | hasFeature |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_9a7088bc | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_9b388502 | type |
Aliens Steal Cable | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_9b388502 | comment |
Lizard Music: The titular lizards have learned English from watching human TV broadcasts. | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_9b388502 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_9b388502 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Lizard Music | hasFeature |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_9b388502 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_9d20d92 | type |
Aliens Steal Cable | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_9d20d92 | comment |
Year Zero: The premise is that since the 1970s, aliens have been pirating human music, finding it to be the most wondrous thing they've ever heard. The problem is that they feel obligated to pay the enormous fines generated by copyright violation that could bankrupt the entire universe. A copyright lawyer is forced into finding a way to lower the bill before another group of aliens decides to destroy the world so they don't have to pay. | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_9d20d92 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_9d20d92 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Year Zero | hasFeature |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_9d20d92 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_a0d11028 | type |
Aliens Steal Cable | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_a0d11028 | comment |
The Rifftrax of the film has a little fun with this concept. Optimus demands to be taken to "King Schnappi". | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_a0d11028 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_a0d11028 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
RiffTrax (Podcast) | hasFeature |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_a0d11028 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_a183d57f | type |
Aliens Steal Cable | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_a183d57f | comment |
Futurama, as usual, played with an old Sci-Fi chestnut. Lrrr, of the planet Omicron Persei 8, 1000 light-years from Earth, commonly watches early 21st century Earth TV. His first appearance, with an invasion fleet, was because Fry thrashed WNYW's transmission console, cutting the signal when the Grand Finale of the Ally McBeal-esque program Single Female Lawyer was being broadcast. Lrrr and his wife Ndnd are also apparently big fans of Friends... well, sort of, anyway: The Season 7 episode "T the Terrestrial" shows that the Omnicronians have started receiving current (31st century) television from Earth as well, as Lrrr's viewing of "The Finder-Outer" gets cut off by Nixon's head's embargo on Omnicron Persei XIII. |
|
Aliens Steal Cable / int_a183d57f | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_a183d57f | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Futurama | hasFeature |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_a183d57f | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_a9860543 | type |
Aliens Steal Cable | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_a9860543 | comment |
In Agent to the Stars, not only is this trope played straight, it's the basis for the story. Having received Earth's TV broadcasts, the aliens decide that the real power on Earth is Hollywood, and make their first contact with Hollywood's biggest agent. In addition to their beliefs in the power of Hollywood, they're also unpleasant to human senses in many ways. In other words, they smell really bad and look really ugly. They would not get a good reception if they just landed on the White House lawn and their agent is intended to thwart the typical human reaction. | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_a9860543 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_a9860543 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Agent to the Stars | hasFeature |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_a9860543 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_afc86b0a | type |
Aliens Steal Cable | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_afc86b0a | comment |
In Ender's Game when Ender asks why the buggers attacked Earth, Graff hazards a guess that they may have caught a transmission of our movies and thought we were too violent but the theory turns out not to be true. | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_afc86b0a | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_afc86b0a | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Ender's Game | hasFeature |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_afc86b0a | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_b0aa6c37 | type |
Aliens Steal Cable | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_b0aa6c37 | comment |
The first issue of Flaming Carrot has a Martian saying that they've been watching our TV broadcasts for years and are annoyed at how badly they come off in Alien Invasion movies. | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_b0aa6c37 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_b0aa6c37 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Flaming Carrot (Comic Book) | hasFeature |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_b0aa6c37 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_b13fb922 | type |
Aliens Steal Cable | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_b13fb922 | comment |
Kila Ilo: Richard, Kila, and later, Dr Kao learn about humans via the internet. | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_b13fb922 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_b13fb922 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Kila Ilo (Webcomic) | hasFeature |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_b13fb922 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_b3788a5d | type |
Aliens Steal Cable | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_b3788a5d | comment |
In the novel version of 2001: A Space Odyssey, the Sufficiently Advanced Aliens that are going to turn Dave into the Star Child first calm him by giving him a mock-up of a hotel suite. They don't get all the details right, though: he's disturbed when he notices drawers won't open and the books are part of the bookcase. What happened becomes clear when he turns on the TV and sees a scene from a movie set in a hotel suite exactly like the one he is in. | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_b3788a5d | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_b3788a5d | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
2001: A Space Odyssey | hasFeature |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_b3788a5d | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_b44d28a8 | type |
Aliens Steal Cable | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_b44d28a8 | comment |
The webcomic Zortic kicks off with two aliens who find out they're perfect for each other because share a love of old Earth television broadcasts. | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_b44d28a8 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_b44d28a8 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Zortic (Webcomic) | hasFeature |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_b44d28a8 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_b47b8c74 | type |
Aliens Steal Cable | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_b47b8c74 | comment |
In World's Greatest Adventures, Warlord Cassius (from Mars) has watched the series itself, and made the mistake of believing every little thing Rufus Hooter Talltales says about himself. As a result, he believes Rufus to be the Earth's champion and wants to fight him for supremacy over the Earth. | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_b47b8c74 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_b47b8c74 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
World's Greatest Adventures (Web Video) | hasFeature |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_b47b8c74 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_b4fe32c9 | type |
Aliens Steal Cable | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_b4fe32c9 | comment |
Zim and GIR watch a lot of TV in Invader Zim. Though, in an aversion to the "This makes them inept" trope, TV does give them a pretty good idea about the intellect of your average Earthling in the show's universe. | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_b4fe32c9 | featureApplicability |
-1.0 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_b4fe32c9 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Invader Zim | hasFeature |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_b4fe32c9 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_b683f90f | type |
Aliens Steal Cable | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_b683f90f | comment |
Justified in mankind's first contact in Perry Rhodan: the crew of the Arkonide cruiser not only has sufficiently advanced translator microbes, they've also been stranded for months no further away from Earth than the Moon, where it's of course that much easier to pick up our signals. | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_b683f90f | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_b683f90f | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Perry Rhodan | hasFeature |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_b683f90f | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_b70a2d3b | type |
Aliens Steal Cable | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_b70a2d3b | comment |
In Safe Havens, Palmtop (a cat cloned from a dog) eventually figures out that...whoever is trying to communicate with Samantha's crew on Mars is doing it through canine language. Turns out Mars picked that up from a Lassie broadcast. Since it was one of the first broadcast signals to leave Earth, Mars thought that dogs were the dominant species on Earth. (Timmy being...well, Timmy probably didn't help either.) | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_b70a2d3b | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_b70a2d3b | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Safe Havens (Comic Strip) | hasFeature |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_b70a2d3b | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_b8c3cc30 | type |
Aliens Steal Cable | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_b8c3cc30 | comment |
In Young Justice (2010), Miss Martian based her form and personality on a short lived Saved by the Bell style sitcom called Hello Megan!. The show also averts some of the technical issues by establishing that her uncle, the Martian Manhunter, had sent recordings of Earth television shows and other media back to his homeworld to familiarize his fellow Martians with Earth culture, starting in the 1960s. When Serifan of Forever People shows up in the "Disordered" episode, he dresses like a Cowboy because he is a big fan of Earth Westerns. Becomes a minor plot point when Martian B'arzz O'oomm, the Green Beetle, comes to Earth. It's already been established that J'onn regularly sends television broadcasts back to Mars, so B'arzz saying that he saw the Reach on recent news programs and came to help is a very convincing cover. By Season 4, when M'gann actually visits M'arzz on screen, we see that a lot of Martians shapeshift into their favorite Earth celebrities for fun, and there's also a backlash from some who believe that the obsession with Earth culture is a threat to the Martians' traditional caste system and hierarchy— M'gann's father specifically points out that J'onn learned acceptance from his time on Earth |
|
Aliens Steal Cable / int_b8c3cc30 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_b8c3cc30 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Young Justice (2010) | hasFeature |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_b8c3cc30 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_bcdcf629 | type |
Aliens Steal Cable | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_bcdcf629 | comment |
Used very literally in Transformers: Animated. Bumblebee and Sari pirate cable in order to watch illegal street races. | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_bcdcf629 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_bcdcf629 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Transformers: Animated | hasFeature |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_bcdcf629 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_bdd45aae | type |
Aliens Steal Cable | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_bdd45aae | comment |
In the Tales from the Darkside episode "Distant Signals," a mysterious, eccentric investor brings together the cast and crew of a 20-year-old private eye TV series, which was cancelled before it got a proper ending, so the story can finally be resolved. The investor turns out to be the representative of an alien race who had been following the show. (In the original short story, the private eye show was a western.) | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_bdd45aae | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_bdd45aae | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Tales from the Darkside | hasFeature |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_bdd45aae | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_c007e9c8 | type |
Aliens Steal Cable | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_c007e9c8 | comment |
Space: Above and Beyond eventually gives this as the explanation for Chig soldiers mutilating human dead. It's not malicious per se, it's just that, having no concept of an afterlife themselves, they misunderstood the Gospel narrative as indicating that humans can come back to life after being killed. | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_c007e9c8 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_c007e9c8 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Space: Above and Beyond | hasFeature |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_c007e9c8 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_c1408c34 | type |
Aliens Steal Cable | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_c1408c34 | comment |
In Brave Exkaiser, one of the first things the Geisters stole when they arrived on Earth were televisions (including, fitting for giant robots, the big ones on the sides of buildings). Justified, as Dino Geist felt they'd be a useful way to learn about the Earth and uses his to find things for the Geisters to steal via the news media. The others, being far less intelligent than him, more often use it just to watch TV. | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_c1408c34 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_c1408c34 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Brave Exkaiser | hasFeature |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_c1408c34 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_c18bfdae | type |
Aliens Steal Cable | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_c18bfdae | comment |
Wowbagger The Infinitely Prolonged likes to watch channels from solar systems he's passing through and says that Blade Runner is one of his favourite movies. | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_c18bfdae | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_c18bfdae | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Blade Runner | hasFeature |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_c18bfdae | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_c43df4d8 | type |
Aliens Steal Cable | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_c43df4d8 | comment |
Doctor Who When recruiting Liz Shaw into UNIT, the Brigadier cites this trope as to why aliens are suddenly taking an interest in Earth. We've been noticed thanks to the increase in transmissions and probes sent into space. While no aliens have been explicitly said to have discovered Earth because of our TV and radio, they certainly do enjoy it. The Doctor's nemesis the Master is particularly pleased by our invention of the Teletubbies, and was also somewhat enamored with The Clangers some decades previous. The original concept for the Cybermen in their first appearance was that that had learned human speech through radio and TV broadcasts, which explains their strange, synthesized speech and the way they opened their mouths and dispensed it like a recording (weirdly presaging automated phone robots). It wasn't explained on screen, however, and subsequent appearances did not follow up on the idea. |
|
Aliens Steal Cable / int_c43df4d8 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_c43df4d8 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Doctor Who | hasFeature |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_c43df4d8 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_c51d68e7 | type |
Aliens Steal Cable | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_c51d68e7 | comment |
In the novel Lacuna some Toralii understand English before encountering the Humans (and, given the book's content, probably Mandarin as well). How they learned the language is a bit of a mystery but it's probably this. | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_c51d68e7 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_c51d68e7 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Lacuna | hasFeature |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_c51d68e7 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_cb40e342 | type |
Aliens Steal Cable | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_cb40e342 | comment |
The backstory of Coffee Crisis have a hostile alien race called the Smurgliens, after watching cat videos and listening to rock music from intercepting Wi-Fi from our planet, deciding to launch an invasion to steal all of earth's facilities for themselves. | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_cb40e342 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_cb40e342 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Coffee Crisis (Video Game) | hasFeature |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_cb40e342 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_cb570c4a | type |
Aliens Steal Cable | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_cb570c4a | comment |
In Mostly Harmless, the Grebulons, a group of aliens who have lost their memories, fill their cultural vacuum by watching TV from their base on the 10th planet of our solar system. | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_cb570c4a | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_cb570c4a | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Mostly Harmless | hasFeature |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_cb570c4a | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_cf2d20a8 | type |
Aliens Steal Cable | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_cf2d20a8 | comment |
The first thing Johnny Bravo does after becoming king of an entire planet of GreenSkinnedSpaceBabes is convincing them to install Cable TV. After seeing Mel Gibson on TV, the girls immediately lose interest in him. | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_cf2d20a8 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_cf2d20a8 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Johnny Bravo | hasFeature |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_cf2d20a8 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_d461a59f | type |
Aliens Steal Cable | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_d461a59f | comment |
Both played straight and averted in Battlestar Galactica (1978). In the series finale, Apollo detects a transmission he thinks is from the lost colony of "Earth", which they're searching for, Following the transmission leads to a Cylon warship however, that the Galactica has to destroy. Everyone thinks that the transmission was a lure, except Apollo who goes back to obsessively scanning transmissions until Starbuck snaps him out of it. Then just after they leave the room, a transmission comes in showing a broadcast of the Apollo 11 moon landing, showing Galactica is within 10 light years of Earth. Cue closing credits. | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_d461a59f | featureApplicability |
-1.0 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_d461a59f | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Battlestar Galactica (1978) | hasFeature |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_d461a59f | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_d64ae569 | type |
Aliens Steal Cable | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_d64ae569 | comment |
In Highlander II: The Quickening it can inferred this is the case from the alien General Katana's fondness for pop culture references. Apparently there isn't a lot to do on Zeist. | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_d64ae569 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_d64ae569 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Highlander II: The Quickening | hasFeature |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_d64ae569 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_d7765410 | type |
Aliens Steal Cable | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_d7765410 | comment |
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy gives us Ford Prefect, who calls himself that due to having originally learned about Earth culture by watching TV and coming to the conclusion that cars were the dominant species. In Mostly Harmless, the Grebulons, a group of aliens who have lost their memories, fill their cultural vacuum by watching TV from their base on the 10th planet of our solar system. Wowbagger The Infinitely Prolonged likes to watch channels from solar systems he's passing through and says that Blade Runner is one of his favourite movies. |
|
Aliens Steal Cable / int_d7765410 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_d7765410 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Franchise) | hasFeature |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_d7765410 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_d9c602eb | type |
Aliens Steal Cable | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_d9c602eb | comment |
Inverted in the South Park episode "Canceled", where Cartman's anal probe picked up an advertisement for the intergalactic reality show "Earth". Of course, it was broadcast in an alien language, so the scientist Jeff (Goldblum) had to translate it into English. | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_d9c602eb | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_d9c602eb | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
South Park | hasFeature |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_d9c602eb | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_db47f8fc | type |
Aliens Steal Cable | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_db47f8fc | comment |
The Aliens (they are actually called that; they are from the planet Alien) from the Walkyverse are dopey pop-culture junkies who are obsessed with human television and movies. | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_db47f8fc | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_db47f8fc | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Walkyverse (Webcomic) | hasFeature |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_db47f8fc | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_de3de959 | type |
Aliens Steal Cable | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_de3de959 | comment |
In Incompatible System, humans are the aliens, first for the Thranx, and then the Extranet. Oh, and they have also hacked the Relay Network to track the Citadel ship movements. | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_de3de959 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_de3de959 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Incompatible System (Fanfic) | hasFeature |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_de3de959 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_e081af79 | type |
Aliens Steal Cable | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_e081af79 | comment |
The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob! has an awkward incident, caused by the title characters from Melonpool and Zortic, both of whom are obsessive Trekkies. | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_e081af79 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_e081af79 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob! (Webcomic) | hasFeature |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_e081af79 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_e235270c | type |
Aliens Steal Cable | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_e235270c | comment |
One of the pre-made alien empires in Stellaris is the Blorg Commonality, an Ascended Meme from a pre-release livestream. This species was living an unremarkable existence on their jungle homeworld when they suddenly started receiving radio transmissions from distant Earth, introducing them to things like music and drama that the Blorg had never developed on their own. The Blorg proceeded to embrace this alien culture, give themselves names like "Mercedes Romero," and become a starfaring civilization, "hoping one day to find the source of these messages so that they might party together." Tragically, while the Blorg have the "Fanatic Xenophile" ethos and really want to be loved, they're also physically repugnant tentacled fungus-monsters that other species will want to keep at arm's length. Which is why they also have the "Militarist" ethos, so the Blorg can befriend other races whether they want to or not. | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_e235270c | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_e235270c | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Stellaris (Video Game) | hasFeature |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_e235270c | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_e5c6748d | type |
Aliens Steal Cable | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_e5c6748d | comment |
The Three Stooges in Orbit. The Martian videophone accidentally starts broadcasting Earth television, rapidly convincing the Martian Big Bad that rather than conquer the Earth, it would be better to wipe it from existence. | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_e5c6748d | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_e5c6748d | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
The Three Stooges | hasFeature |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_e5c6748d | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_e7a9c06c | type |
Aliens Steal Cable | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_e7a9c06c | comment |
In Paperinik New Adventures this is how the Evronians learned English and other Earth languages. The issue about distance and signal strength is sidestepped by the fact they've been around Earth for a long time (first known visit is from 10,000 years ago) before deciding the invasion was worth it, so their surveillance crews had been close enough. | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_e7a9c06c | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_e7a9c06c | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Paperinik New Adventures (Comic Book) | hasFeature |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_e7a9c06c | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_ec52a5b9 | type |
Aliens Steal Cable | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_ec52a5b9 | comment |
Similar to the Transformers example above, the aliens in The Greatest American Hero spoke to the main characters through piecing together radio signals in their car. Also, in the episode "Operation Spoilsport," the aliens repeatedly played the song "Eve of Destruction" to indicate to the titular hero that a nuclear war was about to start. | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_ec52a5b9 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_ec52a5b9 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Transformers (2007) | hasFeature |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_ec52a5b9 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_edf48ff4 | type |
Aliens Steal Cable | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_edf48ff4 | comment |
In Hard Time on Planet Earth Control (inexperienced robotic warden of an exiled alien) continuously records all available TV channels. Whenever Jesse (the exiled alien) has a question about life on Earth, Control plays whatever fragment of an old movie or TV show he finds most relevant. More often than not, he is wrong. In "The All American" episode another Control unit even chides him for his TV obsession. | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_edf48ff4 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_edf48ff4 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Hard Time on Planet Earth | hasFeature |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_edf48ff4 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_ef076a36 | type |
Aliens Steal Cable | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_ef076a36 | comment |
A Star Trek: Voyager episode has the titular ship end up in Earth's orbit during the 90s. Neelix and Kes are tasked with monitoring Earth transmissions for any mention of a crashed timeship or any indication that the Voyager has been detected. Both end up absolutely enamored with soap operas and other shows. | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_ef076a36 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_ef076a36 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Star Trek: Voyager | hasFeature |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_ef076a36 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_ef5dc701 | type |
Aliens Steal Cable | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_ef5dc701 | comment |
In Transpecial, the ky'iin have tried this, but they haven't been able to get close enough to Earth to see images clearly. They've only been able to pick up weak audio broadcasts, and because they don't realize that human languages consist of sound only instead of sound and movement like the ky'iin languages, they haven't tried to decipher them. | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_ef5dc701 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_ef5dc701 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Transpecial | hasFeature |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_ef5dc701 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_f31d7d98 | type |
Aliens Steal Cable | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_f31d7d98 | comment |
Inverted in Drawn Together as well, where the house steals cable from Captain Hero's home planet. | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_f31d7d98 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_f31d7d98 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Drawn Together | hasFeature |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_f31d7d98 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_f631c03d | type |
Aliens Steal Cable | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_f631c03d | comment |
The Fnrrn in Terra have been monitoring Rth broadcasts since they first reached Fnrr. It's not until the events of the book, many decades later, that they realise some of these broadcasts were of events that never happened but that Ymns made up in their heads. | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_f631c03d | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_f631c03d | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Terra Trilogy | hasFeature |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_f631c03d | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_f6c05e8e | type |
Aliens Steal Cable | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_f6c05e8e | comment |
Lrrr and his wife Ndnd are also apparently big fans of Friends... well, sort of, anyway: | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_f6c05e8e | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_f6c05e8e | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Friends | hasFeature |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_f6c05e8e | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_f6da9a18 | type |
Aliens Steal Cable | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_f6da9a18 | comment |
The Keronians from Sgt. Frog seem to be well-acquainted with Earth culture. In an early chapter of the manga, Natsumi is surprised when Keroro takes offense to being compared to Q-Taro the Ghost from Little Ghost Q-Taro (Slimer in the Tokyopop translation): "How dare you compare me to that overeating ectoplasmic idiot?!" Evidently, Pekopon (Earth) is an entertainment Mecca and produces most of the galaxy's highest rated TV shows. | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_f6da9a18 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_f6da9a18 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Sgt. Frog (Manga) | hasFeature |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_f6da9a18 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_f74b5f80 | type |
Aliens Steal Cable | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_f74b5f80 | comment |
The Babylon 5 spinoff Crusade: In the episode Visitors From Down the Street, which abounds in X-Files references, the crew of the Excalibur picks up two agents from an alien world who are looking for proof of a government cover-up. They show pictures of Mount Rushmore and old Earth blimps. They also dress in Earth fashions from 200 years go (ie: from the time period at the time of the show's shoot.) One of them can speak English because of information stolen from the conspirators. The Reveal: Years before, the government had found itself in a time of social unrest similar to The '60s. Upon discovering Earth broadcasts, they used them as part of a conspiracy; manufacture appropriate "evidence", then dispatch The Men in Black to suppress it. The resultant subculture of Conspiracy Theorists absorbed the government's critics and kept them wasting their time chasing "aliens" rather than engaging in civil disobedience. Every crime the government committed afterward was thus blamed on "Outsiders" who secretly manipulated their civilization, permitting them to do as they pleased. The main government agent upholding the conspiracy credits and thanks the Humans for cigarettes as he smoked one in victory. Being rather upset at being cast as the villain by someone's lies, the Excalibur's Captain Gideon personally loads twenty planetary probes with the current Interstellar Encyclopedia (presumably their equivalent of Wikipedia) and orders them dropped close to major population centers, in order to expose the alien government. The background includes a more standard use: the Brakiri have learned English and how humans dress by intercepting Human broadscasts. |
|
Aliens Steal Cable / int_f74b5f80 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_f74b5f80 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Babylon 5 | hasFeature |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_f74b5f80 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_f8df4747 | type |
Aliens Steal Cable | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_f8df4747 | comment |
It eventually becomes apparent that Cybertronians as a whole have become fairly enamored with Earth culture: Jazz, unsurprisingly, takes a great interest in various forms of music, and in The Transformers: More than Meets the Eye, the crew of the Lost Light relaxes after some time travel hijinx by watching a Back to the Future marathon. Even some of the Decepticons start to enjoy some Earth media. | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_f8df4747 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_f8df4747 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
The Transformers: More than Meets the Eye (Comic Book) | hasFeature |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_f8df4747 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_fb1f271c | type |
Aliens Steal Cable | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_fb1f271c | comment |
In the Lilo & Stitch fanfic Alpha and Omega, Earth television and radio is picked up and repackaged by various television stations across the Federation. Unlike most examples, though, the aliens are aware of the changes that have taken place, as reconnaissance is preformed regularly. | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_fb1f271c | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_fb1f271c | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Lilo & Stitch | hasFeature |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_fb1f271c | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_fcba66fd | type |
Aliens Steal Cable | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_fcba66fd | comment |
Spoofed in Star Smashers of the Galaxy Rangers by Harry Harrison. Every alien race the heroes come across has "listened to your radio broadcasts" and learnt fluent English for one reason or another. | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_fcba66fd | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_fcba66fd | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Star Smashers of the Galaxy Rangers | hasFeature |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_fcba66fd | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_ff9ab17f | type |
Aliens Steal Cable | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_ff9ab17f | comment |
Also Star Trek: The Next Generation: In "The Royale", the crew finds a planet with weird simulation of a cliche '30s-style gambling casino. As it turns out, aliens had accidentally made a few humans crash many years ago and tried to construct the only survivor a surrogate home based on the novel he had with him. Bad luck for him - He hated the book. | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_ff9ab17f | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_ff9ab17f | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
Star Trek: The Next Generation | hasFeature |
Aliens Steal Cable / int_ff9ab17f |
The following is a list of statements referring to the current page from other pages.
Copyright of DBTropes.org wrapper 2009-2013 DFKI Knowledge Management. Imprint. - Thanks to Bakken&Baeck for hosting. Contact.
Copyright of data TVTropes.org contributors under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.
Copyright of data TVTropes.org contributors under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.