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- What's Alien You?
- by Dave Barry
-
-
- I don't want to alarm anybody, but there is an excellent chance that the Earth
- will be destroyed in the next several days. Congress is thinking about
- eliminating a federal program under which scientists broadcast signals to alien
- beings. This would be a large mistake. Alien beings have atomic blaster death
- cannons. You cannot cut off their federal programs as if they were merely poor
- people.
-
- I realize that some of you may not believe that alien beings exist. But how
- else can you explain the many unexplained phenomena that people are always
- sighting, such as lightning and flying saucers? Oh, I know the authorities
- claim these sightings are actually caused by "weather balloons," but that is a
- bucket of manure if I ever heard one. (That's just a figure of speech, of
- course. I realize manure is silent.)
-
- Answer this question honestly: Have you, or has any member of your immediate
- family, ever seen a weather balloon? Of course not. Nobody has. Yet if these
- so-called authorities were telling the truth, the skies over America would be
- dark with weather balloons. Commercial aviation would be impossible.
- Nevertheless, the authorities trot out this tired old explanation, or an even
- stupider one, every time a flying saucer is sighted.
-
- NEW YORK -- Authorities say that the gigantic, luminous object
- flying at tremendous speeds in the skies of Manhattan last night,
- which was reported by more than seven million people, including the
- mayor, a Supreme Court justice, several bishops, and thousands of
- airline pilots, brain surgeons, and certified public accountants,
- was simply an unusual air-mass inversion. "That's all it was, an
- air-mass inversion," said the authorities, in unison. Asked why the
- people also reported seeing the words "WE ARE ALIEN BEINGS WHO COME
- IN PEACE WITH CURES FOR ALL YOU MAJOR DISEASES AND A CARBURETOR THAT
- GETS 450 MILES PER GALLON HIGHWAY ESTIMATE" written on the side of
- the object in letters over three hundred feet tall, the authorities
- replied, "Well, it could also have been a weather balloon."
-
- Wake up, America! There are no weather balloons! Those are alien beings! They
- are all around us! I'm sure most of you have seen the movie E.T., the story of
- an alien who almost dies when he falls into the clutches of the American
- medical-care establishment, but is saved by pre-adolescent boys. Everybody
- believes that the alien is a fake, a triumph of special effects. But watch the
- movie closely next time. The alien is real! The BOYS are fakes! REAL
- pre-adolescent boys would have beaten the alien to death with rocks.
-
- Yes, aliens do exist. And high government officials know they exist but have
- been keeping this knowledge top secret. Here is the Untold Story:
-
- Years ago, when the alien-broadcast program began, government scientists
- decided to broadcast a message that would be simple, yet convey a sense of
- love, universal peace, and brotherhood: "Have a Nice Day." They broadcast this
- message over and over, day after day, year after year, until one day they got
- an answer:
-
- DEAR EARTH PERSONS:
-
- OK. WE ARE HAVING A NICE DAY. WE ALSO HAVE A NUMBER OF EXTREMELY
- SOPHISTICATED WEAPONS, AND UNLESS YOU START BROADCASTING SOMETHING
- MORE INTERESTING, WE WILL REDUCE YOUR PLANET TO A VERY WARM OBJECT
- THE SIZE OF A CHILD'S BOWLING BALL.
-
- REGARDS,
- THE ALIENS
-
- So the scientists, desperate for something that would interest the aliens,
- broadcast an episode of "I Love Lucy", and the aliens LOVED it. They demanded
- more, and soon they were getting all three major networks, and the Earth was
- saved. There is only one problem: THE ALIENS HAVE TERRIBLE TASTE. They love
- game shows, soap operas, Howard Cosell and "Dallas." Whenever a network tries
- to take one of these shows off the air, the aliens threaten to vaporize the
- planet.
-
- This is why you and all your friends think television is so awful. It isn't
- designed to please you: it's designed to please creatures from another galaxy.
- You know the Wisk commercial, the one with the ring around the collar, the one
- so spectacularly stupid that it makes you wonder why anybody would dream of
- buying the product? Well, the aliens LOVE that commercial. We all owe a great
- debt of gratitude to the people who make Wisk. They have not sold a single
- bottle of Wisk in 14 years, but they have saved the Earth.
-
- Very few people know any of this. Needless to say, Congress has no idea what
- is going on. Most legislators are incapable of eating breakfast without the
- help of several aides, so we can hardly expect them to understand a serious
- threat from outer space. But if they go ahead with their plan to cancel the
- alien-broadcast program, and the aliens miss the next episode of "General
- Hospital," what do you think will happen? Think about it. And have a nice day.
-