"For God's sake, do you want them to think we are savages?"

November 8, 2024 5:33 AM

Twilight Zone 1986 - A Small Talent for War "When an alien visitor tells delegates at the United Nations that humanity will be exterminated because it has 'a small talent for war,' the countries of the world struggle to forge a disarmament treaty before the visitor's deadline." (SLYT)

Not a US Politics post, but my timing was indeed influenced by this past Tuesday.

This Twilight Zone story, broadcast on CBS network in 1986 just before the arrival of Halley's comet, envisions a world where we are finally all compelled to work together toward a common goal. As Marvin the Martian might say, 'How lovely!'

When humanity takes a major step backward as it did this week, I pull up this video and take comfort in my delightful sense of the absurd.

(PS, to view via FOSS YouTube alternative Invidious, check farside.link, look under the heading 'invidious' to find currently available instances and substitute the url for https://youtube.com in the link for the video.)

posted by zaixfeep (16 comments total)

So by the end (supposedly) of Trump's presidency (this time), I will probably have watched Ted Lasso, in its entirety, 16 times (1 full season per quarter). It's either that or take up alcoholic coma for a hobby.
posted by JustSayNoDawg at 7:10 AM on November 8 [4 favorites]

Reminds me of The Galactic Federation interviews Earth for membership.
posted by praemunire at 7:14 AM on November 8 [2 favorites]

A classic I had forgotten about. John Glover really making a meal of it too.
posted by Dalekdad at 7:17 AM on November 8 [1 favorite]

Yesterday I found myself listening to Arch Oboler's 1945 short radio play "The Day the Sun Exploded." It begins with a series of national representatives, each making a speech about how their nation has finally chosen to eschew all violence and conflict, and to join together with all other nations in global peace and unity. After the speeches, a vote is held, and the representatives unanimously and enthusiastically vote to lay down all weapons forever and unite the whole world in harmony and tranquility. And then...well, see the title.
posted by Faint of Butt at 7:18 AM on November 8 [3 favorites]

They all get taken over by Frank Stallone!
posted by dr_dank at 7:31 AM on November 8

Let me guess. Once we disarm, they subjugate our asses.
posted by kdilla at 9:40 AM on November 8 [1 favorite]

Not quite, kdilla. It's the "To Serve Man" gimmick, where the title is the plot.
posted by straight at 10:05 AM on November 8 [3 favorites]

Plot summary here

Thanks for posting I needed the chuckle
posted by St. Peepsburg at 10:17 AM on November 8 [1 favorite]

All doom aside, the first season of the '80s Twilight Zone is probably my favorite anthology show, including the original.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 10:51 AM on November 8 [2 favorites]

I remember watching this as a 11-year old, and thinking: oh well, not a bad way to go.
posted by borborygmi at 11:10 AM on November 8 [1 favorite]

The Wikipedia picture suggests the Ambassador might have been a member of Kraftwerk.
posted by GenjiandProust at 11:10 AM on November 8 [3 favorites]

JustSayNoDawg, I also was planning a rewatch. To match my mercurial moods of late, I figured I'd plow through the first two seasons of Lasso, then clutchdump my brain into the first season of Andor.
posted by Fiberoptic Zebroid and The Hypnagogic Jerks at 12:42 PM on November 8 [2 favorites]

The day childhood's end stood still.

I do remember watching this on t.v.
posted by clavdivs at 2:26 PM on November 8 [1 favorite]

That was my suspicion from the title. There's an old Andre Norton novel, in which Earth supplies mercenaries across the galaxy; it's considered to be the only thing Terrans are good for. It ends with a possibility of revolt, but it's fairly grim nonetheless. Star Guard.
posted by suelac at 4:07 PM on November 8 [1 favorite]

In the underrated "The 100" the protagonist Clarke was the first of any species to commit murder during humanity's trial for ascension to a higher plane of being.
posted by chmmr at 1:09 AM on November 9

[Wikipedia] "Silly Asses" is a science fiction short story by American writer Isaac Asimov. It was published in the February 1958 issue of Future Science Fiction ... It runs to less than two pages in paperback. ... The people of Earth have developed atomic power. As such, they are recorded by Naron the Rigellian, the long-lived Keeper of the galactic records, as having achieved maturity. But when the keeper learns that they have not yet penetrated space and that they test their atomic weapons on their own planetary surface, he strikes them from the record, commenting that Earth people are 'Silly Asses'.
posted by neuron at 10:37 AM on November 11 [2 favorites]