Skip to content
Search AI Powered

Latest Stories

People Debate Which 'Normal' Human Things Would Seem Bizarre To Aliens

man in green mask inside car
Brooke Denevan on Unsplash

Reddit user 2drums1cymbal asked: 'What are some “normal” things humans do that an intelligent alien species might find weird, gross or confusing?'

Are we alone in the universe? It's highly unlikely given the number of stars and potential planets.

But are we actively encountering extraterrestrial life? That ones a little harder to discern.


And what do/would they think if they are visiting us? Are we a fascinating primitive culture? Or are we more "lock the doors, roll up the windows, we're in the bad part of the galaxy" neighborhood?

Admittedly, we are kind of strange.

Reddit user 2drums1cymbal asked:

"What are some 'normal' things humans do that an intelligent alien species might find weird, gross or confusing?"

Substances

"Intentionally poisoning ourselves to make our tedious lives more bearable."

"Nicotine, Valium, Vicodin, marijuana, Ecstasy, alcohol, etc..."

~ Snark_Life

"And many other mind-altering substances, like caffeine, and things that evolved to be unpleasant or unpalatable, like capsaicin."

~ -King_Slacker

Mini-Humans Are Useless

"Human babies are useless because hip bone sizes limit how much they can develop before birth. That's why a calf or foal can walk in hours, but a human baby takes a year."

"If aliens reproduce differently enough, they might be confused both as to why our offspring are messy little blobs and as to why we're all so comparatively clingy—because if they don't rely on their parents for survival as much their social structure would probably be wildly different."

~ shyishguyish

Likes

"Exchanging saliva because we like someone."

"Slapping our hands together rapidly because we like something."

"Keep animals captive because we like them."

~ _forum_mod

Taste Is Subjective

"We will put each other's genitalia in our mouth, but we won't eat the overripe black part on the banana."

~ Snoo_63187

Close Shave

"Do we really let someone pass the sharpest blade our species could create near our largest artery only to remove our head/neck hair?"

~ tbfoot

Lacto Tolerance

"'You do WHAT with the lactic fluids of animals? Wait, wait, wait, you're saying you don't just drink it, but you also carefully rot it until it congeals into fatty, solid blocks and then you eat THAT too‽‽'."

"I love cheese, don't get me wrong, but it's hard to think about sometimes."

~ Chairboy

Carne Humana

"We're all made of meat!"

~ imn0tafurry

O Tannenbaum

"Decorate the corpse of a conifer every winter solstice."

~ Mumbles_Stiltskin

Bless You v. Excuse Me

"Others call on the intercession of a deity when someone else expels from the nose, but the bodily function wielder begs for forgiveness when expelling gas from the anus or mouth."

~ prodigy1367

Sports

"Bowling. I always thought an alien or very different culture would be shocked by how many people around me are surprisingly good at accurately rolling a heavy ball 30 feet."

~ NigilQuid

"Some games we play, like bowling, golf, do look a little pointless to an outsider."

~ GaiaSagrada909

Face Leakage

"Crying. Shedding tears as a response to emotions might be confusing or seen as a bizarre leakage of body fluids if emotional expressions manifest differently for them."

~ Fit_Journalist_533

Reproduction

"Having hot sweaty smelly messy sex instead of neatly depositing eggs in a proper incubator and neatly fertilizing them."

"If it's good enough for the salmons, it's good enough for our new fishy masters."

~ fogobum

"Take it a step further. What if they don't reproduce sexually at all?"

"That'd be a huge divide to overcome."

~ 250HardKnocksCaps

"Mitosis is indeed a huge divide."

~ PirateNinjasReddit

Efficiency Ick

"That our reproductive system and waste disposal system are interconnected with each other."

~ soccerdevil22

"Hell, the reproductive, food intake, and waste disposal systems of some invertebrates are all interconnected and enter/exit from the same hole."

~ Peptuck

💩🚽

"Pooping in water."

"With water being one of the most fundamental resources to human life and health I feel like an alien species would question why we just expel waste into it and flush it away."

~ CaptainCreepwork

What would you add to the list?

More from News/science

Screenshot of Ryan Walters
@RyanWalters_

Ex-Oklahoma Education Chief Melts Down After State's Supreme Court Strikes Down His Mandate To Teach Bible In Schools

Former Oklahoma State Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters was criticized after he shared his angry reaction to the news that the Oklahoma Supreme Court struck down his mandate that school social studies curriculums include teaching the Bible.

A group of parents, educators and community members sued, claiming Walters violated the law in pushing the standards through—and the court agreed. As a result, the 2025 social studies standards have been halted, and the Oklahoma State Board of Education, now led by State Superintendent Lindel Fields, is required to develop and approve new ones.

Keep ReadingShow less
A bottle of vitamins with pills spilling out
A bottle of vitamin pills next to a plant on a pink and white background

Widely-Accepted 'Life Hacks' That Are Actually Terrible Advice

Everyone is eager to find a "life hack" that makes getting through their day a tad easier.

This could include making your lunch the night before so you're ready to go in the morning, or having your alarm clock out of arms reach, thus forcing you to get out of bed.

Keep ReadingShow less
Screenshots from @gabbykalomiris's TikTok video
@gabbykalomiris/TikTok

Woman Freaks Out After Getting Stuck In Entry Pod At Her 24-Hour Gym—And It's Pure Nightmare Fuel

This may not be the most innovative thought, but sometimes it's true that if it's not broken, you don't need to fix it.

That wasn't how the 24-hour gym company PureGym, which bought Blink Fitness in 2024, looked at it, however. They already had a security system in place for their customers to enter and exit the facilities during the off-hours when their staff members were not in the building, through which the customers would use a fob key system to scan in and out of the building.

Keep ReadingShow less
Screenshot from @beaversteever on X
@beaversteever/Twitter (X)

Tech Worker Stunned After Not Getting Job Despite 11 Interviews—Only For Company To Use Their Code

It's no secret how atrocious the job market is right now, especially for certain industries. However, it might actually be much worse than we thought.

To cut costs, there are undoubtedly companies out there who require their applicants to complete free tasks before stealing their work and rejecting their application, effectively stealing their time and intellectual property.

Keep ReadingShow less
The Oscars Are Moving To YouTube Starting In 2029—And Everyone Is Making The Same Joke
Kevin Winter/Getty Images; Mateusz Slodkowski/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

The Oscars Are Moving To YouTube Starting In 2029—And Everyone Is Making The Same Joke

In 2029, viewers will be able to watch influencer vlogs, conspiracy explainers, AI slop, and the Oscars ceremony all in the same place. After more than half a century on broadcast television, the Academy Awards are officially moving to YouTube, where the ceremony will stream exclusively beginning with the 101st Oscars.

It’s a seismic shift for Hollywood’s biggest night. The Oscars were first broadcast on NBC in 1953, bounced between NBC and ABC throughout the 1960s and ’70s, and eventually settled into a long, uninterrupted run on ABC starting in 1976. That partnership will officially end with the 100th Oscars ceremony in 2028, closing out more than 50 years on network television.

Keep ReadingShow less