Ancient Aliens

About

Ancient Aliens is a series of image macros based on History Channel’s TV series with the same name starring the skeptic and alien expert Giorgio A Tsoukalos, who often tends to explain inexplicable phenomena (and some unexplicable) as the direct result of aliens or extraterrestrials being on Earth. In a somewhat similar fashion to Bill O’Reilly’s You Can’t Explain That series, the Ancient Aliens macros exaggerate Tsoukalos’ beliefs to such an extent that they become humourous.

Origin

The origin of this meme comes from the History Channel series Ancient Aliens^[1], a documentary series that explores the possibility that aliens may have visited in the past, that was directed and produced by Giorgio A. Tsoukalos and first aired on April 20, 2010.

The documentary focuses on the “Ancient Astronaut Theory”^[2] which states that extraterrestrial beings came to earth throughout the ancient times and helped shape history. For example, the Ancient Astronaut Theory insists that the pyramids were built by the help of alien technologies and that the great pyramids align with the constellation Orion; where some of the aliens may exist or came from.

The show has come under some criticism for being “far fetched”, “hugely speculative” and “expound[ing] wildly on theories suggesting that astronauts wandered the Earth freely in ancient time.”

Spread

Giorgio A. Tsoukalos’s unworldly appearance and predictable resort to aliens in explaining various mysteries of human civilization caught many people’s attention in the audience. As early as in November 2010, his “alien” repertoire became a popular subject of lulzy mockeries when it reached 4chan’s /b/ (random) board^[3], spawning a steady stream of images centered around an exploitable screenshot of Giorgio A. Tsoukalos from the TV series.

The image macros generally poke fun at Tsoukalos’ supposed obsession with “Ancient Astronaut Theory,” featuring text that puts forth a question about a well-known mystery like the Egyptian pyramids, the answer to which is always aliens.

The propagation of Ancient Aliens series was further aided by a number of image macro application sites including MemeGenerator^[4], Quickmeme^[5], DIYLOL^[6] and Troll.me^[7] among others. Beginning in mid-2011, the image macro series began to pick up momentum on several popular hubsites such as 4chan^[8], Reddit^[9], and Tumblr^[10].

Since gaining a solid following on 4chan’s /b/, Ancient Alien image macros have also spread to related forums like /x/ (paranormal), /sci/ (science & math) and /tv/ (television) boards where they’re often used with intent to start a tireless debate or threadjack by bringing up the ancient alien theory.