[kadoban]

> I'd imagine British spies in WWII sometimes wore swastikas to blend in?

British spies in WWII wouldn't do that if the entire concept of what a swastika was baffled them. You have to understand at least basically what the thing you're looking at is in order to use it as a symbol.

If you have _no_ concept of people being made out of meat being possible, you don't dress up as people made out of meat. You do that if it's a common concept to you and you're trying to fit in.

[ceejayoz]

But they mention species with a meat phase.

The concept of meat isn’t foreign. Meat that’s sentient and has no cybernetic parts or phase is.

And they do say they’ve studied and probed for several human lifetimes.

[the_af]

> And they do say they’ve studied and probed for several human lifetimes.

Only one of them has. The other is entirely surprised by the whole concept, and wouldn't even entertain disguising itself as something it has never considered and in fact it's being convinced during the story it even exists.

It's important for the story to work that one of the beings is entirely unconvinced and has to be told, as they discuss the matter, that this is an actual thing!

[ceejayoz]

The one that looks super goofy?

He’s dressed like someone told “hey you have to try to blend in” and didn’t really know how.

[brucehoult]

Picking the right name is also important to blending in. For example: Ford Prefect.

[Stratoscope]

Like the guy in Star Trek IV who took too much LDS.

[the_af]

Tom Noonan in the short film, yes.

> He’s dressed like someone told “hey you have to try to blend in” and didn’t really know how.

Blend with what? It (the alien) didn't believe these "meat" sentient beings existed when the story starts! It had to be told during the conversation. It thought there must have been machines somewhere who were the real sentient beings. How can anyone attempt to blend in with something one doesn't believe exists?

I understand the adaptation changes this, because there's no other way of working with human actors and also staying within budget. I understand the decision; I'm just saying it misses the mark and makes the story way less funny.

The way I envision this story is a couple of aliens, much like the scenes with the Simpsons aliens, hovering in a spaceship near Earth, discussing humans, with only one of them having actually seen a human. It doesn't work if both have seen them.

All in my opinion, of course, taste and sense of humor are completely subjective.