History YMMV / AncientAliens

* SeasonalRot: Not that the show is generally considered high quality to begin with, but the later seasons have essentially just repeated things already done in previous episodes or have to reach further and further to connect aliens with absolutely ''anything.'' One episode was a thin excuse to discuss superheroes because they were based on archetypes that might have been inspired by aliens, and another examined the possibility for human technological progress to culminate with our evolution into cybernetic or digital beings, because perhaps that's what the aliens intended for us.

** When one strips away the various pieces of ''flat-out wrong'' information produced on the show, it can fall into this: a great deal of the "alien" artifacts or human sites built "with alien assistance" are from pre-Columbian civilizations or sub-Saharan Africa, the implication being that these civilizations were [[http://drmsh.com/2014/07/05/the-racism-of-the-ancient-astronaut-theory/ too backward or stupid to create such impressive structures.]] For instance, the show once claimed that Puma Punku, a fifth century Aymara site in the Bolivian Andes, was "the only site created directly by extra-terrestrials". At the same time as Puma Punku was constructed, the Romans were building equally-if-not-more advanced stone structures...but ''of course'' those stupid Amerindians couldn't build anything white people could, they ''must'' have been helped by aliens![[note]]On the other hand, the show erroneously claimed Puma Punku is over ten thousand years older than it actually is, so there's that.[[/note]] It's not hugely far-removed from the 19th century theories that Great Zimbabwe was built by "southern Jews". All of this gets more and more downplayed as the series goes on, however, since their need to reach farther and farther afield has caused them to claim many European people, places, and things were influenced by aliens too.

* HilariousInHindsight:
** Catch a rerun of episodes where they ominously go on about [[MayanDoomsday the Mayan Calendar and December 21st, 2012]] and the people seriously intoning about how Something Will Happen.
** An episode done after 2012 had one person mention how nothing happened, [[ParanoiaFuel and then wonder if something did happen, we just missed it.]]
** The narrator is Robert Clotworthy, a man who just happens to [[VideoGame/StarCraft star in a video game franchise that prominently deals with ancient aliens influencing the evolutions of lesser species]].

** As Quinton Reviews points out, outside of Stonehenge the show rarely ever covers anything built by white people as being made by Aliens, leading to the double whammy of implying that unlike practically every other culture on Earth, white people never were "too primitive", and the second implication that, if one takes the show at face value - white people aren't interesting enough for Aliens to bother interacting with, as apparently Aliens are super into helping every non-European culture on Earth.

** As Quinton Reviews points out, outside of Stonehenge the show rarely ever covers anything built by white people as being made by Aliens, leading to the double whammy of implying that unlike practically every other culture on Earth, white people never were "too primitive", and the 2nd implication that, if one takes the show at face value - white people aren't interesting enough for Aliens to bother interacting with, as apparently Aliens are super into helping every non European culture on Earth.

* UnfortunateImplications: When one strips away the various pieces of ''flat-out wrong'' information produced on the show, it can fall into this: a great deal of the "alien" artifacts or human sites built "with alien assistance" are from pre-Columbian civilizations or sub-Saharan Africa, the implication being that these civilizations were [[http://drmsh.com/2014/07/05/the-racism-of-the-ancient-astronaut-theory/ too backward or stupid to create such impressive structures.]] For instance, the show once claimed that Puma Punku, a fifth century Aymara site in the Bolivian Andes, was "the only site created directly by extra-terrestrials". At the same time as Puma Punku was constructed, the Romans were building equally-if-not-more advanced stone structures...but ''of course'' those stupid Amerindians couldn't build anything white people could, they ''must'' have been helped by aliens![[note]]On the other hand, the show erroneously claimed Puma Punku is over ten thousand years older than it actually is, so there's that.[[/note]] It's not hugely far-removed from the 19th century theories that Great Zimbabwe was built by "southern Jews". All of this gets more and more downplayed as the series goes on, however, since their need to reach farther and farther afield has caused them to claim many European people, places, and things were influenced by aliens too.

--> '''Tsoukalos''': The Large Hadron Collider bears an uncanny resemblance to the Mayan Calendar. [[WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles Coincidence? I think not!]].

* SnarkBait: It even got its own version of the ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000'' treatment from ''Viceland'', called ''Traveling The Stars'', in which rapper Action Bronson snarks at the show with his friends and acquaintances, while completely stoned out of their gourds on weed.

* UnfortunateImplications: When one strips away the various pieces of ''flat-out wrong'' information produced on the show, it can fall into this: a great deal of the "alien" artifacts or human sites built "with alien assistance" are from pre-Columbian civilizations or sub-Saharan Africa, the implication being that these civilizations were [[http://drmsh.com/2014/07/05/the-racism-of-the-ancient-astronaut-theory/ too backward or stupid to create such impressive structures.]] For instance, the show once claimed that Puma Punku, a fifth century Aymara site in the Bolivian Andes, was "the only site created directly by extra-terrestrials". At the same time as Puma Punku was constructed, the Romans were building equally-if-not-more advanced stone structures...but ''of course'' those stupid Amerindians couldn't build anything white people could, they ''must'' have been helped by aliens![[note]]On the other hand, the show erroneously claimed Puma Punku is over ten thousand years older than it actually is, so there's that.[[/note]] It's not hugely far-removed from the 19th century theories that Great Zimbabwe was built by "southern Jews".

* SeasonalRot: Not that the show is generally considered high quality to begin with, but the later seasons have essentially just repeated things already done in previous episodes or have to reach further and further to connect aliens with absolutely ''anything.'' To the point that one episode was a thin excuse to discuss superheroes because they were based on archetypes that might have been inspired by aliens.

* SoBadItsGood: The show is best enjoyed ironically as one makes fun of the ridiculous theories being treated as profound revelations.

** This gets more and more downplayed as the series goes on, since their need to reach farther and farther afield has caused them to claim many European people, places, and things were influenced by aliens. For example: Stonehenge, the so-called "Bosnian Pyramids," the Antikythera Mechanism, ley lines, Albert Einstein, Leonardo, and Werner Von Braun.

* HilariousInHindsight: Catch a rerun of episodes where they ominously go on about [[MayanDoomsday the Mayan Calendar and December 21st, 2012]] and the people seriously intoning about how Something Will Happen.

* SoBadItsGood: What else could a show that makes Sunn Classic Pictures documentaries look sober and reasonable be?

** This gets more an more downplayed as the series goes on, since their need to reach farther and farther afield has caused them to claim many European people, places, and things were influenced by aliens. For example: Stonehenge, the so-called "Bosnian Pyramids," the Antikythera Mechanism, ley lines, Albert Einstein, Leonardo, and Werner Von Braun.

** An episode done after 2012 had one person mention how nothing happened, and then wonder if something did happen, we just missed it.

--> '''Tsoukalos''': The Large Hadron Collider bears an uncanny resemblance to the Mayan Calendar. Coincidence? ''I think not''.

--> '''Tsoukalos''': The Large Hadron Collider bears an uncanny resemblance to the Mayan Calender. Coincidence? ''I think not''.

** Oddly enough, as can be seen in [[https://youtu.be/HnP-WZ4EUtY this]] featurette included with the DVD release of the original ''Film/{{Stargate}}'', he was once capable of maintaining a sane hairstyle. [[WildMassGuessing One wonders]] if he's just [[{{Troll}} milking it]] at this point.

* UnfortunateImplications: When one strips away the various pieces of ''flat-out wrong'' information produced on the show, it can fall into this: a great deal of the "alien" artifacts or human sites built "with alien assistance" are from pre-Columbian civilizations or sub-Saharan Africa, the implication being that these civilizations were [[http://drmsh.com/2014/07/05/the-racism-of-the-ancient-astronaut-theory/ too backward or stupid to create such impressive structures.]] For instance, the show once claimed that Puma Punku, a fifth century Aymara site in the Bolivian Andes, was "the only site created directly by extra-terrestrials". At the same time as Puma Punku was constructed, the Romans were building equally-if-not-more advanced stone structures...but ''of course'' those stupid Amerindians couldn't build anything white people could, they ''must'' have been helped by aliens![[note]]On the other hand, the show erroneously claimed Puma Punku was a couple of thousand years older than it is, so there's that.[[/note]] It's not hugely far-removed from the 19th century theories that Great Zimbabwe was built by "southern Jews".

* EnsembleDarkhorse: Giorgio A. Tsoukalos. The new season even features him accompanying the History Channel's team. It's gotta be the [[EinsteinHair hair]].

** Which is not to say that Europeans get off scott free. People like Wernher von Braun and UsefulNotes/AlbertEinstein are assumed to have come up with their groundbreaking ideas because aliens were implanting them in their heads. Because there's no way that the V2 Rocket or General Relativity were thunk up by us humans.
** On top of that; The whole theory makes the human species a bunch of idiots incapable of figuring out anything. It's very insulting and misanthropic.

* SnarkBait: See {{Narm}}. It even got its own version of the ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000'' treatment from ''Viceland'', called ''Traveling The Stars'', in which rapper Action Bronson snarks at the show with his friends and acquaintances, while completely stoned out of their gourds on weed.

** He was asked on Reddit how he came up with his hairstyle. He claimed he didn't purposely design it that way, it just sort of naturally evolved over time.

* SnarkBait: See {{Narm}}.