History Literature / TheTrueMeaningOfSmekday

* AdultsAreUseless: Beginning with Tip's pretty mom (when asked whether she's as clever as Tip, Tip answers that she's very pretty) and ending with the paranoid Roswell lady ([[spoiler: who betrays the protagonists to the Gorg]]), adult women in the book are rather detached from reality. The men are either just as clueless, or don't care, except Chief, who [[{{Troll}} pretends to be a crazy old man just for fun]]. Dan Landry plans on outsmarting the Gorg, or so he says, but they play him like a fiddle.

* PlanetOfSteves: Gorg isn't the species name - all the individuals are named Gorg. [[spoiler: They're clones, so...]]

* AdultsAreUseless: Beginning with Tip's pretty mom (when asked whether she's as clever as Tip, Tip answers that she's very pretty) and ending with the paranoid Roswell lady ([[spoiler: who betrays the protagonists to the Gorg]]), adult women in the book are rather detached from reality. The men are either just as clueless, or don't care, except Chief, who [[{{Troll}} pretends to be a crazy old man just for fun]].

* BizarreAlienBiology: The Boov, in addition to their BizarreAlienSexes, eat a lot of things humans wouldn't, but gag at tomatoes. The koobish can be partially eaten, and none for the worse.

* BraidsBeadsAndBuckskins: Chief, a real Native American (Dine) does not dress like that and Tip [[LampshadeHanging lampshades this fact]].

* CelebritySurvivor: The culture of celebrity worship continues even after every human being in America has been moved to Arizona. Actors now live in "New Hollywood" (Scottsdale), where they "fill their days with activities such as smiling and waving at cats as they anticipate the eventual restart of the film industry." Musical artists live in Sedona and perform benefit concerts to [[CaptainObvious raise awareness of the alien invasion]].
* CerebusSyndrome: The book catches a really quick wind of it at the end. See DeadlyDistantFinale and DownerEnding below.

* DeadlyDistantFinale[=/=]SuddenDownerEnding: The last page of the book is [[spoiler: Gratuity's obituary straight from the newspaper. It describes how she died (at the age of 113) at the opening of the time capsule she sent her essay to.]]

* FlyingSaucer: Chief has [[SubvertedTrope a ridiculously fake one]] to show to the tourists in his basement. With smoke effects and ''Thus Says Zarathustra''. [[spoiler: [[DoubleSubversion Actually, though]] a real Boov probe did crash into his water tower. It's hidden under tinfoil and paper-mache inside the fake saucer.]]

* OppressedMinorityVeteran: The Chief is a Native American, a veteran (he was in the army in the fifties) and finds the whole "Boov forcing white people into reserves" darkly funny. He also wasn't believed about the spaceship crashing on his property.

* HumanDisguise: In Roswell, to interact with the locals (most of whom are [=UFO=] nuts) without too much trouble, Tip puts a [[CheapCostume bedsheet with cut out holes]] on J.Lo and tells everyone he's her MentallyDisturbed little brother who got so scared by the aliens he wouldn't stop wearing his Halloween ghost costume. And started speaking like a Boov. It mostly works.

* AdultsAreUseless: Beginning with Tip's pretty mom (when asked whether she's as clever as Tip, Tip answers that she's very pretty) and ending with the paranoid Roswell lady, adult women in the book are rather detached from reality. The men are either just as clueless, or don't care, except Chief, who [[{{Troll}} pretends to be a crazy old man just for fun]].

* BigRedButton: One of the koobish who were transported to the moon via capsule leans on this, and [[spoiler:causes the capsule to explode.]]
* BizarreAlienSexes: The Boov aliens have 7 sexes that translate in English to: girl, boy, boygirl, girlboy, boyboy, boyboygirl, and boyboyboyboy.
* BorrowedCatchphrase: While the Gorg are attacking, J.Lo calls them poomps, which he follows with Gratuity's catchphrase, "Pardon my language".

* FlyingSaucer: [[SubvertedTrope A fake one.]] [[spoiler: [[DoubleSubversion With a real one hidden inside]].]]

* LivingShip: The Gorg ships are shielded with cloned Gorg skin.
* MagicalNativeAmerican: The Chief is a subversion of sorts of this. He simply likes messing with people's heads.
* MarsNeedsWomen: Very much subverted, along with the MaleToFemaleUniversalAdaptor (the Boov have seven genders, one of which lays an egg which then requires input from all six of the other genders): regarding a ConspiracyTheorist who believe that the Boov plan to impregnate human women, J.Lo notes that this is about as possible for his species as impregnating a car.

* RoswellThatEndsWell: It was [[spoiler: a Boov space probe that crashed on Earth]].

* AliensStealCable: Most Boov knowledge of Earth's pop culture comes from their television programs.

* MagicalNativeAmerican: The Chief is a subversion of sorts of this.

* SeriousBusiness: Downplayed as Boov comic books. To them, these are serious history books.

* SuperNotDrowningSkills: The Boov were originally an aquatic race and -while they've been living on land of their planet for a couple of generations now - they can still dive quite well.

* AlienAbduction: Gratuity's mom and others are abducted a few months before the actual alien invasion [[spoiler: to teach the Boov English.]]

* ArtShift: Things like the history of the Boov and the Nimrogs are told in the style of a graphic novel.

* CharacterBlog: a [[http://www.smekday.com site]] for the time capsule Gratuity sends her essay to.

* CloneDegeneration: [[spoiler: The Gorg again, leading to the EasilyThwartedAlienInvasion.]]
* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: Gratuity's mom. Of course, TheCuckoolanderWasRight.

* {{Disneyfication}}: The animated adaptation, WesternAnimation/Home2015, drops most of the more edgy themes of the book.
%%* DittoAliens

** J.Lo's story of how the Boov were forced out of the sea is equivalent to global warming.
** Putting the humans on reservations. This is directly paralleled with the history of Native Americans as embodied in the Chief.
* EasilyThwartedAlienInvasion: The Gorg are [[spoiler:[[WeaksauceWeakness extremely allergic to cats]]. They try to remedy this by killing any and all cats on the planet.]]
* EmbarrassingFirstName: Gratuity, so named because her mom did not know what Gratuity meant when she was born, as well as J.Lo, who learned his pop culture [[AliensStealCable from TV]].

%%* HumanoidAliens: the Boov, as well as the Gorg.
%%* InnocentAliens: J.Lo.
%%* JustBeforeTheEnd

* NonHumanSidekick: both J.Lo the Boov and Gratuity's cat Pig.

* PlanetOfSteves: Gorg isn't the species- it's all of their names (they're clones).

%%* RoswellThatEndsWell

* RunningGag: This book has a ''lot'' of [[spoiler:death by asphyxiation from Boov and koobish.]]

* BizarreAlienSexes: the Boov aliens have 7 sexes that translate in English to: girl, boy, boygirl, girlboy, boyboy, boyboygirl, and boyboyboyboy.

* {{Disneyfication}}: The animated adaptation, WesternAnimation/{{Home}}, drops most of the more edgy themes of the book.

* EasilyThwartedAlienInvasion: the Gorg are [[spoiler:[[WeaksauceWeakness extremely allergic to cats]]. They try to remedy this by killing any and all cats on the planet. ]]

* PlatonicLifePartners: Quite literally; [[spoiler:J.Lo is adopted into Tip's family, and the obituary describing her death at age 113 mentions that she was survived by her husband, children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren "and one Boov."]]

* OverlyLongGag: Four full pages of nothing but [[spoiler: the word "meow."]]

In any case, Gratuity's story is much, much bigger than the assignment. It involves her unlikely friendship with a renegade Boov mechanic named J.Lo.; a futile journey south to find Gratuity's mother at the [[SouvenirLand Happy Mouse Kingdom]]; a cross-country road trip in a hovercar called Slushious; and an outrageous plan to save the Earth from yet another alien invasion. Fully illustrated with "photos," drawings, newspaper clippings, and comics sequences, this books breathes new life into the "KidHero" genre.

The book was loosely adapted into a movie by [[Creator/DreamWorksAnimation DreamWorks]], titled ''WesternAnimation/{{Home}}'', and was released in March 2015, starring Music/{{Rihanna}}, Creator/JimParsons, and the actual [[Music/JenniferLopez J-Lo]].