History Main / AliensStealCable

One bit of science that these writers surprisingly get right consistently is that radio signals propagate at light speed. Given that on TV distances are conveniently measured in light years, it's an easy conversion formula: aliens 50 light-years from Earth are just now getting TV signals sent in the 1970's, thus the visitor that shows up, having skipped the intervening distance via FasterThanLightTravel, will talk and dress like a DiscoDan in an attempt to fit in. HilarityEnsues, or it provides a vital clue to the protagonist that something isn't quite right about this guy.

* In ''Series/HardTimeOnPlanetEarth'' Control (inexperienced robotic warden of an exiled alien) continuously records all available TV channels. Whenever Jesse (the exiled alien) has a question about life on Earth, Control plays whatever fragment of an old movie or TV show he finds most relevant. [[RunningGag More often than not]] [[HilarityEnsues he is wrong]]. In "The All American" episode another Control unit even chides him for his TV obsession.

** In another episode ("[[Recap/StarTrekS2E17APieceOfTheAction A Piece of the Action]]"), it was discovered that the people of Iotia had based their entire culture on a book left behind by an earlier survey ship: "Chicago Mobs of the 20s." HilarityEnsues when Kirk, Spock, Bones and even Scotty have to deal with cliche gangsters, curious local customs and slang, and the enigma of manual transmission.

* [[http://www.rockyhorrorshow.net The website]] for Seth Kuberaky's production of ''Theatre/TheRockyHorrorShow'' says that the Transylvanians picked up movie signals from Earth which reminded Dr Frank N. Further of their planet millennia in the past, inspiring him to come here and research a cure for their fertility problems.

* In the short story "On a Clear Day You Can See All the Way to Conspiracy" by Desmond Warzel, the aliens not only listen to local AM radio, they call in.

* In the short story [[http://sfreader.com/contest-2008-1.asp "On a Clear Day You Can See All the Way to Conspiracy"]] by Desmond Warzel, the aliens not only listen to local AM radio, they call in.

* ''Adrift Among The Ghosts'' by Creator/JackLChalker, in which an alien race sentenced one of their criminals to criss-cross space at just the right distance from Earth to intercept and record historic radio and TV broadcasts. Why was this considered a punishment? Because it forced him to relive our nuclear holocaust over and over and over and over...

** It eventually becomes apparent that Cybertronians as a whole have become fairly enamored with Earth culture: Jazz, unsurprisingly, takes a great interest in various forms of music, and in ''ComicBook/TheTransformersMoreThanMeetsTheEye'', the crew of the Lost Light relaxes after some time travel hijinx by watching a ''Film/BackToTheFuture'' marathon. Even some of the Decepticons start to enjoy some Earth media.

* In Creator/MarkWaid's ''Comicbook/{{Daredevil}}'', an alien claims that Matt Murdock's speech about extraterrestrials having human rights is not only well known to his people, they made a [[VoiceClipSong dance mix]] of it. [[spoiler:It turns out the alien is an innate liar who instinctively knows the right thing to say, though.]]

* The Kymellian Aelfyre Whitemane, who gave ''Comicbook/PowerPack'' their powers, fell in love with the human culture. He presumably gained access to books and films by somehow remotely connecting to the internet.

* In ''Film/{{Avatar}}'' TrollFic ''FanFic/AvatarsIIWhenQwaritchTakesRevenge'', the Navis watch ''Film/{{Watchmen}}'' at the end of Book II. They apparently have a special meteorite that humans used to make televisions, and used it to invent the television.

* After the {{Masquerade}} gets smashed to bits in ''[[FanFic/GrandTourSeries Journey]]'', the TSAB enters into more open contact with Earth and develops a liking for Terran culture and entertainment. There is a passing mention of a ''Series/TopGearUK'' special on Mid-Childa. Complete with the Stig's Magical Girl cousin.
* ''FanFic/StarlightSeries'':
** In the ''WesternAnimation/LiloAndStitch'' fanfic ''[[FanFic/StarlightSeries Alpha and Omega]]'', Earth television and radio is picked up and repackaged by various television stations across the Federation. Unlike most examples, though, the aliens are aware of the changes that have taken place, as reconnaissance is preformed regularly.
** Inverted in ''[[FanFic/StarlightSeries Aliens!]]'', where Merwin locks on to a [[TheFederation Galactic Federation]] broadcast as part of his mission to research and capture alien life.

* Played completely straight in ''Literature/AgentToTheStars''. The [[StarfishAliens Yherjak]] have been picking up transmissions from Earth for decades and have even initially assumed all our movies and TV shows were really happening. It even took them a while to understand the concept of a rerun (they initially thought there was a ritualistic significance to the repeated "episodes"). They send a slower-than-light ship (made out of a hollowed-out asteroid) towards Earth to meet us. After arriving decades later, the crew catches up on the latest transmissions and scraps their TakeMeToYourLeader plan after realizing that they would appear as {{Blob Monaster}}s to an average human, not the peaceful and friendly aliens they really are. Naturally, they have also [[LearntEnglishFromWatchingTelevision learned English]] from it, although they admit there are some gaps (e.g. they thought "groovy" was still in wide use).

* In a article on ''Website/TheBestPageintheUniverse'' Maddox claims that [[http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=aliens Wireless internet may very well destroy our chances of contacting intelligent life]]" due to aliens detecting poorly spelt e-mails and concluding that humanity must be too moronic to be worth visiting.

** Much like ''Sgt. Frog'', the series says that Earth has the best entertainment media in the galaxy, so much so that there are limits on exports and smugglers are a major problem. Nyarko's original assignment to Earth had her basically acting as an intergalactic customs agent by enforcing the export limits, breaking up a smuggling ring, and protecting OrdinaryHighSchoolStudent Mahiro Yasaka from the ring ([[HypocriticalHumor as well as smuggling some anime goods back for herself]]). As a consequence of this trope, pretty much every alien in the series is a massive {{Otaku}} for one form of media or another; Nyarko loves {{Anime}} and {{Tokusatsu}}, Cuuko is a GamerGirl, etc., and they all [[ReferenceOverdosed drop references practically every other sentence]].

* ''Film/{{Transformers|2007}}'':

* After [[DefectorFromDecadence leaving the Decepticons]] in ''ComicBook/TransformersIDW'', Thundercracker becomes hooked on a human soap opera called Nurse Whitney. He even tries writing his own screenplays.

-->'''First:''' "You know that music was popular, like, four hundred years ago, right?"
-->'''Ulsor:''' "Light speed delay. We only just got MTV a few cycles ago."
-->'''First:''' "… That explains so much."

* Similar to the ''Film/{{Transformers}}'' example above, the aliens in ''Series/TheGreatestAmericanHero'' spoke to the main characters through piecing together radio signals in their car. Also, in the episode "Operation Spoilsport," the aliens repeatedly played the song "Eve of Destruction" to indicate to the titular hero that a nuclear war was about to start.

--->'''Lrrr:''' This is ancient Earth's most foolish program. Why does Ross, the largest friend, not simply eat the other five?
--->'''Ndnd:''' Perhaps they are saving that for UsefulNotes/{{Sweeps}}.
--->'''Guard:''' Exalted leaders, the Earth messengers have arrived, bearing a peace offering from their weak and fearful government!
--->'''Lrr:''' (turning off T.V.) Oh, very well, this is a Joey-heavy episode anyway.

* ''Film/{{Transformers}}'':

* In Creator/MarkWaid's ''Comicbook/{{Daredevil}}'', an alien claims that Matt Murdock's speech about extraterrestrials having human rights is not only well known to his people, they made a [[StupidStatementDanceMix dance mix]] of it. [[spoiler:It turns out the alien is an innate liar who instinctively knows the right thing to say, though.]]

* Subverted in ''LightNovel/CatPlanetCuties''. The Catians are very interested in human media, but they want to ''buy'' it. Interstellar copyright laws are SeriousBusiness, as it turns out.
* ''LightNovel/NyarukoCrawlingWithLove'':
** Much like ''Sgt. Frog'', the series says that Earth has the best entertainment media in the galaxy, so much so that there are limits on exports and smugglers are a major problem. Nyarko's original assignment to Earth had her basically acting as an intergalactic customs agent by enforcing the export limits, breaking up a smuggling ring, and protecting OrdinaryHighSchoolStudent Mahiro Yasaka from the ring ([[HypocriticalHumor as well as smuggling some anime goods back for herself]]). As a consequence of this trope, pretty much every alien in the series is a massive {{Otaku}} for one form of media or another; Nyarko loves {{Anime}} and {{Tokusatsu}}, Cuuko is a GamerGirl, etc., and they all [[ReferenceOverdosed drop references practically every other sentence]].
** It also provides an example of this trope taken a step further, with Aliens ''Saving'' Cable. In one episode Mahiro sees Cuuko reading a volume of "Shonen Blood", a real-world manga anthology that folded after six issues, and Nyarko tells Mahiro that sometimes alien companies will buy the rights to entertainment that [[GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff bombed on Earth but was popular in space]] in order to keep it running.

* ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'''

There are some [[Analysis/AliensStealCable major technical problems]] with this concept, but most writers will ignore them. First of all, non-directional broadcast signals (like TV and radio signals) [[https://web.archive.org/web/20160814022124/http://setifaq.org/faq.html#1.2.3 cannot be received beyond a fraction of a light year even by much more powerful telescopes than the ones available]], so it shouldn't be that surprising that '''we''' have not been receiving any of '''their''' transmissions, even if they have radio technology (or maybe they all read books on their planet). Directed radio signals (like radar signals) can be possibly received thousands of light years away but can be detected in a far smaller area and may not even be recognized as sign of extra-terrestrial life.[[note]]The infamous "Wow! signal" is an example of this; although it demonstrates all the characteristics of an interstellar signal, no one is sure whether it was natural or artificial.[[/note]] Another scientific theory is that they've developed a different form of communication that doesn't depend on radio broadcasts, and all of their surviving transmissions from when they did have already passed us by.[[note]]Ignoring the fact that space is both vast and ''far nosier'' than we could ever be. Accounting for radio bursts from sources such as rapidly rotating black holes, pulsars, neutron stars, quasars, and magnetars, etc, etc and that's not even including collisions or other cataclysmic events like super/hypernovas, there's simply too much background noise and radiation for exosolar civilizations to make themselves heard.[[/note]]

* In Creator/MarkWaid's ''Comicbook/{{Daredevil}}'', an alien claims that Matt Murdock's speech about extraterrestrials having human rights is not only well known to his people, they made a [[StupidStatementDanceMix dance mix]] of it. [[spoiler: It turns out the alien is an innate liar who instinctively knows the right thing to say, though.]]

* This trope is a part of the origin of ''ComicBook/TheSavageDragon''. He was [[spoiler: a warlord who wanted to subjugate Earth despite the fact that his race is pretty peaceful. They decide to rip out chunks of his brain in order to give him amnesia (he has a healing factor). Since they were monitoring Earth for years, they used their satellite feeds to give Dragon new memories and dumped him in UsefulNotes/{{Chicago}}.]]

*** This becomes a plot point in a season 3 episode where the Quintessons insert subliminal messages into their signals to turn them feral. And then the signals spread all over the cosmos...

* The Antheans in ''Literature/TheManWhoFellToEarth'' observe Earth this way; in the movie adaptation, protagonist Thomas Jerome Newton, once he's established himself there in the guise of a human businessman, appears in a television ad for his MegaCorp that reaches his family as a greeting of sorts. At the end, [[spoiler: when he is unable to return home, he records an album of music that includes a goodbye to them and his people, hoping they will hear it via radio waves...if they aren't already dead]].

** The season 7 episode "T the Terrestrial" shows that the Omnicronians have started receiving current (31st century) television from Earth as well, as Lrrr's viewing of "The Finder-Outer" gets cut off by Nixon's head's embargo on Omnicron Persei XIII.

* Not aliens, but demons: ''WesternAnimation/NeighborsFromHell'' shows that Balthazar was chosen specifically by {{Satan}} to go live on Earth as a human [[spoiler: to get to the drill that threatens [[{{Hell}} their home]]]] because he watches a lot of TV and therefore is already (theoretically) familiar with life on Earth.

** By season four, when M'gann actually visits M'arzz on screen, we see that a lot of Martians shapeshift into their favorite Earth celebrities for fun, and there's also a backlash from some who believe that the obsession with Earth culture is a threat to the Martians' traditional caste system and hierarchy-- M'gann's father specifically points out that J'onn learned acceptance from his time on Earth

* PlayedWith in ''VideoGame/{{Splatoon}}''. According to WordOfGod, the Splatfest events are based on transmissions that left Earth 12,000 years ago and now are returning after being reflected by various stellar objects. Thus leading to the characters fighting over things that they should have no knowledge of, such as the original ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' games.

* In ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice2010'', Miss Martian based her form and personality on a short lived ''Series/SavedByTheBell'' style sitcom called ''Hello Megan!''. The show also averts some of the technical issues by establishing that her "uncle", the Martian Manhunter, had sent recordings of Earth television shows and other media back to his homeworld to familiarize his fellow Martians with Earth culture.

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]

* In the novel ''Literature/{{Lacuna}}'' some Toralii understand English before encountering the Humans (and, given the book's content, probably Mandarin as well). How they learned the language is a bit of a mystery but it's probably this.
* ''[[Literature/TheTripods When the Tripods Came]]'' by Creator/JohnChristopher had aliens stealing television--and then using it to take over the world.

* In the short story [[http://sfreader.com/contest-2008-1.asp "On a Clear Day You Can See All the Way to Conspiracy"]] by Desmond Warzel, the aliens not only listen to local AM radio, they call in.

* ''Adrift Among The Ghosts'' by Jack L. Chalker, in which an alien race sentenced one of their criminals to criss-cross space at just the right distance from Earth to intercept and record historic radio and TV broadcasts. Why was this considered a punishment? Because it forced him to relive our nuclear holocaust over and over and over and over...

* ''Franchise/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'' gives us Ford Prefect, who calls himself that due to having originally learned about Earth culture by watching TV and coming to the conclusion that [[MistookTheDominantLifeform cars were the dominant species]].
** In ''Literature/MostlyHarmless'', the Grebulons, a group of aliens who have lost their memories, fill their cultural vacuum by watching TV from their base on the 10th planet of our solar system.
** Wowbagger The Infinitely Prolonged likes to watch channels from solar systems he's passing through and says that ''Film/BladeRunner'' is one of his favourite movies.
* Parodied in "The Holy Stomper vs. the Alien Barrel of Death". The aliens who pick up human soap operas and professional wrestling are a lost cult on a generation ship, and they base their entire new culture on the shows--but have no idea what they mean. Factor in their [[StarfishAliens inhuman appearance]], and their own broadcasts become utterly bizarre.
* Spoofed in ''Literature/StarSmashersOfTheGalaxyRangers'' by Creator/HarryHarrison. Every alien race the heroes come across has "listened to your radio broadcasts" and [[AliensSpeakingEnglish learnt fluent English]] for one reason or another.
* The Antheans in ''Literature/TheManWhoFellToEarth'' observe Earth this way; in the movie adaptation, protagonist Thomas Jerome Newton, once he's established himself there in the guise of a human businessman, appears in a television ad for his MegaCorp that reaches his family as a greeting of sorts. At the end, [[spoiler: when he is unable to return home, he records an album of music that includes a goodbye to them and his people, hoping they will hear it via radio waves...if they aren't already dead]].
* The Rambosians from Creator/JasperFforde's ''Literature/NurseryCrime'' series originally came to Earth to find out why ''Series/FawltyTowers'' never got a third season.
* The alien invaders of ''Literature/TheKillingStar'' ultimately decide that humankind is a threat because they [[spoiler:intercepted old episodes of ''Franchise/StarTrek'' sent out centuries ago and concluded that all of the RubberForeheadAliens were an indication that humans were so xenophobic that they would never accept relations with an alien species that was not humanoid.]]

* Invoked now and then by Creator/FredricBrown. In ''Man of Distinction'' alien slavers learn English from radio broadcasts they catch while hanging in the air above Philadelphia. All they know about Earth comes from radio ads, westerns and quizzes. Thus a perpetual drunk living on ethanol and unfit to any intellectual or physical labor does not surprise them too much and they assume the rest of Earthlings are like him.
* The Fnrrn in ''[[Literature/TerraTrilogy Terra]]'' have been monitoring Rth broadcasts since they first reached Fnrr. It's not until the events of the book, many decades later, that they realise some of these broadcasts were of events that never happened but that Ymns made up in their heads.
* Justified in mankind's first contact in ''Literature/PerryRhodan'': the crew of the Arkonide cruiser not only has sufficiently advanced {{translator microbes}}, they've also been stranded for months no further away from Earth than the Moon, where it's of course that much easier to pick up our signals.
* In Creator/MikhailAkhmanov's ''[[Literature/ArrivalsFromTheDark Invasion]]'', the [[HumanAliens Faata]] start studying Earth after arriving to the Solar System by intercepting radio, TV, and [[TheAlternet Ultranet]] signals. It's not stated how they found the Solar System in the first place. They were looking for a habitable world with, hopefully, a compatible HumanAlien race to subjugate and enslave to use as an outpost against the other starfaring races in the region. It's possible they arrived to a nearby star and detected intelligent transmissions from Sol or were specifically looking for a yellow dwarf star. At first, they have no idea what to make of the jumble of broadcasts. After capturing several human pilots, they use one of them to help with understanding some of the concept. He notes that the aliens have trouble differentiating between reality and fiction, as their society is highly pragmatic (i.e. no concept of entertainment). For example, an image of a pirate frigate duking it out with a galleon alternates with a footage of a hydrofoil. Obviously, the aliens initially think the two somehow coexist on modern Earth. Later, though, their contact specialists manage to distill the main parts of human culture to be used in helping to conquer Earth. The concept of religion baffles them, though.
* Played completely straight in ''Literature/AgentToTheStars''. The [[StarfishAliens Yherjak]] have been picking up transmissions from Earth for decades and have even initially assumed all our movies and TV shows were really happening. It even took them a while to understand the concept of a rerun (they initially thought there was a ritualistic significance to the repeated "episodes"). They send a slower-than-light ship (made out of a hollowed-out asteroid) towards Earth to meet us. After arriving decades later, the crew catches up on the latest transmissions and scraps their TakeMeToYourLeader plan after realizing that they would appear as {{Blob Monaster}}s to an average human, not the peaceful and friendly aliens they really are. Naturally, they have also [[LearntEnglishFromWatchingTelevision learned English]] from it, although they admit there are some gaps (e.g. they thought "groovy" was still in wide use).
* In the sixth book of the ''Literature/YoungWizards'' series, Kit resorts to wizardry when trying to set up a belligerent entertainment system. This has some odd consequences when, in a fit of rebellion, the components invert this trope and begin stealing cable from ''other'' planets. By the end of that book, his family's been subjected to an alien soap opera involving several additional genders and his sister's ordered a curling iron/disintegrater ray from an intergalactic shopping network. This continues for the rest of the series so far.

* In ''Literature/EndersGame'' when Ender asks why the buggers attacked Earth, Graff hazards a guess that they may have caught a transmission of our movies and thought we were too violent but the theory turns out not to be true.
* The aliens of Patrick S. Tomlinson's ''StarshipRepo'' let old Earth broadcasts be a major influence on their culture.
--->'''First:''' "You know that music was popular, like, four hundred years ago, right?"
--->'''Ulsor:''' "Light speed delay. We only just got MTV a few cycles ago."
--->'''First:''' "… That explains so much."
* ''Literature/LizardMusic'': The titular lizards have learned English from watching human TV broadcasts.

[[folder:Web Comics]]
* ''Webcomic/SchlockMercenary'' is probably the lone example to go for plausibility. Aliens with FTL travel probe the radio spheres created by inhabited planets. They're not even trying to decode the signal, just confirm the presence of one to study its most distinctive feature: Every radio sphere in this section of space is in fact a radio ''shell'', hollow after the first couple decades because the locals were killed by {{Eldritch Abomination}}s once they were noticed.

* The webcomic ''Webcomic/{{Zortic}}'' kicks off with two aliens who find out they're perfect for each other because [[SoBadItsGood share a love of old Earth television broadcasts]].

* Aliens in ''Webcomic/LukeSurlComics'' steal internet. And plan the FirstContact [[http://www.lukesurl.com/archives/1694 accordingly]].
* The Aliens (they are actually called that; they are from the planet Alien) from the Webcomic/{{Walkyverse}} are dopey pop-culture junkies who are obsessed with human television and movies.
* ''Webcomic/KilaIlo'': Richard, Kila, and later, Dr Kao learn about humans via the internet.

* In a article on ''Website/TheBestPageintheUniverse'' Maddox claims that [[http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=aliens Wireless internet may very well destroy our chances of contacting intelligent life]]" due to aliens detecting poorly spelt e-mails and concluding that humanity must be too moronic to be worth visiting.

* The Soviet cartoon "An Old Record" is about aliens borrowing a few records to listen (and, through some strange technology, view, too).

* ''WesternAnimation/TheTransformersTheMovie'':
** The Junkions apparently learned English from watching Earth TV broadcasts. Which explains lines like "Steady as she goes, Bob! Snoopy visitors get mud in the eye, by and by! FilmAtEleven!", and the battle cry "Destroy Unicron! Kill the Grand Poobah! Eliminate even the toughest stains!"
*** Their quick friendship with the Autobots becomes FridgeBrilliance from that perspective: the Junkions have a mutual interest in protecting Earth from the Decepticons to allow the humans to keep coming up with new shows.
*** This becomes a plot point in a season 3 episode where the Quintessons insert subliminal messages into their signals to turn them feral. And then the signals spread all over the cosmos...
** The key difference between Movie!Bumblebee and G1!Junkions is that the Junkions are capable of saying anything but choose to parrot TV and radio clichés with their own voices, whereas Bumblebee, who can no longer speak (or speak well, at least), hacks together bits and pieces of actual audio clips from the radio.
** [[CoolOldGuy Kup]] is implied to watch Earth television as well, but less so than the Junkions. Fitting for his "old guy" image, the way he uses TV phrases (knowing only basic ones) is akin to an old man trying to use new slang.

* ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooAndTheAlienInvaders'' used this in an interesting meta-story way; an alien flower-child (due to having studied American pop-culture via its 1960's broadcasts and assuming it represented basic human behavior) became the Love Interest for Shaggy, who, having been TotallyRadical when ''Scooby-Doo'' was originally on, and not having ''changed'' in the interim, was a perfect match.
* Played with in ''WesternAnimation/AquaTeenHungerForce'', in which the Plutonians are literally stealing the cable of Master Shake and company. They have a cable splitter patched through a [[Series/{{Farscape}} Far]][[Franchise/StargateVerse gate]] to their spaceship, and use the "Universal Remonster" (a teddy bear with remote controls for arms and legs) to control it.
-->'''Oglethorpe:''' We have successfully traveled eons across both space and time through the Fargate...to get free cable!
* Inverted in the ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' episode "Canceled", where Cartman's [[AnalProbing anal probe]] picked up an advertisement for the [[TrumanShowPlot intergalactic reality show "Earth"]]. Of course, it was broadcast in an alien language, so the scientist Jeff [[NoCelebritiesWereHarmed (Goldblum)]] had to translate it into English.
* Inverted in ''WesternAnimation/DrawnTogether'' as well, where the house steals cable from Captain Hero's home planet.
* The first thing ''WesternAnimation/JohnnyBravo'' does after becoming king of an entire planet of {{GreenSkinnedSpaceBabe}}s is convincing them to install Cable TV. After seeing Creator/MelGibson on TV, the girls immediately lose interest in him.

* Not aliens, but demons: ''WesternAnimation/NeighborsFromHell'' shows that Balthazar was chosen specifically by {{Satan}} to go live on Earth as a human [[spoiler: to get to the drill that threatens [[{{Hell}} their home]]]] because he watches a lot of TV and therefore is already (theoretically) familiar with life on Earth.
* Zim and GIR watch a lot of TV in ''WesternAnimation/InvaderZim''. Though, in an aversion to the "This makes them inept" trope, [[SurroundedByIdiots TV does give them a pretty good idea about the intellect of your average Earthling]] in the show's universe.
* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Madballs}}: Escape from Orb'', after fleeing their home planet, the Madballs intercept some TV transmissions from Earth, including a rock concert which inspires them to make Earth their new home.
* In the ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty'' episode, ''The Wedding Squanchers'', Rick mentions that Bird Person has an Oscars party every year but it takes light years for our [=TV=] signals to reach his planet and not to tell him that ''Film/{{Braveheart}}'' wins.
* In ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse'', items from the human realm regularly end up on the Boiling Isles through a combination of Eda selling stuff she stole using her PortalDoor or thing just washing up along the shoreline [[spoiler:due to Titan's Blood induced {{Reality Bleed}}s]]. It's unclear to what extent this has affected pop culture on the Isles, though Amity is shown to be a fan of the ''Good Witch Azura'' book series.
* ''WesternAnimation/ReadyJetGo'': "How We Found Your Sun" reveals that the Propulsions discovered Earth by picking up a primitive radio signal playing a 1950s rock and roll song called "Jet Propulsion", which they found catchy. This is also how our young hero Jet Propulsion got his "Earth" name.

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

* A major plot point in ''Anime/SuperDimensionFortressMacross'', starting with the Miss Macross pageant and culminating in the battle against the Bodolza fleet. It neatly sidesteps the distance and signal strength issues by having the transmission come from the titular ship, and the Zentradi warships chasing it are (in astronomical distances) a stone's throw away.
* In the {{Sentai}} anime ''Manga/SpecialDutyCombatUnitShinesman'', the ditzy female villain once asks about the heroes, but she's got the completely wrong idea about them. A nearby mook admits, when a smarter villain asks, that they didn't have enough footage of the ''actual heroes'' so they had to fill in the blanks in their report with examples from a sentai tv-series.
* The Keronians from ''Manga/SgtFrog'' seem to be well-acquainted with Earth culture. In an early chapter of the manga, Natsumi is surprised when Keroro takes offense to being compared to Q-Taro the Ghost from ''Manga/LittleGhostQTaro'' ([[WesternAnimation/TheRealGhostbusters Slimer]] in [[{{Woolseyism}} the Tokyopop translation]]): "How dare you compare me to that overeating ectoplasmic idiot?!" Evidently, Pekopon (Earth) is an entertainment Mecca and produces most of the galaxy's highest rated TV shows.

* Astral ''and'' his foes the Barians do this in ''Anime/YuGiOhZEXAL''.

* In ''Anime/BraveExkaiser'', one of the first things the [[SpacePirates Geisters]] stole when they arrived on Earth were televisions (including, fitting for giant robots, the big ones on the sides of buildings). Justified, as [[BigBad Dino Geist]] felt they'd be a useful way to learn about the Earth and uses his to find things for the Geisters to steal via the news media. The others, being far less intelligent than him, more often use it just to watch TV.

* In ''ComicBook/DCTheNewFrontier'', Martian Manhunter initially learns about human culture by watching TV. This is part of why he goes on to assume his eventual identity of John Jones, who is a HardboiledDetective based on the ones he saw there.
* Book four of ComicBook/TwoThousandAD's ''ComicBook/NemesisTheWarlock'' is set in the Gothic Empire, populated by a race of shapeshifting aliens who received the first large scale radio transmissions of the 1920's. They promptly based their society on what they thought was Earth's pre-1914 Golden Age, particularly on Victorian society and the British Empire (even with their own version of Jack the Ripper).
* This trope is a part of the origin of ''ComicBook/TheSavageDragon''. He was [[spoiler: a warlord who wanted to subjugate Earth despite the fact that his race is pretty peaceful. They decide to rip out chunks of his brain in order to give him amnesia (he has a healing factor). Since they were monitoring Earth for years, they used their satellite feeds to give Dragon new memories and dumped him in UsefulNotes/{{Chicago}}.]]
* In the ''ComicBook/XMen'' books, the Spineless Ones, the residents of the Mojoverse have had their dreams bombarded with TV transmissions from Earth for thousands of their years (time works differently in their dimension). Sort of like the ''Franchise/StarTrek'' [[Recap/StarTrekS2E17APieceOfTheAction Iotians]], this exposure turned them into a Dimension of Hats organized around emulation of television, to the point that their DimensionLord is whichever network executive has the best ratings. It was later established that the initial transmissions were sent by one of their own, a scientist named Arize, who had a [[OnlySaneMan rare immunity]] to the effects of the TV transmissions on his people (they could actually perceive them on a subconscious level, and their inability to filter out multiple transmissions at once--i.e., no natural equivalent to a channel tuner--drove most Spineless Ones mad to varying degrees). With the best of intentions, Arize came to Earth and attempted to change his people's nature by gathering media he deemed positive and broadcasting it across the dimensions--only for the temporal differences between Earth and Mojoworld to result in [[StableTimeLoop Arize's broadcast becoming the transmissions that originally sparked both their madness and their obsession with video entertainment.]]

* Every once and a while in the Marvel universe, Skrulls will decide to entertain themselves with their shapeshifting abilities and a dash of Earth culture. The world Kral is an entire planet of Skrulls imitating gangster movies from the 1950s. On Earth, four Skrulls apparently devoted themselves full time to their favorite Earth entertainers and became the Skrull Beatles.

* A one-panel comic from ''Dragon Magazine'' featured a monitor screen in the Oval Office with an alien saying "we've been monitoring your transmissions for some time, and if you don't put ''Series/{{Farscape}}'' back on the air you can kiss New York goodbye."
* After [[DefectorFromDecadence leaving the Decepticons]] in ''IDW's Transformers'', Thundercracker becomes hooked on a human soap opera called Nurse Whitney. He even tries writing his own screenplays.
** It eventually becomes apparent that Cybertronians as a whole have become fairly enamored with Earth culture: Jazz, unsurprisingly, takes a great interest in various forms of music, and in ''ComicBook/TheTransformersMoreThanMeetsTheEye'', the crew of the Lost Light relaxes after some time travel hijinx by watching a ''Film/BackToTheFuture'' marathon. Even some of the Decepticons start to enjoy some Earth media.
* In ''ComicBook/BillAndTedsExcellentComicBook'', the Dimension of Utter Boredom managed to pick up a transmission of Wyld Stallyns playing the Battle of The Bands in ''Film/BillAndTedsBogusJourney''. Two denizens kidnap the duo's wives and children in order to get Bill and Ted's attention and persuade them to play a gig there.
** ''Bill and Ted Save The Universe'' reveals that [[spoiler:Bill and Ted's mothers]] have been travelling the galaxy for years, using Wyld Stallyns albums from the future to bring peace to alien planets.

* The Kymellian Aelfyre Whitemane, which gave {{Comicbook/Power Pack}} their powers, fell in love with the human culture. He presumably gained access to books and films by somehow remotely connecting to the internet.

* The protagonist of the 2017 comic based on ''VideoGame/{{Centipede}}'' works for the planet Sty-Rek's interstellar outreach program, monitoring radio waves and internet from other planets. He has a particular fascination with Earth culture and often quotes our movies.

* In a story from the French comic book ''Stan Pulsar'', an expedition from Earth arrives on an alien planet and is surprised to hear the local aliens [[AliensSpeakingEnglish speaking their language]]. The aliens explain that their brains have the ability to receive signals from Earth TV. Then they eagerly ask the humans who killed Laura Palmer -- they missed the ''Series/TwinPeaks'' finale due to electromagnetic interference.
* The eponymous ''Shade the Changing Girl'' from DC's Young Animal imprint is a bird-like alien that's obsessed with an Earth sitcom from the 50's as an outlet against her culture's emotional repression. This along with [[LegacyCharacter the original Shade's]] poetry, she's inspired to steal the Madness Vest and use it to travel there.
* In ''ComicBook/PaperinikNewAdventures'' this is how the [[PlanetLooters Evronians]] learned English and other Earth languages. The issue about distance and signal strength is sidestepped by the fact they've been around Earth for a ''long'' time (first known visit is from 10,000 years ago) before deciding the invasion was worth it, so their surveillance crews had been close enough.

* In ''ComicStrip/SafeHavens'', Palmtop (a cat cloned from a dog) eventually figures out that...whoever is trying to communicate with Samantha's crew on Mars is doing it through canine language. Turns out [[spoiler:[[GeniusLoci Mars]]]] picked that up from a ''Series/{{Lassie}}'' broadcast. Since it was one of the first broadcast signals to leave Earth, [[spoiler:Mars]] thought that dogs were the dominant species on Earth. (Timmy being...well, [[TooDumbToLive Timmy]] probably didn't help either.)

* ''WebVideo/DragonBallZAbridged'':
** Apparently, aliens don't even need to ''steal'' cable in this universe: they have [[SpaceX Space]] {{Creator/Hulu}}. That's how Vegeta knows who Film/TheThreeStooges are.
** [[DiscussedTrope Discussed]] when [[TheCaligula Guru]] tells Dende that his parents being dead means he could be like Batman. When Dende mentions he has no idea who that is, Guru shouts "See, this is why we need ''TV!''". Guru probably found out through Space Hulu himself, given [[BizarreAlienBiology Namekian's antenna give them Wi-Fi.]]
* In ''Fanfic/IncompatibleSystem'', humans are the aliens, first for the Thranx, and then the Extranet. Oh, and they have also hacked the Relay Network to track the Citadel ship movements.
* Inverted in ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/28493853 Distance learning for fun and profit...]]'', where [[Literature/{{Worm}} Taylor]] manages to create a device that captures what seems to be alien educational TV... only that this channel teaches the theory behind technologies like ''antigravity''. [[ETGaveUsWifi Taylor uses this to kickstart a new technological revolution]].

* ''Film/SpacedInvaders'' has Martians hearing Creator/OrsonWelles' famous reading of ''Radio/TheWarOfTheWorlds'' and thinking that the rest of the army is on Earth, so they go to find them.
* In ''Film/MeetDave'', the aliens dress their spaceship in all white based on the clothes from Series/FantasyIsland. This is the only signal they have intercepted. When asked to introduce "himself", they look at the most common male name on Earth and pick... Ming Cheng. For reference, both TheCaptain and the ship are played by Creator/EddieMurphy.
* ''Film/{{Explorers}}'': the aliens do little but quote classic Earth movies and songs that they've received. It's eventually revealed that [[spoiler:the aliens are children, which explains why they're so obsessed with entertainment]].
* The Thermians in ''Film/GalaxyQuest'' take the fictional events of old television shows seriously, calling them "historical documents". Besides thinking that the main characters really are space explorers as opposed to the actors who played them, they weep for "those poor people" stranded on ''Series/GilligansIsland''. It is explained that the Thermians have no concept of lying of any sort, which includes fiction in storytelling. Or at least, they ''had'' no concept of it until the BigBad came along and was only too happy to teach it to them first-hand, which ''might'' have left a bad first impression of the concept on them.

* ''[[Film/ScaryMovie Scary Movie 3]]'', the aliens accidentally saw the tape from ''Film/TheRing'' while doing this (they were actually trying to watch ''Film/PootieTang'').

* In ''Film/HighlanderIITheQuickening'' it can inferred this is the case from the alien General Katana's fondness for pop culture references. Apparently there isn't a lot to do on Zeist.
* ''Film/EarthGirlsAreEasy'': Aliens catch TV footage of aerobicizing girls and decide to visit the place. Once here they [[LearntEnglishFromWatchingTelevision pick up the language from TV]], and end up sounding like Creator/JamesDean and Creator/JerryLewis.
* A close-range version in ''Film/Predator2'', which opens with the Predator using thermal imaging, radio frequency scanning, and directional microphones to scan Los Angeles for potential targets. It soon zeroes in on the massive shootout between the police and a Columbian gang that's being covered live by media camera crews.

Regardless, misunderstandings and misinterpretations about Earth culture and human behavior from tiny snippets of old sitcoms are [[RuleOfFunny comedy gold]] especially if it means they [[WrongGenreSavvy expect Earth to be like that]], if they [[LearntEnglishFromWatchingTelevision learn their English from it]] it justifies AliensSpeakingEnglish and so the concept keeps coming back up. Compare AlienArtsAreAppreciated. See also DoNotAdjustYourSet for when the aliens are broadcasting to us instead.