History Main / HumorlessAliens

* Andalites in the ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}'' series do not understand humor or its purpose, with a few exceptions - Arbon was constantly joking and wise cracking in The Andalite Chronicles, and Alloran was implied to be a prankster when he was young. Cassie notes that hanging around [[SadClown Marco]] seems to have given Ax a "twisted" sense of humor, while the [[SufficientlyAdvancedAlien Ellimist]] considers the human sense of humor one of their pluses over Andalites or Yeerks.
** It is occasionally suggested that the Andalites do have a sense of humor, it's just very different from human humor, typically involving BlackComedy and FalseReassurance.

** Occasionally an InvokedTrope with Comicbook/MartianManhuter, especially in the ''Comicbook/JusticeLeagueInternational'' days. He's just got a ''really'' deadpan delivery, and will claim Martians don't make jokes as part of the joke.

* The ''ComicBook/JusticeLeagueOfAmerica'' story "The Tornado's Path" is about Red Tornado, an android body animated by an air elemental. His wife says that the way she always knew he wasn't JustAMachine is that he has a sense of humor. It's presented well... but then spoiled when the counter-example given of humorless robots is the ComicBook/MetalMen. Seriously? They're the goofiest bunch of robots in the DCU!

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* Yuki Nagato from ''[[LightNovel/HaruhiSuzumiya The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya]]'' appears to be an EmotionlessGirl with BluntMetaphorsTrauma. (She's actually a human-seeming alien robot who acts like a FishOutOfWater.) As she has severe difficulty ''expressing'' emotions, it's possible she's laughing on the inside when something funny happens, but her rare attempts at humor suggests she really doesn't understand it.

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--> ...and four cycles later, in the recreation complex, Katma Tui realized that for the first time in many years' service, she had heard a Guardian make a joke. She felt vaguely uneasy for the rest of that day.

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--> Indira thought back to her school days. "Morissette... Oh! [[Music/JaggedLittlePill Those things aren't ironic, they're just sad."]] ''Which is ironic, which is genius,'' a lit professor's voice droned in her memory.

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---> '''Wrex''': I have to make friends with the one Turian in the galaxy who thinks he's ''funny''.
** In ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'', Garrus and [[AcePilot Joker]] pass the time by exchanging politically incorrect Human/Turian jokes. Like, "How many humans does it take to [[NoodleIncident activate a mass relay?]]"

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[[folder: Truth In Television ]]

** It is occasionally suggested that the Andalites do have a sense of humor, it's just very different from human humor.

* The Thermians in ''Film/GalaxyQuest'' don't seem to have a sense of humor, until the very end. That's not to say they're all sourpusses -- quite the opposite -- but they have difficulty with the concepts of both "deception" and "fiction". Their arch nemesis Sarris, however, has all of the above down pat.

* In a similar tone, averted to the surprise of the humans in one of the Franchise/StarTrekExpandedUniverse WhatIf stories, which tells of a timeline where a terrorist attack by Earth separatists resulted in the meetings that would create TheFederation breaking down. As a result, a highly xenophobic Earth is locked in a SpaceColdWar with the "Interstellar Coalition" and the Original Series ''Enterprise'' is assigned to escort diplomats to one of the first, tentative peace talks. The captain is exchanging pleasantries with one of his Tellarite counterparts when the latter begins relating [[Recap/StarTrekS2E18TheImmunitySyndrome a story involving a giant amoeba]] and wraps up by mentioning that [[ObstructiveBureaucrat his superiors had the whole incident hushed up]]. The captain is glad that his would-be rival is NotSoDifferent and they begin bonding over jokes about their respective politicians and bureaucrats.

* ''ComicBook/WonderWoman1942'': The Ytirflirks have no sense of humor whatsoever, which makes their interactions with the "gremlin" alien race which they enslaved even more awkward since the gremlins" are very fond of it. This also allows the gremlins to discuss bits of their plan to overthrow the Ytirflirks right in front of their overlords without the Ytirflirks understanding what is being discussed.

* This can be TruthInTelevision amongst humans. Lots of jokes are hard to translate across cultural barriers, and even within a culture humor tends to be subjective.

** [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy Worf]] definitely comes across as this; he ''does'' have a sense of humour, but it's the dry DeadpanSnarker type, and he's too much TheStoic to let it show most of the time. This is not a species trait, however; most Klingons have more of a BoisterousBruiser thing going on, and in any case Worf was raised by human foster parents.[[note]]In Russia, incidentally, where such stoicism is the norm in a lot of places.[[/note]] This also has the effect of making him the ComicallySerious in some of the show's weirder situations.

* Averted several times in ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}''; "My Three Suns" shows the characters watching a comedy act on the planet Trisol, while "That's Lobstertainment!" implies that [[SpaceJews Decapodians]] have a cultural propensity for Borscht Belt-esque humor, with Zoidberg's uncle Harold Zoid having been a celebrated comic actor in Earth's [[DaysOfFuturePast "Silent Hologram" era]].

* Averted in a classic short story about unintentional FirstContact between a human interstellar mapping ship and their alien counterparts. There's a lot of tension about whether the two species will ever be able to trust each other, but the comm. officer is not worried. He explains that he's pretty sure we'll be able to overcome our differences, because he and his alien counterpart spent the last hour before both ships left swapping dirty jokes that they both found hilarious.

** [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy Worf]] definitely comes across as this. He's actually something of an anomaly--most Klingons have more of a BoisterousBruiser thing going on. This also has the effect of making him the ComicallySerious in some of the show's weirder situations.

** In ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'', Garrus and [[AcePilot Joker]] pass the time by exchanging politically incorrect Human/Turian jokes.

* In a similar tone, averted to the surprise of the humans in one of the StarTrekExpandedUniverse WhatIf stories, which tells of a timeline where a terrorist attack by Earth separatists resulted in the meetings that would create TheFederation breaking down. As a result, a highly xenophobic Earth is locked in a SpaceColdWar with the "Interstellar Coalition" and the Original Series ''Enterprise'' is assigned to escort diplomats to one of the first, tentative peace talks. The captain is exchanging pleasantries with one of his Tellarite counterparts when the latter begins relating [[Recap/StarTrekS2E18TheImmunitySyndrome a story involving a giant amoeba]] and wraps up by mentioning that [[ObstructiveBureaucrat his superiors had the whole incident hushed up]]. The captain is glad that his would-be rival is NotSoDifferent and they begin bonding over jokes about their respective politicians and bureaucrats.
* Most tau in ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40k}}'' supplemental literature are pretty much humorless, even [[GoingNative humans raised around the tau]]. In the ''Literature/CiaphasCain'' novels, however, a few exceptions stand out -- though they're noted as having a particularly dry sense of humor. In particular, the kroot, being CloserToEarth than their tau allies/employers, are more apt to appreciate jokes.

--> Indira thought back to her school days. “Morissette... Oh! [[Music/JaggedLittlePill Those things aren’t ironic, they’re just sad.”]] ''Which is ironic, which is genius,'' a lit professor’s voice droned in her memory.

* In ''Series/StargateSG1'', O'Neill is ([[GenreSavvy rightfully]]) distrustful of the Aschen for precisely this reason. Also, Teal'c tends to miss the point of O'Neill's jokes. Funnily enough, the trope is also inverted in one episode; Teal'c, with prompting, tells a Jaffa joke that obviously amuses him, but falls flat on its face with the rest of SG-1.