History Main / MistakenForAliens

* PlayedForLaughs in ''[[Film/TheAvengers The Avengers]]'' where Bruce Banner as the Hulk falls on a warehouse, half-destroys it and becomes human again. There, he speaks to an old man, a security guard, who believes Bruce is some sort of alien. The security guard is played by Harry Dean Stanton, who was in {{Alien}}.

* The ''IDreamOfJeannie'' episode [[http://www.tv.com/i-dream-of-jeannie/u-f-oh-jeannie/episode/252763/summary.html?tag=reviews;episode;2 "U-F-Oh Jeannie"]], where Tony was mistaken for a Martian by a group of rednecks in the DeepSouth.

* In the ''LostInSpace'' episode "Visit to a Hostile Planet", the Robinsons go back through time to 1947 and are mistaken for aliens when they land on Earth.

* [[StargateSG1 SG-1]] deliberately invokes this when they're stranded in 1969, presumably figuring that it's a quicker explanation than the actual one.

* Played straight and then subverted in [[http://bobadventures.comicgenesis.com/d/20070717.html this]] strip from ''TheInexplicableAdventuresOfBob.''

* ''SpongebobSquarepants'' had an episode with them using Sandy's rocket to land "on the moon" (actually they circle around the moon and land back in Bikini Bottom) and go to hunt "moon clone aliens" which look exactly like their friends on earth.

* Averted in the TV Show, ''{{Community}}''. Abed plans to 'mess with' Troy by using the classic sitcom set up for this, except that he didn't fool Troy for a second.

* Averted in the TV Show, ''Community''. Abed plans to 'mess with' Troy by using the classic sitcom set up for this, except that he didn't fool Troy for a second.

* An episode of ''The Mask'' animated series featured a government agent and a scientist mistaking The Mask for a hostile alien due to a series of coincidences (not that it's hard to mistake him as such in the first place...)

* Inverted and played straight in one episode of ''Viva Pinata''. Fergie Fudgehog is conned onto going onto a defective rocket ship that crashes. When he comes out, his foggy helmet makes his friends look like aliens to him, and it makes him look like an alien to his friends! Needless to say, {{Hilarity Ensues}}.

* "Tomorrow is Yesterday" from ''StarTrekTheOriginalSeries''.

* Midway in the ''Film/SuperMarioBros'' movie, our heroes are labeled as aliens when they escape from Koopa.
-->'''Luigi''': Aliens? Now we gotta deal with aliens too?\\
'''Mario''': Luigi, ''we're'' the aliens!\\
'''Luigi''': We are? '''Cool!'''

* [[TheCutie Rena]] from ''HigurashiNoNakuKoroNi'' mistook her friends for aliens in "The Atonement" chapter. [[spoiler: Of course, she was at best, at lv.4 [[HatePlague Hinamizawa Syndrome]]]]

* ''Take Me to Your President'' by Leonard Wibberley was about a fellow nicknamed "A-1" from a small British town called Mars, who accidentally got loaded into an experimental rocket. When it landed somewhere other than it was expected to, and he came out wearing the space suit he'd found and saying he was from Mars, well....

** Quicker, maybe, but the main reason was to avoid paradox. (Although that didn't stop Jack from going by the names of fictional characters, some of whom already existed and others didn't, but [[RuleOfFunny who cares]]? They didn't want to [[ButterflyOfDoom endanger the Stargate program by accident]].

* In the ''SouthPark'' episode "Starvin' Marvin in Space", the people of Australia thought Marvin was an alien. To be fair, he ''did'' emerge from a spaceship.
* An episode of {{Gargoyles}} has an actual alien think the title characters are also aliens.

<<|{{Plots}}|>>
<<|MistakenForIndex|>>

* Similarly, when John Glenn was orbiting in the Friendship 7 in 1962, the mission planners weren't exactly sure where the capsule would land - somewhere near Australia, as in any part of Australia or the surrounding oceans or islands for a pretty far distance. Glenn was worried what the aboriginal Australians might think when seeing a man in silver emerge from something that feel from the sky so he took a short speech with him rendered phonetically: "I am a stranger. I come in peace. Take me to your leader, and there will be a massive reward for you in eternity."

* The Comicbook/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles do this on purpose in the third Mirage comics volume; aliens having openly made contact with Earth, it's apparently easier for people to accept that than homemade mutant freaks.

* Done in the ''{{Torchwood}}'' episode "Countrycide", where the team thinks that some aliens are responsible for disappearances and attacks. Turns out, it's a bunch of [[IAmAHumanitarian humanitarians]], although one could argue their humanity, especially with their ominous talks of "The Harvest."

* Grand Fenwick's chainmail-clad longbowmen successfully invade 1950s New York City in ''TheMouseThatRoared'' because of being mistaken for Martians.

* In ''TheAddamsFamily'', the Addams are mistaken for aliens by the military, who approach them claiming to wish peace and asking them lots of questions. As a consequence, The Addams believe the army men are aliens as well (because of their green wardrobe).

* ''SpongebobSquarepants'' had an episode with them using Sandys rocket to land "on moon" (actually they circle around the moon and land back in Bikini Bottom) and go to hunt "moon clone aliens" which look exactly like their friends on earth.

* After Yuri Gagarin became the first human to enter space and return successfully, a woman who saw his capsule land asked him "Can it be that you have come from outer space?" He replied [[http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Yuri_Gagarin "As a matter of fact, I have!"]]

* ''FrankenFran'' helps an actress whose fallen for a male lead who is obsessed with anime features, and wants to star opposite him in live-action adaptations. She insists on ever more extensive surgery but fails to take Fran's advice at the hazards in her rush to bed the actor, and cosmetically falls to pieces. He flees in terror, then goes on so many talk shows raving about Grays trying to abduct him that he doesn't get any more roles.

* In Spider Robinson's ''The Free Lunch'', when the protagonists notice that there's something very odd about some of the attendees at the theme park where they live, their initial deduction is aliens. [[AuthorAppeal This being Spider Robinson]], however, they're actually time travellers.