Somebody asked about the thing you’d show aliens to prove humanity is worth saving – 23 answers that prove we’re not such a terrible species

If you put yourself in the moon boots of an alien coming down to earth to see what we’re all up to, you probably imagine they’d think ‘What the heck are these lunatics up to?’, and with good reason.

However, before they zapped us all into smithereens with their extraterrestrial laser beams, is there anything we could show them that would make them think we aren’t so bad after all?

AskReddit user LeFrogKid posed this question to his fellow humans:

Aliens give you 30 seconds to prove humanity is worth saving. You can’t speak. What do you show them?

And plenty of people came up with the sort of stuff that demonstrates we aren’t quite beyond redemption.

1.

‘Give them a long hug, if that doesn’t do it they were planning on invading anyway.’
–Latecheckoutonly

2.

‘Dolly Parton.’
–slinging_arrows

3.

‘I’m showing them a clip of someone arguing with Alexa, getting mad, then apologising… just to prove we got potential.’
–TheDankBank0

4.

‘I would hold my hand out and do the ol’ separating thumb trick.’
–DoctorRockso85

5.

‘My cats. Either this makes the argument that some of us are worth saving because we care for animals we clearly aren’t related to, or it serves as a request that they take care of my cats (and everyone else’s) when they’re finished. I hope they’ll be good to dogs and all the other animals, too. The bulk of human society I am not going to fight for.’
–michaelochurch

6.

‘I was just gonna show them a really cool ‘S’ I can draw. Figure that might be the best we have to offer.’
–Lukealloneword

7.

‘There is old short story by a well known author whose name escapes me, where the premise is essentially is an alien has been tasked with deciding if humanity has any value, and ends up at a library, in the disguise of a small child. The librarian realises there is something not quite right with the child, but recognises they are highly intelligent, and so starts suggesting famous works of fiction for it to read.’
–ashoka_akira

8.

‘A video of a dog trying to bark with a slipper in its mouth. Boom, instant tears, galactic peace.’
–CuddleMew

9.

‘Video of baby laughing. Nobody can resist. Unfortunately that might lead to them just kidnapping our babies and tickling them for their entertainment until they get too old for the laugh and then they eat us.’
–Cheap-Committee6001

10.

‘Whatever you do, don’t show them the Kardashians.’
–ramdmc

11.

‘I just flip them off. Who are they to judge us?’
–prajnadhyana

12.

‘That ends up being the universal alien sign for love and the world is saved.’
–Paulpoleon