Listicle: 10 pop-culture aliens we’d love to hang out with

Little, lost and looking to get back home. Steven Spielberg arguably gifted us the nicest on-screen alien. He hates potato salad but loves Reese’s Pieces candy and beer. And he seems to understand humans better than they understand themselves. Give him his one phone call. And cycle away, haters. There’s nothing to dislike about ET (OK, maybe the voice).

The big-eyed, big headed, little green man from our emojis is, in this story at least, an actual extra-terrestrial. Two comic-book geeks pick up what they think is a hitchhiker. It turns out to be Paul, from an M-Class planet of the Andromeda Galaxy, who has just escaped from Area 51, where he’s been stuck for years. Paul is chill, low-key, loves tech and can transfer knowledge, heal wounds, and resurrect the dead. A most handy man on a road-trip.

Bugs Bunny’s green friend, the one who struts around in a Roman helmet and skirt, is a sketchy kind of alien. He has a dog, K-9. Mars is home but he wants to blow up Earth with his Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator because it obstructs his view of Venus. He is also known to have fought with Daffy Duck to take over Planet X. But 76 years of Looney Tunes adventures later, he’s too cute to take seriously. Fire away, Marvin.

Alan Tudyk plays Harry Vanderspeigle, the alien in the title, who flew here to destroy humanity. But he crash-lands, loses his tools, and must live as a human until he can recoup. He’s learnt English from bingeing Law and Order. He works as a small-town doctor. And oddly, he’s good at reading the cues humans miss. Three seasons in, and Harry still hasn’t killed us all. How nice of him. We added him to this list out of fear.

The residents of Trisolaris, in the nearby Alpha Centauri system, did not come to play. Liu Cixin describes them as having giant brains, with a possible mix of skeleton, tentacles and gooey stuff, in his sci-fi bestseller. They hate their home-planet. They want ours instead. They’re plotting to end us all. But gosh, they’re so clever. Both species are doomed. May as well enjoy the adventure.

Spoiler alert: We’re the aliens. Nathan W Pyle’s comic strip imagines how someone from another world might view humans, our everyday obsessions and preoccupations. His Earthlings look like blue Q-tips. Some of them love sunbathing “I crave star damage”. Others warn about the house cat: “Respect the death blades”. The TV show version isn’t as fun. But the blue beings remain adorable.

Robin Williams is Mork from the planet Ork, pretending to be human while studying human behaviour. Orkans grow younger with age, Mork just gets more eccentric as he learns how life here unfolds. He can mimic celebrity voices, a handy trick to get out of a mess. The show catapulted Williams and actress Pam Dawber (who plays Mindy) to fame. Williams, gone too soon, was the perfect playful innocent. Nanu Nanu!

Seth MacFarlane’s tribute to Spielberg’s ET. Roger crash landed on Earth in 1947 and just never left. Oh, he’s also an androgynous, pansexual, wine-guzzling, alien living with the Smith family in New Mexico. Oh, and he has countless alter egos. Roger may seem like he’s dodgy, depraved and a bit unhinged. Is he too different or too much like us? The confusion is why we love him. He’s one of us.

The Fongoids in this video game hail from planet Torren IV in the Vela Sector of the Polaris Galaxy. They live in tribal communities, and resemble small humanoids with violet and black skin, funny-looking blue ears and flat noses. They don’t really care for tech, but somehow have crazy engineering skills, repairing various parts of the broken universe as they travel. More useful aliens, please.

The tree alien from the Branch World’s Planet X in the Marvel Universe landed on Earth in the ‘60s to (you guessed it right), study humans! Back then, he could converse normally. But specially bred termites ate up his innards and almost killed him. Ever since, all he can say is “Groot”. But he’s torn through NYC, faced off against the Hulk, the Thing, Giant Man and Beast. Throw no shade at this tree. He’s a hero.