# Caveman Science Fiction **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 14, 2009, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/caveman-science-fiction/513817 "2009-10-14T18:17:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![JR\_Brown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d6d6ee/32.png) [@JR\_Brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JR_Brown)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2009, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/caveman-science-fiction/513817/1 "2009-10-14T18:17:50Z")
[Exactly what it says on the tin.](http://dresdencodak.com/2009/09/22/caveman-science-fiction/) Bonus points: guess the classic SF works being parodied. ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2009, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/caveman-science-fiction/513817/2 "2009-10-14T19:12:48Z")
I’m not sure these are direct parodies of specific works, but rather treatments of some of the classic themes of SF. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2009, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/caveman-science-fiction/513817/3 "2009-10-14T19:20:16Z")
Considering that the theme seems to be sort of “There are some things (Cave)Man was not meant to know”, it looks more like a parody of science fiction flicks, rather than of SF literature. Literature generally has a more optimistic view of applied science – it’s movies that have generally been afraid that Man Will Go Too Far. ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2009, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/caveman-science-fiction/513817/4 "2009-10-14T19:26:06Z")
(I used to argue that reading Science Fiction helps expand a person’s outlook, and allows us to examine our own situations from a different perspective. Then I realized that I was usually reading a book about creatures born from radioactive meatloaf that are threatening Chicago, and how a girl with ginormous boobs and a big gun has to stop them.) ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2009, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/caveman-science-fiction/513817/5 "2009-10-14T19:35:21Z")
> [@](#): > > (I used to argue that reading Science Fiction helps expand a person’s outlook, and allows us to examine our own situations from a different perspective. Then I realized that I was usually reading a book about creatures born from radioactive meatloaf that are threatening Chicago, and how a girl with ginormous boobs and a big gun has to stop them.) I read that **Shoe** cartoon, too. ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2009, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/caveman-science-fiction/513817/6 "2009-10-14T21:17:04Z")
About thirty-five, forty years back. I had it on the door of my dorm. ---
**Author:** ![JR\_Brown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d6d6ee/32.png) [@JR\_Brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JR_Brown)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2009, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/caveman-science-fiction/513817/7 "2009-10-14T21:28:41Z")
> [@DrFidelius](#): > > I’m not sure these are direct parodies of specific works, but rather treatments of some of the classic themes of SF. I dunno, the last one reminds me a heck of a lot of a certain story, I forget the author but maybe Kuttner, about a transdimensional wormhole that is promptly put to good use as a garbage disposal. Guess how that turns out. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2009, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/caveman-science-fiction/513817/8 "2009-10-14T21:59:14Z")
He probably wasn’t the first, but Terry Pratchett used the wormhole toilet gag in _The Last Continent_. ---
**Author:** ![JR\_Brown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d6d6ee/32.png) [@JR\_Brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JR_Brown)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2009, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/caveman-science-fiction/513817/9 "2009-10-15T18:19:19Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > He probably wasn’t the first, but Terry Pratchett used the wormhole toilet gag in _The Last Continent_. Nope, that wasn’t the thing I was thinking of. Some short story where the aliens on the other side of the wormhole start throwing _their_ trash at us in revenge, thus establishing First Contact. The story ends with the scientist-type protagonist swapping his dirty dishwater for the Xyzzygian equivalent of a dead cat, I think. ---
**Author:** ![Olentzero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/90ced4/32.png) [@Olentzero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Olentzero)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2009, 7:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/caveman-science-fiction/513817/10 "2009-10-16T07:39:02Z")
Ah, Dresden Codak. Dude’s got talent _and_ a killer sense of humor.