# Crop Circles: Aliens, or not? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 28, 2011, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crop-circles-aliens-or-not/569322 "2011-01-28T19:07:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Alka\_Seltzer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c89c15/32.png) [@Alka\_Seltzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alka_Seltzer)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2011, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crop-circles-aliens-or-not/569322/21 "2011-01-31T16:39:24Z")
Bigfoot did it. ---
**Author:** ![Azeotrope](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/0ea827/32.png) [@Azeotrope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Azeotrope)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2011, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crop-circles-aliens-or-not/569322/22 "2011-01-31T17:29:47Z")
I remember a Dilbert comic strip from years back where Dogbert sums it up nicely. His comment was along the lines of “Do we want to communicate with aliens who communicate by stomping on wheat?” ---
**Author:** ![WotNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e19b73/32.png) [@WotNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WotNot)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2011, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crop-circles-aliens-or-not/569322/23 "2011-01-31T17:30:59Z")
> [@flatlined](#): > > I picked “other”. I was watching a show about them and this old British farmer declaired that crop circles were made by “crazed hedgehogs”. I promptly subscribed to his newsletter. 😃 Seems very likely: it’s [hopped-up wallabies](http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8118257.stm) in Tasmania, apparently. ---
**Author:** ![Covered\_In\_Bees](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7ab992/32.png) [@Covered\_In\_Bees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Covered_In_Bees)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2011, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crop-circles-aliens-or-not/569322/24 "2011-01-31T17:31:25Z")
Holy crap, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a more lopsided poll! :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Projammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/projammer/32/559_2.png) [@Projammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Projammer)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2011, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crop-circles-aliens-or-not/569322/25 "2011-01-31T22:21:54Z")
Seems fairly obvious that most of them are created by UFOs. Unidentified Flattening Objects. ---
**Author:** ![Swords\_to\_Plowshares](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b38774/32.png) [@Swords\_to\_Plowshares](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Swords_to_Plowshares)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2011, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crop-circles-aliens-or-not/569322/26 "2011-01-31T22:53:54Z")
Oops. Voted for “don’t know, probably rational explanation” but meant to vote for “people did it, they’re just screwing with us”. ---
**Author:** ![flatlined](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/eb9ed0/32.png) [@flatlined](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flatlined)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2011, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crop-circles-aliens-or-not/569322/27 "2011-02-01T03:39:07Z")
> [@WotNot](#): > > Seems very likely: it’s [hopped-up wallabies](http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8118257.stm) in Tasmania, apparently. It looks like you have found the answer 😃 ---
**Author:** ![El\_Kabong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_kabong/32/496_2.png) [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2011, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crop-circles-aliens-or-not/569322/28 "2011-02-01T03:56:25Z")
Looks like “they” took exception to the OP blowing the lid off this thing. ---
**Author:** ![Lanzy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/74df32/32.png) [@Lanzy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lanzy)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2011, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crop-circles-aliens-or-not/569322/29 "2011-02-01T15:33:42Z")
Sorry, Sworn to secrecy. ---
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2011, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crop-circles-aliens-or-not/569322/30 "2011-02-01T15:38:03Z")
I don’t know why this is still in doubt. The originators have come forward; they and others have shown a variety of methods (it ain’t difficult). Hell, they have annual contests. ---
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2011, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crop-circles-aliens-or-not/569322/31 "2011-02-01T17:14:46Z")
It’s depressing that, apart from accidental mis-votes, the poll isn’t 100% “people did it to screw with us.” ---
**Author:** ![WotNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e19b73/32.png) [@WotNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WotNot)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2011, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crop-circles-aliens-or-not/569322/32 "2011-02-01T17:52:25Z")
> [@Hypno-Toad](#): > > It’s depressing that, apart from accidental mis-votes, the poll isn’t 100% “people did it to screw with us.” I don’t know why. A perfectly normal and healthy propensity for humour would produce a few outlier votes, even if the poll didn’t explicitly invite them. Besides which, “Don’t know, but there’s probably a rational (non-alien) explanation” (the second-highest ranking option) seems like a perfectly reasonable statement from someone who doesn’t know much about the subject, or has read conflicting and/or inaccurate information about it. > [@garygnu](#): > > I don’t know why this is still in doubt. The originators have come forward; they and others have shown a variety of methods (it ain’t difficult). Hell, they have annual contests. Unfortunately, they only 'fessed up after other people had spent a decade or more investing a good deal of time and belief into a variety of alternative explanations (of varying levels of woo). With the result that they were decried as mere hoaxers and energetically “debunked” by the bunko artists, who claimed to be able to detect the difference between a man-made crop circle and a “real” one. Of course they couldn’t, but by the time that was proven the waters had been muddied enough for anyone not paying much attention to miss it. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2011, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crop-circles-aliens-or-not/569322/33 "2011-02-01T17:57:23Z")
Why isn’t there an option for “viral marketing campaign for _Signs_”? ---
**Author:** ![Drunky\_Smurf](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drunky_smurf/32/449_2.png) [@Drunky\_Smurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drunky_Smurf)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2011, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crop-circles-aliens-or-not/569322/34 "2011-02-01T18:01:15Z")
Aliens made them and they are warning us to become a 100% Christian planet or else they are going to destroy us. Well non-chrsitians, are you going to convert to the good word or destroy us all due to your selfishness? ---
**Author:** ![Waxwinged](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c2a13f/32.png) [@Waxwinged](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Waxwinged)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2011, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crop-circles-aliens-or-not/569322/35 "2011-02-01T18:34:25Z")
> [@Projammer](#): > > Seems fairly obvious that most of them are created by UFOs. > > Unidentified Flattening Objects. That made me giggle. But seriously, it’s obvious that people under 30 are at fault. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2011, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crop-circles-aliens-or-not/569322/36 "2011-02-01T18:47:19Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > Why isn’t there an option for “viral marketing campaign for _Signs_”? That would fall under humans messing with us. I mean, have you **seen** _Signs_? ---
**Author:** ![WotNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e19b73/32.png) [@WotNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WotNot)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2011, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crop-circles-aliens-or-not/569322/37 "2011-02-01T19:00:44Z")
> [@Waxwinged](#): > > That made me giggle. > > But seriously, it’s obvious that people under 30 are at fault. 😉 [Those young scamps, Doug and Dave, demonstrate their technique.](http://www.starpod.org/images/doug_dave_using_bar%20small.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2011, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crop-circles-aliens-or-not/569322/38 "2011-02-02T00:23:34Z")
Look here [http://www.circlemakers.org/](http://www.circlemakers.org/) for plenty on UK crop circles by the guys who made them. No aliens about. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crop-circles-aliens-or-not/569322.md?page=1)