# Origin of "Ignore alien orders" phrase **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 10, 2003, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-ignore-alien-orders-phrase/212389 "2003-11-10T14:08:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Spiff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spiff/32/9852_2.png) [@Spiff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiff)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2003, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-ignore-alien-orders-phrase/212389/1 "2003-11-10T14:08:53Z")
Just what the subject says. I’ve Googled my butt off, but I can’t track down the origin of this phrase. Does anyone have the answer? ---
**Author:** ![Vision4BG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Vision4BG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Vision4BG)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2003, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-ignore-alien-orders-phrase/212389/2 "2003-11-10T14:21:44Z")
Bumper sticker. [http://web.umr.edu/~huilman/jokes/ideas](http://web.umr.edu/~huilman/jokes/ideas) ---
**Author:** ![Spiff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spiff/32/9852_2.png) [@Spiff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiff)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2003, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-ignore-alien-orders-phrase/212389/3 "2003-11-10T14:55:37Z")
Well, yes. But whence came the bumber sticker? ---
**Author:** ![Spiff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spiff/32/9852_2.png) [@Spiff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiff)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2003, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-ignore-alien-orders-phrase/212389/4 "2003-11-10T15:01:52Z")
Er … bumper. ---
**Author:** ![bughunter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/aeb1de/32.png) [@bughunter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bughunter)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2003, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-ignore-alien-orders-phrase/212389/5 "2003-11-10T18:19:35Z")
Well, googling the phrase as a phrase, this page was the first hit: - [http://www.whom.co.uk/mockoran/ignoreal.htm](http://www.whom.co.uk/mockoran/ignoreal.htm) Now I can’t tell if that’s original poetry, lyrics, or some sort of lyrics server for somebody’s favorite obscure band. There’s a Jam Band / Grateful Dead tribute band lead by one David West that released an album with that phrase as the title, but the phrase appears older than that. There’s references to tee shirts, and other paraphernalia bearing this phrase, surrounding psychedelic music going back as far as the late sixties, early seventies, I believe. Before that, it seems like it could have been a counter-propoganda slogan, adopted some edgy and irreverant subculture group… This page implies that the phrase was used in the Sixties as an advertising slogan: - [http://interact.uoregon.edu/MediaLit/mlr/readings/articles/Wearing.html](http://interact.uoregon.edu/MediaLit/mlr/readings/articles/Wearing.html) Perhaps you can write the author of that page and ask him if he knows more about the phrase’s origin. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2003, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-ignore-alien-orders-phrase/212389/6 "2003-11-11T03:28:26Z")
I never heard the phrase before now (I’m English, maybe it’s common in America, but not here) To me, it seems to mean “don’t obey the voices in your head” ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2003, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-ignore-alien-orders-phrase/212389/7 "2003-11-11T03:36:29Z")
It wouldn’t surprise me if the phrase was used in some standard military instructions, dating back to a time when the more common definition of “alien” was “foreigner” (usage persists in the phrase “illegal alien”), as opposed to “extraterrestrial”. The guy in the funny uniform with the funny accent may _look_ like an officer, and may well _be_ an officer, but he’s not _your_ officer, so you’re not compelled to obey his orders. Later on, though, with international cooperation required for D-Day type operations, this would have course changed. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2003, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-ignore-alien-orders-phrase/212389/8 "2003-11-11T03:57:23Z")
Hmm, my typos are just shocking. ---
**Author:** ![Spiff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spiff/32/9852_2.png) [@Spiff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiff)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2003, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-ignore-alien-orders-phrase/212389/9 "2003-11-11T13:50:01Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by bughunter \* > \*\*Perhaps you can write the author of that page and ask him if he knows more about the phrase’s origin. \*\* Actually, I did e-mail the guy about 3-4 months ago (my Googling came up with the same hits yours did), and I didn’t hear back from him. **Bryan Ekers** , you may be on to something … Actually, **peter morris** , a famous musician from _your_ shores had this phrase [emblazoned](http://www.strummersite.com/news%20pic2.jpg) on his guitar. ---
**Author:** ![lesterhardy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3ab097/32.png) [@lesterhardy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lesterhardy)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2012, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-ignore-alien-orders-phrase/212389/10 "2012-02-21T23:17:16Z")
Comes from a tv show: The Invasion ---
**Author:** ![R1Ray](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ad7895/32.png) [@R1Ray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/R1Ray)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2012, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-ignore-alien-orders-phrase/212389/11 "2012-11-15T19:53:02Z")
If you can find an ORIGINAL release of Grateful Dead’s Mars Hotel record album from about 1974(?), that phrase is embossed in the record cover (or whatever is the opposite of embossed - it’s raised lettering). You can see it, and feel it in the black border. ---
**Author:** ![dstarfire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dstarfire/32/5762_2.png) [@dstarfire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dstarfire)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2012, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-ignore-alien-orders-phrase/212389/12 "2012-11-15T19:58:44Z")
Embossing is the correct term. It can use a negative (lowered letters) or positive image (raised letters). ---
**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:** [November 15, 2012, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-ignore-alien-orders-phrase/212389/13 "2012-11-15T20:12:59Z")
Humph. I’m pretty sure I first heard it on a Firesign Theatre album. (But back when I listened to Firesign Theatre I was in a rather impressionable state for much of the time.) ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2012, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-ignore-alien-orders-phrase/212389/14 "2012-11-16T19:33:39Z")
> [@lesterhardy](#): > > Comes from a tv show: The Invasion I can’t find a tv show by that name. Do you mean the 1967 series, [The Invaders](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0061265/)? ---
**Author:** ![TedC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/5fc32e/32.png) [@TedC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TedC)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2013, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-ignore-alien-orders-phrase/212389/15 "2013-04-23T21:18:23Z")
> [@Spiff](#): > > Just what the subject says. > > I’ve Googled my butt off, but I can’t track down the origin of this phrase. > > Does anyone have the answer? I know just how it started. I guy who used to work with me, “Ted”, was a musician and craftsman living in San Francisco in the 60’s. He was up late one night with one of the biggest dope dealers in the city, whose occupation and consumption made him a bit paranoid. The dealer started on a rap that “the aliens were going to take over.” Ted started to trip on how we should respond, and the classic phrase was born. It still sounded good in the morning, so Ted and his friends pasted up a press-type master and made a photo silkscreen. He printed them in several color combinations; red on yellow, red and blue on white, and red and blue on silver, and gave them to his musician friends (some quite successful) to be passed on and posted all over the world. That’s how Joe Strummer got one of the silver ones on his guitar and made the phrase semi-famous. They considered making more a few years later, but they couldn’t get the presstype of the “R” character with its unusual foot shape. Ted gave me a stack of red-on-yellow factory seconds (a bit ragged) which I still have, with the funny “R”. I think Strummer trimmed the margins on his; they were 2 x 2 inches. I still see Ted in the East Bay. ---
**Author:** ![grasshead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8edcca/32.png) [@grasshead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grasshead)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2014, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-ignore-alien-orders-phrase/212389/16 "2014-03-28T14:31:00Z")
I have a book of Grateful Dead matches promoting ‘Wake of the Flood’, which was released in 1973 and it has the phrase inside the matchbook cover. There a picture on my instagram account. [No Ones Here (@grasshead) • Instagram photos and videos](http://www.instagram.com/grasshead) ---
**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:** [March 28, 2014, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-ignore-alien-orders-phrase/212389/17 "2014-03-28T14:39:17Z")
> [@dstarfire](#): > > Embossing is the correct term. It can use a negative (lowered letters) or positive image (raised letters). Lowered or negative relief lettering is _debossed_, not embossed. ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2014, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-ignore-alien-orders-phrase/212389/18 "2014-03-28T14:55:10Z")
> [@DrFidelius](#): > > Humph. > I’m pretty sure I first heard it on a Firesign Theatre album. (But back when I listened to Firesign Theatre I was in a rather impressionable state for much of the time.) You’re probably thinking of the military training film from _Everything You Know Is Wrong_. It doesn’t contain the actual phrase “Ignore alien orders,” but it has a similar meaning. > [@](#): > > Goatheart: This is General Curtis Goatheart. If you are viewing this film then we are under extraterrestrial attack. Beware! Your brain may no longer be the boss. If you are beginning to doubt what I am saying, you are probably hallucinating. Listen carefully! > > DI: What to do if an alien appears! One! > > Goatheart: Drop under the seat of your plane and look away. > > DI: Two! > > Goatheart: Avoid eye contact. > > DI: Three! > > Goatheart: If there are no eyes, avoid all contact. ---
**Author:** ![MostlyUseless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@MostlyUseless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MostlyUseless)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2014, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-ignore-alien-orders-phrase/212389/19 "2014-03-28T16:06:15Z")
When I was in the military, we were required to obey the orders of any superior commissioned officer FIRST and if in doubt, confirm SECOND. I don’t believe that you only obey the orders of your officer only. Correct? ---
**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:** [March 28, 2014, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-ignore-alien-orders-phrase/212389/20 "2014-03-28T17:58:27Z")
That seems like a terrible idea. What if your CO gave you an order and then some random officer came over and countermanded it? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-ignore-alien-orders-phrase/212389.md?page=2)