# Which is worse: Ancient Aliens or America Unearthed? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 9, 2013, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-worse-ancient-aliens-or-america-unearthed/675896 "2013-12-09T15:28:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2013, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-worse-ancient-aliens-or-america-unearthed/675896/1 "2013-12-09T15:28:06Z")
I’m all for giving Ancient Aliens a pass. I mean, they cannot be serious with their thinly vieled racism (surely Greeks and Romans are capable of great building but them darker people couldn’t have possibly thought of this themselves!) and that guy with that stupid accent, stupider fake tan and the stupidest of all hair-- that’s gotta be a joke. But America Unearthed, they are damned serious with their American Exceptionalism. Our host looking at a carved stone found on the High Plains under a microscope, “Look at the fine craftmanship. Something so finely made cannot be a hoax!” Um, what? This stone is so finely carved, the Arc of the Covenant _must_ be in America!" No it isn’t. It must be a 'Squash! ---
**Author:** ![drewtwo99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d07c76/32.png) [@drewtwo99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewtwo99)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2013, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-worse-ancient-aliens-or-america-unearthed/675896/2 "2013-12-09T15:47:24Z")
America only became exceptional when the europeans moved in, I guess! ---
**Author:** ![Eugene\_of\_Sandwich](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/c37758/32.png) [@Eugene\_of\_Sandwich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eugene_of_Sandwich)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2013, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-worse-ancient-aliens-or-america-unearthed/675896/3 "2013-12-09T19:33:45Z")
You mean the guy that looks like Stanley Tucci from Hunger Games baby brother? ---
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2013, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-worse-ancient-aliens-or-america-unearthed/675896/4 "2013-12-09T19:36:07Z")
> [@Eugene\_of\_Sandwich](#): > > You mean the guy that looks like Stanley Tucci from Hunger Games baby brother? That’s the guy! I’m not saying it’s aliens but. . . it’s aliens! ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2013, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-worse-ancient-aliens-or-america-unearthed/675896/5 "2013-12-09T21:35:18Z")
Unsealed Alien Files is the most hilarious. My wife loves that show and gets irritated when I mutter under the opening credit narration: “Did Aliens Visit the Earth years ago and leave technology behind?” [sub]“Nope”[/sub] “Did Aliens once use the Earth’s magnetic fields to create vast superhighways and leave evidence of them behind?” [sub]“They did not”[/sub] “Did UFOs visit the Vatican to pay their respects to Pope John Paul II? The answer is more likely than you think.” [sub]“Debatable”[/sub] “Every government file about UFOs and aliens has now been declassified. The Government doesn’t want you to know what’s in those files.” [sub]“Then why did they declassify them?”[/sub] Wife: “Be Quiet!!” ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2013, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-worse-ancient-aliens-or-america-unearthed/675896/6 "2013-12-09T22:10:35Z")
I like the dude with the hair. He makes me laugh. 😃 The “guy with the accent” is Erich von Däniken, who started the whole Ancient Astronaut thing back in the '70s. \*\*\* Nova\*\*\* has an old episode available on line in which they pretty much discredit his evidence and make him look like the world’s greatest con man. It’s hilarious! ---
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2013, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-worse-ancient-aliens-or-america-unearthed/675896/7 "2013-12-09T22:14:35Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > I like the dude with the hair. He makes me laugh. 😃 > > The “guy with the accent” is Erich von Däniken, who started the whole Ancient Astronaut thing back in the '70s. \*\*\* Nova\*\*\* has an old episode available on line in which they pretty much discredit his evidence and make him look like the world’s greatest con man. It’s hilarious! I remember seeing that Nova episode when it first aired. Carl Sagan, in particular, demolished von Daniken’s theory about the Nazca Lines being an alien airport. I hope he’s still not peddling that tripe. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2013, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-worse-ancient-aliens-or-america-unearthed/675896/8 "2013-12-09T23:12:45Z")
I love talking back at the episodes … drives my husband nuts:p I look at it as free entertainment, I think that they should release the episodes MST3K style… 😛 ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2013, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-worse-ancient-aliens-or-america-unearthed/675896/9 "2013-12-11T03:41:36Z")
I worry about less perceptive people thinking this junk history is real. Remember the stuff we were told in elementary school? Washington couldn’t lie about cutting down the cherry tree. Lincoln walked several miles to return a customer’s change. There are people out there that still think that stuff is true. ---
**Author:** ![BlinkingDuck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/eada6e/32.png) [@BlinkingDuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlinkingDuck)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2013, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-worse-ancient-aliens-or-america-unearthed/675896/10 "2013-12-11T20:24:08Z")
Ancient Aliens can be fun to watch because of the stupidity. America Unearthed makes me cringe because of the stupidity. So, America Unearthed is worse. If you have not seen this show, watch an episode. It is the crap of the crap. ---
**Author:** ![BlinkingDuck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/eada6e/32.png) [@BlinkingDuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlinkingDuck)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2013, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-worse-ancient-aliens-or-america-unearthed/675896/11 "2013-12-11T20:25:47Z")
Is it possible that America Unearthed is the greatest show ever? And, if so, could this show be planted here by space aliens, as Ancient Astronaut Theorists believe? ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2013, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-worse-ancient-aliens-or-america-unearthed/675896/12 "2013-12-11T20:50:05Z")
Reminds me of National lampoon’s article on what the aliens visitors left behind…“Garbage of the Gods”!😃 ---
**Author:** ![What\_the](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f4b2a3/32.png) [@What\_the](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_the)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2013, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-worse-ancient-aliens-or-america-unearthed/675896/13 "2013-12-31T16:31:09Z")
> [@BlinkingDuck](#): > > Ancient Aliens can be fun to watch because of the stupidity. > > America Unearthed makes me cringe because of the stupidity. > > So, America Unearthed is worse. > > If you have not seen this show, watch an episode. It is the crap of the crap. Scott Wolter of AU is an idiot. Last night he hired a helicopter to take him down into the Grand Canyon. They were hovering over it when the pilot told him that the FAA wouldn’t let them go below the rim. He was shocked!! Maybe the producers made him do it. If so, Scott, I apologize… but there are other reason that you are an idiot. Here’s one, and I quote…"One thing that I’m sure of… maybe (the details of the maybe that he is sure of aren’t important) " ---
**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:** [December 31, 2013, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-worse-ancient-aliens-or-america-unearthed/675896/14 "2013-12-31T16:40:52Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > I like the dude with the hair. He makes me laugh. 😃 > > The “guy with the accent” is Erich von Däniken, who started the whole Ancient Astronaut thing back in the '70s. \*\*\* Nova\*\*\* has an old episode available on line in which they pretty much discredit his evidence and make him look like the world’s greatest con man. It’s hilarious! There were plenty of Ancient Astronaut zealots before von Daniken (Have a look at Frank Edwards’ stuff). Von Daniken, though, was immensely popular and a bestseller, so he made it more visible. ---
**Author:** ![BobInBridgeport](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bbce88/32.png) [@BobInBridgeport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobInBridgeport)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2014, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-worse-ancient-aliens-or-america-unearthed/675896/15 "2014-11-03T00:31:31Z")
“Ancient Aliens”, was at least entertaining and they did show you interesting sites and finds, while “America Unearthed” is a boring letdown. They just lead you along by the nose for hours, thinking that you are actually going to see something real and concrete in support of their claims, but it never happens. In one episode,they claim that the Knights Templars came to America in the 13th century, bringing with them treasure from Solomon’s Temple. They craft elaborate graphics of castle foundations, supposedly taken by hi tech equipment. Then they have guys with metal detectors who claim that they have located 50 ounces of gold underground. Well, first of all 50 oz. of gold equates to about 3 lbs, which is not all that much; maybe enough to craft a small crown, but certainly not enough to represent the treasures of Solomon’s Temple. Plus,needless to say, they never find or show you the gold !!! On another episode, they find someone in Wisconsin who supposedly dug up a Viking sword. Needless to say, they don’t focus the camera in on the sword very often, which is more the size and shape of a Civil War short sword than any Viking sword. Then they go to examine some 3 ton stone supposedly with runes on it, proving that the Vikings made it to Wisconsin,but when they get there, the stone has been stolen. On another one of their shows, they took you to the Southwest to show you what was supposedly Phoenician writing on rocks, but which looked more like glacial scratches. This entire series is a waste of time and not unlike when Geraldo Rivera kept us waiting for hours to open a safe brought up from the Titanic, and when it was opened, there was nothing in it but rotting, soggy currency. ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2014, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-is-worse-ancient-aliens-or-america-unearthed/675896/16 "2014-11-03T02:59:26Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > There were plenty of Ancient Astronaut zealots before von Daniken (Have a look at Frank Edwards’ stuff). Von Daniken, though, was immensely popular and a bestseller, so he made it more visible. Except for Theosophy & Lovecraft, the 1950s seemed to when Ancient Astronautisms emerged, mainly from George Adamski’s associates, Desmond Leslie and George Hunt Williamson, both of whom were -surprise!- Theosophists!