I’ve always thought having a healthy sense of humor is indispensable to retain your sanity when tackling in the murky waters of the paranormal. After all, if you don’t retain the ability to laugh at yourself, then chances are you won’t be able to handle the criticism of those who don’t take flying saucers and Bigfoot as seriously as you do.
I’d been thinking of making the above image for a long time. My initial impulse was to make a commentary about the different attitudes and approaches taken with regards to anomalous aerial phenomena, by the different ‘generations’ of enthusiasts who arrived into the scene at different historical times.
Not all UFO/UAP fans are cut from the same cloth—in fact, choosing one acronym over the other is usually a good indicator on the person’s attitudes and beliefs about the phenomenon. Whereas those who prefer the ‘UAP’ term may prefer to focus solely on the military cases which came to light after 2017, for example, the people who have been interested in UFOs prior to 2017 may show a broader viewpoint about them; like an interest in ‘alien abductions’ or other things the UAP crowd may want to ‘keep under the rug’, in order to maintain a more sanitized appeal when dealing about this subject before policymakers and journalists.
I know fully well I am showing my own biases in this cartoon, and even though I do not see myself reflected in any of these two stereotypes, to paraphrase a Facebook friend who commented on my page when I posted this image yesterday, I know who of these two guys I would like to have a beer with at the end of a conference.
