The aliens will be speaking with an Austrian accent

[Jokodo]

As the secretary general of the United Nations at the time, a certain Kurt Waldheim was tasked with recording a message to whoever might get hold of the Voyager probes.

Here's it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SrCaPuQn4_Q

Given this, why isn't it a standard trope of SciFi that the aliens speak with that accent?

 

[Gun Nut]

As the secretary general of the United Nations at the time, a certain Kurt Waldheim was tasked with recording a message to whoever might get hold of the Voyager probes.

Here's it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SrCaPuQn4_Q

Given this, why isn't it a standard trope of SciFi that the aliens speak with that accent?

The real launch of pop sci-fi was in the 50's. Do you really think Hollywood would put the voice of the friendly aliens as a COMMUNIST one? no way.

 

[steve_bank]

Do Australians speak English or do they speak Australian?

 

[bigfield]

Do Australians speak English or do they speak Australian?

No, they speak German.

 

[skepticalbip]

The French insist that there should be a Frenchman in the crew of any manned deep space mission as an interpreter just in case the mission runs into intelligent aliens. Is it legal to speak French with an Austrian accent?... Is it even possible?

 

[Jokodo]

Do Australians speak English or do they speak Australian?

Australians speak English (and a few hundred other languages). Kurt Waldheim wasn't however Australian.

- - - Updated - - -

As the secretary general of the United Nations at the time, a certain Kurt Waldheim was tasked with recording a message to whoever might get hold of the Voyager probes.

Here's it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SrCaPuQn4_Q

Given this, why isn't it a standard trope of SciFi that the aliens speak with that accent?

The real launch of pop sci-fi was in the 50's. Do you really think Hollywood would put the voice of the friendly aliens as a COMMUNIST one? no way.

How many large audience sci-fi movies where there in the 50s?

And what's communist about a conservative Austrian politician with a Nazi past?

 

[DrZoidberg]

Is Austria the one with the cuckoo clocks or the meatballs? So confused.

 

[Jokodo]

Is Austria the one with the cuckoo clocks or the meatballs? So confused.

The one with the kangoroos. Cuckoo clocks are communist, don't you know?

 

[Gun Nut]

Australians speak English (and a few hundred other languages). Kurt Waldheim wasn't however Australian.

- - - Updated - - -

The real launch of pop sci-fi was in the 50's. Do you really think Hollywood would put the voice of the friendly aliens as a COMMUNIST one? no way.

How many large audience sci-fi movies where there in the 50s?

206. I'll leave it to you to look up how many there were in other decades and provide a statistical analysis. It's common knowledge (to the scifi knowledgeable) that the 1950's were the boon in SciFi, and more specifically, alien invader movies. You should really be able to guess why that is - It's not a big secret

And what's communist about a conservative Austrian politician with a Nazi past?

Anything remotely Slavic sounding is "communist" in the 1950's.

 

[Jokodo]

206. I'll leave it to you to look up how many there were in other decades and provide a statistical analysis. It's common knowledge (to the scifi knowledgeable) that the 1950's were the boon in SciFi, and more specifically, alien invader movies. You should really be able to guess why that is - It's not a big secret

And what's communist about a conservative Austrian politician with a Nazi past?

Anything remotely Slavic sounding is "communist" in the 1950's.

In the 1950s, there were no voyager probes, no golden record, no "it is with humility that we make this step" spoken in Waldheim's accent. You don't expect it to show up as a trope in scifi before it was a thing in science.

 

[Gun Nut]

206. I'll leave it to you to look up how many there were in other decades and provide a statistical analysis. It's common knowledge (to the scifi knowledgeable) that the 1950's were the boon in SciFi, and more specifically, alien invader movies. You should really be able to guess why that is - It's not a big secret

And what's communist about a conservative Austrian politician with a Nazi past?

Anything remotely Slavic sounding is "communist" in the 1950's.

In the 1950s, there were no voyager probes, no golden record, no "it is with humility that we make this step" spoken in Waldheim's accent. You don't expect it to show up as a trope in scifi before it was a thing in science.

two words... Cold War.

 

[Jokodo]

In the 1950s, there were no voyager probes, no golden record, no "it is with humility that we make this step" spoken in Waldheim's accent. You don't expect it to show up as a trope in scifi before it was a thing in science.

two words... Cold War.

You've been trying to say that for the better part of the thread.

I understand that.

You don't understand what I'm telling you why it isn't an explanation.

 

[Gun Nut]

In the 1950s, there were no voyager probes, no golden record, no "it is with humility that we make this step" spoken in Waldheim's accent. You don't expect it to show up as a trope in scifi before it was a thing in science.

two words... Cold War.

You've been trying to say that for the better part of the thread.

I understand that.

You don't understand what I'm telling you why it isn't an explanation.

ok...

why isn't it a standard trope of SciFi that the aliens speak with that accent?

because the Cold War did not end in the 1950's... or the 1960's... or the 1970's... one can say that the Apollo Mission was part of the cold war. Hollywood both influences and reflects public opinion. Public opinion during that time frame, and for decades thereafter, was that "Slavic" sounding dialects came from
"Rooskies", "Comrades", and other "unAmerican Commie Bastard shitholes".

Really, it is quite simple.. Like asking why the casting of Nichelle Nichols as Uhura on Star Trek was "such a big deal".

As for why HE was selected to speak the greeting, it was because he was the Secretary General of the UN at the time, and his voice spoke for all nations, regardless of Hollywood influence... cause that was politics, not the movies.

You asked why him on the record and why not more of him in SciFi. I answered both.

 

[Jokodo]

You've been trying to say that for the better part of the thread.

I understand that.

You don't understand what I'm telling you why it isn't an explanation.

ok...

why isn't it a standard trope of SciFi that the aliens speak with that accent?

because the Cold War did not end in the 1950's... or the 1960's... or the 1970's... one can say that the Apollo Mission was part of the cold war. Hollywood both influences and reflects public opinion. Public opinion during that time frame, and for decades thereafter, was that "Slavic" sounding dialects came from
"Rooskies", "Comrades", and other "unAmerican Commie Bastard shitholes".

Really, it is quite simple.. Like asking why the casting of Nichelle Nichols as Uhura on Star Trek was "such a big deal".

As for why HE was selected to speak the greeting, it was because he was the Secretary General of the UN at the time, and his voice spoke for all nations, regardless of Hollywood influence... cause that was politics, not the movies.

You asked why him on the record and why not more of him in SciFi. I answered both.

I did not in fact ask why him on the record. I even stated why he was on the record in the OP.

At most you answered why friendly aliens wouldn't be depicted speaking with his accent (and you did so with reference to the political situation two decades prior to the launch of the Voyager probes). I may be mistaken, but I believe unfriendly aliens happen at least as often in movies.

 

[bilby]

I don't know why Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart or his ancestors were transported to Van Diemen's Land, but I am certainly glad of the boost it gave to Australian music and culture.

 

[steve_bank]

I got into a conversation with a tourist Australian couple last summer. Hard to understand. Not just the different metaphors and sayings. The accents and on what syllables get emphasized.

I think there was an American news segment that actualy had subtitles for an Australian speaker in the news.

 

[Jokodo]

I got into a conversation with a tourist Australian couple last summer. Hard to understand. Not just the different metaphors and sayings. The accents and on what syllables get emphasized.

I think there was an American news segment that actualy had subtitles for an Australian speaker in the news.

Why do you keep bringing up Australia and Australian accents when everyone else on the thread is talking about German accents (and one person, mysteriously about Slavic accents) and a little country in Europe between Germany and Italy, Hungary and Switzerland?

 

[bigfield]

I got into a conversation with a tourist Australian couple last summer. Hard to understand. Not just the different metaphors and sayings. The accents and on what syllables get emphasized.

I think there was an American news segment that actualy had subtitles for an Australian speaker in the news.

Why do you keep bringing up Australia and Australian accents when everyone else on the thread is talking about German accents (and one person, mysteriously about Slavic accents) and a little country in Europe between Germany and Italy, Hungary and Switzerland?

That place where everyone eats schnitzel.

Wait--that doesn't help.

 

[DrZoidberg]

I got into a conversation with a tourist Australian couple last summer. Hard to understand. Not just the different metaphors and sayings. The accents and on what syllables get emphasized.

I think there was an American news segment that actualy had subtitles for an Australian speaker in the news.

Why do you keep bringing up Australia and Australian accents when everyone else on the thread is talking about German accents (and one person, mysteriously about Slavic accents) and a little country in Europe between Germany and Italy, Hungary and Switzerland?

That place where everyone eats schnitzel.

Wait--that doesn't help.

That's Schnitzeland. A completely different place.

 

[bilby]

That place where everyone eats schnitzel.

Wait--that doesn't help.

That's Schnitzeland. A completely different place.

They were neutral in WWII. Next door to Norway.