> the way the characters in Third Rock from the Sun were named Tom, Dick, and Harry. Wow, I've watched that show for years and never caught that. I love the or

> the way the characters in Third Rock from the Sun were named Tom, Dick, and Harry. Wow, I've watched that show for years and never caught that. I love the ordinary alien name trope, and my favorite incarnation is Ford Prefect from the Hitchhikers Guide series. (While I imagine it was a great gag in the UK for the alien to believe that cars are the dominant life form on earth, the joke was a bit lost on US readers because the model was not popular here.)