History Main / MistookTheDominantLifeform

* ''Animation/TheMysteryOfTheThirdPlanet'' has [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=Q1i78gCS9Q8#t=235s this dialogue]] in an interstellar animal-trading hub (neither species is native to that world):

* In Creator/IsaacAsimov's story "Victory Unintentional", humans send a trio of robots to gather intelligence on the inhabitants of Jupiter, who have declared their intention to build space ships and exterminate humanity. After seeing the robots pull off several casual feats of [[SuperStrength strength]] and [[NighInvulnerable shrug off several attacks as if they hadn't even noticed them]], the Jovians do a total about-face and start doing their best to make friends. After they leave, one of the robots realizes that the Jovians have never seen an actual human, and would assume that the robots ''are'' the "humans" they'd planned to destroy.

** Martians [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTc3PsW5ghQ tries]] to talk with a telephone. On the "bright" side, they repeated attempts with more than one Terran dictionary.

* ''Literature/TheSpaceTrilogy'': InvertedTrope in ''Out of the Silent Planet''; the men Devine and Weston believe the ''sorns'' are the masters of Mars, because they're the first species they meet and they seem to be the intellectuals of the planet. It turns out they and the two other Martian species all willingly serve the Oyarsa, an invisible being assigned to watch over the planet by [[UsefulNotes/{{Jesus}} Maleldil of Jupiter]]. The humans refuse to revise their opinion and insist the Oyarsa is only a trick of ventriloquism by one of the more visible Martians. The Oyarsa isn't pleased.

So let's say that [[FirstContact the aliens land tomorrow]]. It's not an AlienInvasion (not even a [[BenevolentAlienInvasion well-meaning one]]); this group of aliens geniunely [[IComeInPeace comes in peace]]. After recovering from the initial shock of realizing that, yes, other lifeforms ''do'' exist out there, the governments of the world decide to allow them to land -- which they decide to do in your back yard.

* ''WesternAnimation/RollingWithTheRonks'': The four-minute pilot episode "Welcome to the Ronx" has the alien Flash mistake a gnu for a human and attempt to shake hands, only to provoke the animal's wrath by grabbing its udders.

* This is how Arthur first meets Ford in ''Film/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy''. The latter, mistakenly believing that cars are the dominant lifeform on Earth, attempts to shake hands with one[[note]]It's a Ford Prefect, which is how he got his name[[/note]] ''[[TooDumbToLive while it's driving straight towards him.]]'' Arthur, believing Ford to be drunk, tackles him out of the way. Turns out they're both wrong: [[spoiler:mice]] are the true rulers of the Earth.

* As with their film, TV, and radio counterparts, Ford Prefect and Arthur Dent from ''Literature/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'' first met when the latter saved the former from being run over by a car, which he thought was a dominant lifeform. Ford's name comes from seeing a lot of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Prefect Ford Prefects]] around England and assuming the name was a common one, like John Smith.

* ''Radio/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'':

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* An interesting example in the ''Heritage'' books by Creator/CharlesSheffield There is an alien species which passes through three stages in their life. The first is a totally non-sapient larva, while the second is an arthropod predatory nymph which is sapient but lacks culture and society. The third stage was originally thought to be civilized, due to being a big-headed biped. It turns out, however, that this is a literal case of HollowSoundingHead: it is merely a resonator for mating calls, the animal-sized brain is elsewhere in the body.

** In the "Martian Trashcans" arc, "Gary" [[http://www.collectedcurios.com/sequentialart.php?s=729 tried to talk with two inanimate objects in a row]]. He apparently isn't the brightest bulb in his team, considering he's the one [[http://www.collectedcurios.com/sequentialart.php?s=698 habitually]] sent to [[AliensStealCattle collect cow lips]] while others tend to their little military business.

* A variant in ''VideoGame/KirbyTripleDeluxe''. [[TheDragon Taranza]], who lives on a FloatingContinent, is ordered by his queen to kidnap the "hero of Dream Land". Since he comes from a monarchy, he assumes that [[AuthorityInNameOnly King Dedede]] is the hero of Dream Land, and takes him... which grabs the attention of Kirby, the ''real'' hero.

* In the final scenario of ''VideoGAme/{{Hyperspeed}}'', you make contact with two different aliens sitting in a tree and are prompted which to communicate with. No matter which you choose, it's the ''tree'' that talks back.

* ''ComicBook/TheTransformersMarvel'': The Autobots, having never encountered organic life before, initially believe vehicles to be the dominant lifeform on earth, which is why they use vehicles as alt modes. When Buster first meets Bumblebee, he's trying to communicate with the "locals" at a drive-through theatre. This also happened in ''WesternAnimation/TransformersAnimated'' (see below).

** When the Autobots first arrive they disguise themselves as "the dominant life forms." Bulkhead attempts to chat up a robot dog while the Autobots help fight a monster, only to find out that the organic creatures running around aren't "pets"; robots and vehicles aren't sentient, and humans are the dominant life.

* In one ''Franchise/MickeyMouse'' comic, some aliens attempt to find if there is intelligent life on Earth and abduct Mickey and Pluto to perform tests on them. Pluto ends up scoring higher than Mickey, mostly because the tests are actually very simple and Mickey keeps overcompensating; for example, when the aliens attempt to translate their speech he speaks really slowly, causing the aliens to think he's stupid (while Pluto's barking confounds their TranslatorMicrobes, making the aliens think Dog language is simply too complex for them to understand). The aliens end up concluding that dogs are the dominant species on Earth.

* In Marvel's ''[[Comicbook/TheTransformers Transformers]]'' comics, the Autobots, having never encountered organic life before, initially believe vehicles to be the dominant lifeform on earth, which is why they use vehicles as alt modes. When Buster first meets Bumblebee, he's trying to communicate with the "locals" at a drive-through theatre. This also happened in ''WesternAnimation/TransformersAnimated'' (see below).

* ''Series/SesameStreet'': Martians [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTc3PsW5ghQ tries]] to talk with a telephone. On the "bright" side, they repeated attempts with more than one Terran dictionary.

Granted, the same thing can happen to humans as well. The parrot-like thing riding on that humanoid's shoulder may actually be the master, with the humanoid being its mount. Or it might be that the spaceship itself is in charge, and the aliens disembarking are merely messengers.

This is a common subversion of the typical FirstContact scenario. The aliens, in their studies of Earth, conclude that someone other than humanity are the real masters of Earth. Maybe they assume that we're the servants of our pets rather than mere caretakers. Maybe they're mechanical beings who aren't used to dealing with carbon-based life and assume that any intelligent beings will be machines like themselves. Maybe they assume that the bigger animals have bigger brains, and therefore more intelligence. Maybe they do possess all the facts, but simply have a different definition of "dominant". Maybe they are biased by first impressions, since they saw the other animal species first and found it very impressive while they haven't had observations that gave them a positive impression of humans. Either way, the results are usually [[HilarityEnsues quite amusing]].

* In the final scenario of ''Hyperspeed'', you make contact with two different aliens sitting in a tree and are prompted which to communicate with. No matter which you choose, it's the ''tree'' that talks back.

* This is how Arthur first meets Ford in ''Film/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy''. The latter, mistakenly believing that cars are the dominant lifeform on Earth, attempts to shake hands with one[[note]]coincidentally, it's a Ford Prefect[[/note]] ''[[TooDumbToLive while it's driving straight towards him]]''. Arthur, believing Ford to be drunk, tackles him out of the way. Turns out they're both wrong: [[spoiler:mice]] are the true rulers of the Earth.

* In ''Literature/AliceGirlFromTheFuture'', it happens to Professor Selesnyov on an interstellar market. He approaches a humanoid alien to ask him how much the bird he is asking costs... only for the bird to state that '''she''' is the one selling '''him'''.

* Two human survivors in George Zebrowski's ''Literature/TheKillingStar'' wind up getting captured by the alien invaders and have an audience with them. One wall of the room faces a water-filled chamber which contains an octopus-like creature being preened and taken care of by dozens of little robots. The captives assume that the creature is the brains behind the invasion when it begins speaking to them. It soon reveals, though, that [[spoiler:the robots are in charge. They had been built by the octopi long ago and eventually surpassed them in intelligence. The octopi are considered by the masters to be more like a zoo exhibit of a curious precursor animal than anything else. And our two humans will ultimately share the same fate.]]

* [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helping_Henry "Helping Henry"]]: was a United Kingdom Channel 4 children's television programme, which ran for one series of thirteen 15-minute episodes in 1988. Designed as an educational show, it featured a young boy named Stephen explaining how things worked to an alien named N-3 (or "Henry"), who was disguised as a dining-room chair because his superiors believed that static four legged things were clearly a superior species to the 'two legs' who bustled about them.