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They're Made Out Of Meat

Stephen O'Regan · 251.4K views · 2019-09-06 · 7:25

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Overview

A 2004 short film adaptation of Terry Bisson's story "They're Made Out of Meat", in which aliens discuss the astonishing discovery of meat-based intelligent life. It stars Tom Noonan and Ben Bailey.

On Hacker News

HN points to it as the best filmed version of the story whenever aliens or the nature of intelligence come up.

Recommended by 2 HN people across 2 months · HN mentions 2023–2026

Topics

Literature & writing craftFilm & TV clipsStand-up & sketch comedy
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terry bissonaliensshort filmsci-ficomedy

What people said

Borrible · 2023-05 · Strong recommendation

I always liked the idea and think O'Reagan's short is the best take on it. A black and white version set in Les Deux Magots, Sartre and Beauvoir at a table in the background, would be nice. [LINK] [VIDEO]

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api · 2026-04 · Recommendation

Great short film version: [VIDEO] I do wonder sometimes if someone out there is waiting for something actually intelligent to emerge down here.

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amiga386 · 2026-04 · Joke / meme

I like that the bearded one can't help cracking up when he says "the ones you probed": [VIDEO]

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Sources

Video by Stephen O'Regan, played through YouTube.

Data and selection notes

HN summaries and labels may contain AI errors. HN dates refer to discussions, not video publication.

HN Library: HackerTube export (2026-10-31) and open-index/hacker-news. Upstream summaries and classifications may contain AI errors.

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