Charlie, Pim, and Bill vs the Alien is the sixth episode in Season Two of Smiling Friends.
Synopsis[]
Pim and Charlie are abducted by a pair of alien fratbros during a UFO hunt.
Adult Swim synopsis[]
This episode tells the story of a 34-year-old boy named Pim who sets out to save his mother on Mars after she is abducted by Martians.
Plot[]
Pim drives Charlie to a cornfield to a UAP-watching party. Charlie is annoyed, as he was taken away from a Saturday night party and he doesn't want to be hanging around with a bunch of "squares". Pim remembers Charlie that he said he enjoyed UFOs but Charlie tells him otherwise, making Pim second guess as to whether or not it was actually Glep who told him he liked UFOs instead. The duo meet up with Bill; an optimist who believes all aliens are benevolent and that they're already watching humanity, as well as Fillmore; a conspiracy theorist caricature who believes aliens are, in actuality, demons, and that the Earth is flat with a glass dome protecting them from space. Finally there is Duncan, who eats animal cookies and regurgitates them constantly. The starwatching starts with no success, though Pim asks Bill to take out his special alien tech. Charlie recognizes it as a Theremin and plays it, inadvertently summoning an alien craft that abducts him, Pim and Bill. As they're abducted, Fillmore confesses that he doesn't believe any of his conspiracy theories and he just said it all to mess with Charlie.
Pim and Charlie wake up in only their underwear, lying down on some operating tables. They look over to Bill, but he's already had his organs harvested by the aliens, with the abductors - a pair of greys - munching on his offal. They're all interrupted by another group of aliens abducting them, distracting the initial abductors enough to give Charlie and Pim enough time to get their clothing and attempt an escape. When they leave however, they discover they're on another alien ship that's leaving the Milky Way. The duo hear a noise and attempt to hide, but the alien they run into simply asks for a lighter. Following the alien, they discover the aliens - including many others that were abducted - are all taking part of a wild party. Approaching the alien they encountered, as well as his buddy, the two try to ask them how to leave but they're asked who invited them. The two mumble around trying to come up with a name, but the mumbling makes the alien believe Xenore invited them. When Charlie says that if Xenore isn't here then they want to leave, the lead alien accuses them of being "squares," causing the whole party to go quiet. The two pretend they're cool, and to prove it to them they join in on the party, doing acts like destroying satellites, binge drinking and doing drugs.
After the party dies down, Pim and Charlie attempt to leave again, but the two dudebro aliens tell them they saved "the best for last." They show them a "populated" planet that they have to obliterate to prove they aren't squares, saying that the fact that it's one of the oldest civilizations on the planet makes the "prank" funny. They insist that they're being genuine with the promise to take them back, but Pim objects, saying he'd rather live the rest of his life on the ship than commit mass genocide. The aliens then show a spinning, screaming void of light, saying that if they won't do it then they spend all of eternity in there. Realizing that they can't spend all of eternity in torment, they reluctantly agree to commit genocide. After the planet blows up, however, the aliens tell them the entire thing was a lie; not only was the planet devoid of life but the eternal prison was just a light they got from Ali Baba. Pim asks them to take them home, but the aliens say the ship "doesn't fly backwards" so they're stuck there. This causes Charlie to lose his cool, verbally assaulting the aliens by calling them childish losers, even admitting that they made up Xenore. Before the confrontation can escalate, however, a police ship begins to abduct the ship they're on for destroying public property, causing the aliens to try to leave. Pim and Charlie notice the aliens that ate Bill zoned out on a couch playing a skateboard game, taking their keys and their ship. Charlie admits he doesn't feel like he can go out for parties anymore, partially because he's too old and that there's no topping an alien party. Him and Pim begin to discuss various things, such as how aliens weren't as nice as they thought, to how the skateboarding game looked cool, only to discover that the Earth is indeed flat; glass dome and all. The two are distraught at the revelation, vowing to keep this secret to themselves.
A post-credits scene shows Fillmore and Duncan imprisoned; convicted of murdering Bill. Fillmore tells them it was the aliens, but the cop doesn't believe him, and Duncan throws up again.
Characters[]
- Pim
- Charlie
- Bill (debut)
- Fillmore
- Duncan
- Alien Dudebros (debut)
- Mrs. Pimling (mentioned)
- Glep (mentioned)
- Carnivorous Greys
- Officer Brule
Title in other languages[]
| Language | Title | Translation |
|---|---|---|
| Czech | Charlie, Pim a Bill proti emzákům | Charlie, Pim and Bill vs. the aliens |
| French | Charlie, Pim et Bill contre l'Extraterrestre | Charlie, Pim, and Bill vs the Alien |
| German | Charlie, Pim und Bill vs den Alien | |
| Polish | Charlie i Pim kontra kosmici | Charlie and Pim vs the aliens |
| Portuguese (Brazil) | Charlie e Pim contra o Alien | Charlie and Pim vs the Alien |
| Spanish (Latin America) | Charlie y Pim contra el alienígena | |
| Spanish (Spain) | Charlie y Pim contra los extraterrestres | Charlie and Pim vs the Aliens |
Transcript[]
To view this episode's transcript, click here.
Trivia[]
General[]
- The drug trip sequence was animated by Justin Noel. An unfiltered version of the sequence can be found here.
- The scene initially had two scary demon heads screaming before fading into an unconscious Pim but this was removed from the final product.
The original design for the UFO.
- A sneak peek[2] for this episode was shown at New York Comic Con 2023, where it was in the animation stage of production and wasn't fully finished. Several things were changed from the preview:
- The design for the UFO changed between the rough animation and the finalized product. The ship was originally much flatter, had a window on the side and three round-orbs on its underside. It's unknown why the design was altered.
- The night sky was also considerably more cartoony, with crudely drawn stars and a moon visible in the sky.
- Charlie's hat floats off of his head when he gets beamed up. This does not happen in the finished episode.
- This is the first episode where Allan and Glep are absent.
- Despite this, Glep is being mentioned by Pim.
- At the same time, Mr. Boss is also absent, making this the episode with most absences from the main cast of the show.
- This is the second episode where Mr. Boss has no appearances, after "The Smiling Friends Go to Brazil!" (although he was present during a phone call in that episode. If we count that, this is the first episode in which Mr. Boss is fully absent).
- Bill is the only human to appear in this episode.
- it’s revealed Charlie and Pim have known each other for 7 years.
- It is unknown if Filmore and Duncan were released from jail or not when Charlie and Pim eventually return alive.
- The episode's title is misleading as it implies the threat Charlie, Pim, and Bill face is a singular alien instead of multiple.
- Bill's role is also overstated as he dies shortly after being abducted by the first UFO.
Episode connections[]
- Fillmore and Duncan previously made their debut in "A Silly Halloween Special," appearing as guests at the Smiling Friends office Halloween party.
- This is the only episode of Season Two whose In Loving Memory end card contains a character relevant to the episode. In this case, it's the alien that Charlie and Pim said invited them to the party: Xenore. The last episode to do this was “Who Violently Murdered Simon S. Salty?" with the titular Simon S. Salty.
- Charlie and Pim acting as this is their first alien encounter despite previously meeting aliens in "Enchanted Forest" implies that the aliens from the forest aren't really aliens. Although it’s possible this episode takes place chronologically before Enchanted Forest.
- The flat Earth showed in the end contradicts the way the planet is depicted in "Charlie Dies and Doesn't Come Back," however this inconsistency might derive from Glep's bed-time story narrative aspect of that episode.
Cultural references[]
The Flatwoods monster during the trip sequence.
- The misleading synopsis of this episode is a reference to the 2011 Disney movie Mars Needs Moms.
- The brown Dudebro alien's story of imprisoning a man for refusing to shove a disc holder up his ass is likely based off how Cory Beck (also known by his internet moniker Spazkid) - a Newgrounds animator and friend of Zach Hadel's - once did that to test whether or not he enjoyed the feeling of gay sex.
- The Alien Dudebros saying that their aircraft "can't fly backwards" is likely a jab at Star Wars: the Rise of Skywalker, where a crucial plot point in defeating the enemy ship fleet is that they can't move upwards.
- One of the aliens in the drug trip sequence resembles the Flatwoods monster.
- Jay Bauman, one of the members of Red Letter Media alongside the voice actors of the episode's antagonists (Mike Stoklasa and Rich Evans), cameos as a space cop, which was likely done to play tribute to Red Letter Media's film Space Cop.
- The colors of the Alien Dudebros may serve as a reference to Purple and Brown, a stop-motion animated series by Aardman. The series was famously used in an Oneyplays skit, where Zach Hadel would trick Joshua Tomar into believing he had important news to show before showing him a .gif image of Brown chewing.
- The Alien Dudebros said that they were gonna go to the Zeta reticuli star system. Zeta reticuli is a actual star system and is prominent in UFOlogy.
- The first aliens we see are 'Grey Aliens', in UFOlogy grey aliens originate from Zeta Reticuli.