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Saturday, November 24, 2018

GORT, KLATU BARRATA NICTU

The news is mostly bad. Global warming has reached a tipping point, and the most powerful and influential (and formerly most respected) county on earth is led by a moron who denies science. 

Pilgrims fleeing violence and oppression come to our borders and are met with soldiers who are given orders by their commander in chief to fire upon women and children. The irony that this is occurring during Thanksgiving could not be more surreal. 

The doorbusters at Walmart are all gone, and gloom is descending upon the land. 

So in these times of trouble, we publish a clip from the historically accurate movie The Day The Earth Stood Still, when Patricia Neal saved the world by speaking the most famous words in the history of Mankind. Words that rank right up there with "The Eagle Has Landed"; "One small step for man..." "Ich Ben ein Berliner"; "Mr. Gorbachev Tear Down This Wall"; "We hold these truths to be self-evident...":
"GORT, KLATU BARRATA NICTU". (1) 

For those of you ignorant of history, Klatu arrived on Earth as a representative from an inter-galactic agency that is monitoring the progress of Earth. The agency, comprised of many alien planets, have turned their security over to robots who keep the peace, and allow the planets to focus on the betterment of their worlds. In the words of Klatu "We have given them absolute power over us. This power cannot be revoked.
Gort, one such robot, has accompanied Klatu to earth. But Klatu was shot by ignorant alien-fearing Americans who worried that he was the forerunner of a caravan of migrants seeking illegal entry onto the planet.
Klatu knows that if he dies, Gort will destroy Earth. Klatu was discovered by Patricia Neal's son Bobby who followed "Mr. Carpenter" to the spaceship that has landed on the Mall in DC.Neal and Bobby live at a boarding house Klatu/Mr. Carpenter was staying at. Upon being discovered, Klatu gives Neal the words to speak to Gort, which in turn save the planet: 












(1) Legal and linguistic scholars have long debated the specific words and their spelling and actual meaning. The biggest controversy is over the word "Barrata" which is often spelled and pronounced "Varrata". In a lengthy Note in the Yale Alien Reporter,  Goldstein and Vingh argue that while "Barrata" has over the years gained the most acceptance, the actual term was "Varrata" based on the limited linguistic and lexicographic understanding of the language of Gort. The issue in our opinion remains unresolved.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

It's Nicktoe ( nick toe ) not nictu

Anonymous said...

What a difference it will make for the United States to protect the environment while Russia, India, and China continue to pollute. But, we can have Moses stand on our shores and order the non-American-influenced seas not to rise. You "progressives" are real morons.

Anonymous said...

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Anonymous said...

The greatest trivia question. Ever.

Anonymous said...

It is a culinary instruction regarding the consumption of human beings.

“Klaatu barada nikto” should be written “Klaatu, burrata nikto.”

Burrata, of course, is a fresh Italian cheese made from mozzarella and cream. It has a slightly firm shell and a very soft interior filled with stracciatella. Some folks like it, others find the texture off-putting.

Nikto is an obvious cognate of "not," "never" or "none" (as in the German "nicht").

So what Klaatu wants Helen to tell Gort is that Klaatu never serves humans with burrata and so Gort, while destroying and consuming all of humanity, should not do so either.

Confusion (clearly shared by Gort) about this obvious explanation arose at the time of the film because, 60 years ago, almost no one outside of Italy had ever heard of burrata. Gort had never been to Italy (or event to the Northside in Boston, where he might have encountered burrata). So he misunderstand the instruction.

With burrata's recent rise in popularity, the line is now more easily understood and a contemporary Gort could be expected to go ahead and destroy the planet..