SOLVED. 1980s Sci-Fi Humor - Same Vein As "Hitchhikers Guide". [s]

[NL]

Folks: I checked out a hardcover book from a library in Birmingham, AL in the early to mid-1980s, before I went into a hospital for surgery. I laughed so hard the night before the surgery that the nurses cut off all of my pain meds!

What I remember of the book: A group of aliens sent a member of their species to earth as a spy. They had surveilled Earth previously, but didn't totally understand our culture, so a LOT of "mistakes" happened, including their male spy wearing a bra and one of his nipples being able to shoot laser beams.

The "hero" came to earth in a spaceship disguised as a Fedders Air Conditioning unit and he landed it on the roof of a skyscraper.

One of the earthlings (I think) was an addle-brained, elderly human male with the last name of Trindle, who was overly fond of seersucker suits.

Can't remember much beyond that, but I've Google-searched the heck out of this and cannot find ANYTHING relevant.

Any help would be GREATLY appreciated.

Thanks, y'all!

Nancy

[SamSpayedPI]

This sounds so good! I hope we find it so I can read it too.

Hopefully, most of the plot points are actually in the book, and not the result of your pain medication. I had no luck searching with various combinations of "Fedders," "Trindle," "seersucker" and "bra" (except only the last two got me years' worth of Sears catalogs).

[NL]

Hey, Sam - thanks for your reply (LOL re: the Sears catalogs!) and sorry for not including the plot points.

Here is all that I remember (maybe those pain meds DID do a number on my gray matter): The male main character (hero) was sort of a reluctant participant in his mission; the main bad guys (the hero's alien "bosses") were morons with delusions of conquering Earth; the hero finally came to the conclusion that his bosses were morons and began to work actively against them; Trindle was a professor (maybe a scientist?) who befriended the hero; there was a girl involved (there's ALWAYS a girl involved, right?) who may have been Trindle's daughter; and there was a happily-ever-after ending.

Unfortunately, that's all I remember. :-(

By the way, I've done the same searches you performed, all with similar results. I may have the timeline wrong - could have been late 1970s when I read the novel...

Anyway, thanks again for your reply and I, too, am hoping we discover the name of this novel - I'd LOVE to re-read the thing.

Nancy

[Bonnie]

Found this thread. Don't know if it's the same book, but sounds promising. They gave the answer as Bob Ottum's "All Right, Everybody Off the Planet."

https://scifi.stackexchange.com/quest...

[NL]

Good grief, Bonnie! That may be it! (If so, I got a bunch of plot points way off base...)

It's also available on Amazon, so I'm going to go click the "add to cart" button right now.

Can't thank you enough! :-D

Nancy

[Bonnie]

You're welcome. If you think that's the correct answer, you might want to mark this as solved. :)

[Lobstergirl, au gratin]

Please let us know as soon as you are sure it's the correct book.

[Ingo]

For the click (and for others, as long as this is not added to title):
All Right, Everybody Off the Planet!

[NL]

I've ordered the book and it should be here in a week or so (Jan. 27th). As soon as I can, I'll post to this thread to let y'all know if it's the book I'm remembering.

Thanks again!

Nancy

[NL]

Folks: "All Right, Everybody Off the Planet!" by Bob Ottum is indeed the book I was trying to remember! I'm only about 30 pages into re-reading it and am already having giggle-fits (and, hey, no pain meds this time!!!).

Just a word of caution - according to the copyright data, this book was published in the early 1970s. If you weren't around (and conscious) during that era, a LOT of the cultural references are going to sail right over your head.

Thanks again to Bonnie and all who replied to my post! Happy reading!

Nancy