Mar 19
Colette’s Art Direction: We need to convey a Utopian future, so nothing represents that better than a pastel circuit-board Lego city with buildings encased in test tubes. Add a happy gorilla-headed torso man carrying a life-like unitard-wearing sex doll. Ooh, and lasers! And… and shoulder pads!
Published 1982
Published 1982
March 19th, 2012 at 10:21 am
The (green font on yellow, you’ll note) tag reads, “Welcome home. You can’t even begin to imagine what’s happened…”
I assume that’s the dialogue from the cardstock-robot on the left. Ten says this is a zany college comedy and the fellow in the mask is his new room-mate.
March 19th, 2012 at 11:19 am
“Hey! hey! we’re the monkees…!”
March 19th, 2012 at 12:16 pm
The gorilla my dreams?
March 19th, 2012 at 5:31 pm
I imagine a chemically enhanced director produced a video of a surgically enhanced Pat Benatar doing a cover version of “New York New York”.
March 19th, 2012 at 6:58 pm
I reckon he’s about to bung her in the futuristic waste-bin on the right.
March 19th, 2012 at 7:00 pm
And the Rhianna-bot sang: ‘Carried by my gorilla -illa -illa …’
March 19th, 2012 at 7:07 pm
In the story, returning astronauts are seen as primitive. Time dilation and whatnot — just a few years have passed for the astronauts and a hundred or more years have passed on Earth. So in that sense I get it, but uhhh…. wow that’s just weird. Lem being Polish I almost have to wonder if this borrows from the Polish design/illustration sense that often seems zany in a literal sort of way to me. If you’ve ever seen that collection of 50 Polish posters for American movies you know what I’m talking about.
Well there’s my attempt to rationalize it.
March 19th, 2012 at 7:24 pm
Worst robot ever!! The guy looks a little legless, maybe he is wading through techno-water.
March 19th, 2012 at 8:57 pm
A line pilfered from MST 3000 is appropriate here:
So in the future, there’s absolutely no shame?
March 20th, 2012 at 6:26 am
Gorillas in the Mist 2: Gorillas Take Manhattan
March 20th, 2012 at 6:27 am
Get your hands off me you damn dirty ape!
March 20th, 2012 at 8:12 am
Is it me, or is Gorilla-man wearing a nappy?
March 20th, 2012 at 11:09 pm
Seen only in a passing glance, I at first saw the head of Darth Vader on the body of a Stormtrooper. Then my eyes focused and I realised this is something far, far greater. Good show, Sir!
March 22nd, 2012 at 4:21 am
Zoom in and look at her hair. In the future, it just takes one shampoo to achieve a delightful shiny rainbow effect!
May 14th, 2012 at 8:35 pm
“Hey guys, on my trip back from the stars, look what I picked up!”
December 13th, 2015 at 1:47 pm
With a special guest appearance by Steve from Minecraft!
November 17th, 2017 at 2:31 pm
“Hey, no, wait, I’m the robot, the trash can’s over there on the other side. Get that Burger King bag away from me!”
November 17th, 2017 at 2:32 pm
“Trapezoid Head”—perhaps my favorite tag of all time.
November 17th, 2017 at 2:34 pm
Stanislaw Lem needs mountains to support his name. His spirit is as heavy as it is deep.
November 17th, 2017 at 3:20 pm
Dr Zaius is apparently standing knee-deep in some futuristic sewer.
November 17th, 2017 at 4:25 pm
I assume the woman is deeply shocked by what Earth has turned into while she’s away. That would explain why she’s so limp.
November 17th, 2017 at 4:40 pm
@Anna T.:Of course she’s shocked. When she left, she looked like Charlton Heston.
November 17th, 2017 at 6:01 pm
“Get your well manicured hands on me, you damn sexy ape!”
November 17th, 2017 at 6:14 pm
Stanislaw Lem had an uncanny talent for predicting the future: In this case, the Human Barbie woman and bobblehead dolls.
November 17th, 2017 at 6:33 pm
Regarding the alt-text: I wondered what happened to the ape man’s legs. Then I realized that what they took off him, they added to the woman.
November 17th, 2017 at 6:36 pm
First, test-tube babies, next, test-tube skyscrapers.
November 18th, 2017 at 1:16 am
This must be Robot Monster, but inverted.
November 18th, 2017 at 3:16 am
Skyscrapers in test tubes – because windows are so old-fashioned.