[Semper Paratus]

The odds are that the first signals we would pick up would be entertainment radio shows.

Aliens 40 light years out should be picking up TV broadcasts of the 3 Stooges. That may cause them to blow us into the sun.

[RadioAstronomer]

Aliens 40 light years out should be picking up TV broadcasts of the 3 Stooges. That may cause them to blow us into the sun.

Actually no. TV just doesn't get out there very far. .3 light years is about the max estimated distance. Thusly, episodes of "I Love Lucy" or "The Three Stooges" are not going to the stars.

[R. Scott]

Or never take us seriously!
But considering the violence in the Three Stooges movies they might just fear us enough to leave us alone.

[grey_whiskers]

Humor columnist Dave Barry (IIRC in the compilation Dave Barry Talks Back?) has a piece entitled "Bring Back Carl's Plaque" talking about just this topic. The plaque is Carl Sagan's plaque which shows a naked man and woman and a hydrogen atom. He assumes that the intergalactic alien police have seen the plaque and decided that the humans are despicable perverts. In his estimation, it is only the presence of I Love Lucy re-runs which have kept the aliens from vaporizing us. :-)

Cheers!