Joey Rogers
Some time ago, I saw a documentary call A Funny Thing Happened on the way to the Moon. It asserts that the Apollo Moon Landings were hoaxes perpetrated by the United States government and provides a long list of evidence to back up its claim.
Living in Huntsville “The Rocket City” Alabama where Wernher Von Braun led the development of the Saturn V rockets which took men to the Moon, such conspiratorial claims are blasphemous. Most of the claims in the documentary are fairly easy to dismiss, but there are a few that are believable enough to at least make you question why certain things were done (like setting up a video shot to make it look like the astronauts were farther away from Earth than they were). The Moon Landings are not a religion, they’re science. Why do we just accept everything as fact with no explanation?
So, take the premise that the Moon Landings were a hoax, and at some point in the future irrefutable proof is found to prove they were faked. This turns the conspiracy theories upside down and those who believe that man went to the Moon are now the crackpots. Weave a story through this framework, and you get A Funny Thing Happened on the Moon. Originally, the Moon hoax portion of the novel played a much larger role, but as the story developed, it just became part of the background. I think it turned out better that way because the novel does have a story and too much emphasis on the Moon Landing Hoax seems to pull you out of the story. Besides, there are aliens in A Funny Thing Happened on the Moon, and the Moon Landing Hoax isn’t even the most incredible thing in the novel.
Living in Huntsville “The Rocket City” Alabama where Wernher Von Braun led the development of the Saturn V rockets which took men to the Moon, such conspiratorial claims are blasphemous. Most of the claims in the documentary are fairly easy to dismiss, but there are a few that are believable enough to at least make you question why certain things were done (like setting up a video shot to make it look like the astronauts were farther away from Earth than they were). The Moon Landings are not a religion, they’re science. Why do we just accept everything as fact with no explanation?
So, take the premise that the Moon Landings were a hoax, and at some point in the future irrefutable proof is found to prove they were faked. This turns the conspiracy theories upside down and those who believe that man went to the Moon are now the crackpots. Weave a story through this framework, and you get A Funny Thing Happened on the Moon. Originally, the Moon hoax portion of the novel played a much larger role, but as the story developed, it just became part of the background. I think it turned out better that way because the novel does have a story and too much emphasis on the Moon Landing Hoax seems to pull you out of the story. Besides, there are aliens in A Funny Thing Happened on the Moon, and the Moon Landing Hoax isn’t even the most incredible thing in the novel.
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