The new animated Apple+ show Strange Planet is interesting as a study of adaptation gone wrong. It’s based on the Nathan W. Pyle web-comic series, the one with the sweet big-eyed blue aliens talking about their lives, which just happen to be very much like human lives on Earth.

For example, in one four-image cartoon, two aliens awaiting the arrival of friends prepare to welcome them. One alien says to the other, “Let us store irregular shapes inside shapes with flat surfaces.” When the friends arrive and say, “Your home is beautiful,” the host aliens respond, “Thank you — we own things but have hidden them.”

That gentle observation is the first Strange Planet cartoon Pyle did back in 2019, based on the way he and his wife hid their toaster before company came over. The subsequent comics, which have achieved widespread popularity, work broadly the same way. A couple of aliens describe something they’re doing or thinking in slightly skewed, overly literal ways — using few or no contractions à la Spock — in order to emphasize the inherent weirdness of conventional behaviors. A parent alien says to a child alien lying in bed, “Imagine pleasant nonsense,” instead of “Sweet dreams.” It’s the kind of dialogue that lends itself readily to catchphrases worn on T-shirts.