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Viral hearing moment / meme wave

The 'non-human biologics' hearing

Mace's deadpan questions about 'non-human biologics' and her demand for evidence she could touch made her the congressional face of a UAP hearing the internet spent days turning into a meme.

Rep. Nancy Mace questions witnesses at the July 26, 2023 House UAP hearing
Rep. Nancy Mace questions witnesses at the July 26, 2023 House UAP hearing · Roll Call

On July 26, 2023, the House Oversight subcommittee held a hearing on Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena, and Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) drew one of the day's most-replayed exchanges. Pressing former intelligence officer David Grusch on his claim that the government had recovered crashed craft, Mace asked whether the recovered remains were "human or nonhuman biologics." Grusch answered: "Non-human." The phrase, and Mace's flat, just-checking delivery, made her the congressional face of a hearing the internet spent the next several days turning into a wall-to-wall meme.

Most of the jokes that followed took aim at the hearing itself, and at the surreal idea of the U.S. government conceding "non-human biologics" in sworn testimony, rather than at Mace personally. But as the member asking the bluntest questions, and who told reporters afterward that she would need to "touch" physical evidence before she believed it, she became the recurring image attached to the moment, from the Post and Courier's "Nancy Mace wants evidence she can touch" headline to days of reaction threads.

The hearing:

The July 26, 2023 UAP hearing. Watch the full clip on C-SPAN.

Mace: "Were they, I guess, human or nonhuman biologics?"

David Grusch: "Non-human."

The exchange, via Roll Call.

By that evening "aliens are real" was trending worldwide, and outlets from BuzzFeed to The Washington Post were cataloging the response. The dominant joke wasn't awe, it was indifference: a running bit that the government had just confirmed extraterrestrials and nobody could afford to care.

The reaction even spawned its own fact-check. Singer Lizzo told her followers the government had "stated under oath" that it possessed "UFOs and non-human alien bodies." PolitiFact rated that False: Grusch testified as a private whistleblower, not on the government's behalf, and the Defense Department said it had no "verifiable information" substantiating the claims.

PolitiFact rated the "under oath / the government" framing False.

The hearing trended worldwide, yet it generated zero late-night monologue coverage: every major late-night show, Colbert, Meyers, Kimmel, Fallon, and The Daily Show, was dark during the 2023 Writers Guild of America strike (May 2, September 27, 2023). The mockery was driven entirely by social media.

See also

Sources & related coverage