Fact Check: What Space Movie Actually Came out in 1992 Vs. the Internet Prank

Your complete guide to Fact Check: What Space Movie Actually Came out in 1992 Vs. the Internet Prank, including essential background.

The film at the center of the prank is a 1992 Danish short film directed by performance artist Morten Lindberg, known in European counter-cultural circles as "Master Fatman." Running just 26 minutes, the black-and-white release was conceived as an intentional B-movie parody of 1950s American space exploration films, blending campy extraterrestrial tropes with camp blaxploitation satire. The plot revolves around a crew of intergalactic Black gay men who travel to Earth to liberate its male population by exterminating women with ray guns.

Lindberg intended the piece as surrealist queer agitprop and bad-taste comedy, premiering it at small European independent festivals. For nearly two decades, it lingered in deep obscurity, known only to underground film collectors and cult cinema circles. That changed entirely when internet pranksters weaponized early algorithmic search tools.

Between 2018 and 2020, users on Reddit boards like r/dankmemes and 4chan began circulating image templates instructing readers: "Don't Google what space movie came out in 1992." The psychological trick, reverse psychology coupled with pure shock value, prompted millions of queries. Search engine knowledge graphs immediately surfaced Lindberg's short film as the top result, cementing the phrase as an enduring piece of Reddit meme history.