"Imagine an alien planet where the most provocative thing imaginable is an eyebrow. There are movies, TV series, and books devoted to eyebrows. There are ads devoted to eyebrow plucking and colouring products. Teenagers park cars in secluded places so they can stroke each others' eyebrows. Imagine you've been sent to the planet to study the aliens. And all you can think is… why all this fuss over eyebrows?" "Heterosexuals like chocolate cake. Homosexuals like red velvet cake. Bisexuals like chocolate and red velvet cake. Pansexuals like any kind of cake you can imagine. Asexuals don't like cake." "Imagine a world where, upon maturity, everyone wakes up with a little elephant sitting on the foot of their bed. This elephant follows them around constantly for the rest of their lives and is invisible to everyone except the person it follows around. People love their elephants, name their elephants, take care of their elephants, and spend most of their time talking about their elephants. You reach the Age of Elephant Acquisition, but nothing appears on your bed. You wonder why you didn't get an elephant. You ask people what their elephants look like, and they think you're crazy — after all, everyone knows what an elephant looks like! Enough time passes with no elephant that you decide you just don't have one. But when you tell people this, they don't believe you." "You're ordering dinner, and you're given the option of steak, chicken, or both. When you say you don't like chicken, your server assumes you want steak, but you don't want steak either. To be honest, you don't really like meat, but your server is adamant you order meat. The more you refuse, the more agitated they get. Do you have a weak stomach? Are you vegetarian for religious reasons? Did you have food poisoning once? How can you know for sure if you haven't eaten meat? You like eggs and cheese, you must like meat! Maybe you haven't found the right meat. Are you trying to shame people who do eat meat? Can you even like food? Even though it seems to you like the simplest concept in the world, they can't wrap their mind around the idea of someone not liking meat." "There's a sport that people have been playing for as long as anyone can remember. Its rules are simple enough for nearly anyone to understand. Almost everyone plays this sport, watches it, talks about it… in fact, it's safe to say that this sport dominates most people's lives. You know the rules, you've watched a few games, maybe you've even played a few times. But you just don't get the obsession." (For demis and other graces, add the extra bonus of sometimes experiencing whatever it is in the analogy. I'm not grace, so maybe someone who is could add to this?) (Go ahead and add other analogies you've heard/been forced to invent. Maybe we can make a masterpost or something. Or how about a tag like #ridiculous ace analogies?)
