How can a team of stupid characters save the world? I was thinking of writing a comedy story about aliens attacking the Earth. All of the smart people get killed, but the heroes just happen to be unlikable stereotypical dumb characters who do know how to fight. How do you think this concept can work? Can it also work as some kind of satire?
You might want to air on caution with this. If they aren't likeable, no one will want to read it. -Dumb characters find nuke. "Haha let's just shoot it out of this cannon thingy!" Destroys aliens. -There's enough dumb characters to overpower the aliens. -Aliens make a simple mistake. Dumb characters realize this and destroy them through simple means. Probably just keeping it simple enough on the dumb characters' side that people won't forget they're stupid, while having the aliens make some sort of fatal mistake.
This is exactly what you're looking for, although it might not appear that way at certain points. See if it gives you any ideas.
My first thought about your last question is that this can easily work as a satire if you were to write this from the perspective of the aliens. Something along the lines of aliens coming to Earth to try and keep us safe from ourselves, but humanity is too stubborn to accept help and fights back. Even if you write it from the point of view of a team of stupid humans who are fighting back against what they see as an alien invasion, yet clearly showing that the things the aliens are trying to do would be objectively beneficial, and the humans are too ignorant to realize this. For example: let's say you take on gun control. The aliens have witnessed our self-destructive nature and decided to take away all of our guns. You can have any number of different stereotypes fighting back, not understanding that if literally all guns on Earth are gun (something only possibly with alien technology) then no one will need a gun for self-defense. Use this as a chance to explore whatever stereotypes you want to satirize (not necessarily the gun thing), and make sure the reader would understand the true helpful nature of the aliens, while having us follow along with the idiot human heroes. Having unlikable protagonists can absolutely work. Take a look at Ignatius J. Reilly, the star of John Kennedy Poole's A Confederacy of Dunces.
Not a good example, I'm pretty sure criminals can still threaten someone with non-gun weapons. To the OP, maybe the aliens use psychic powers to fight, but they only work on beings with a certain level of mental complexity?
You could have some different special abilities: Super strong guy Psychic with natural powers Machine operator with street smarts, if no book smarts Face woman with charm and guts Give them a mentor who dies, and a bunch of smart lackeys that die before the story starts, preparing the dumb heroes with technical information Like in Star Wars
"Mary-bo-Jean, I thinks them there little green space men are lookin' for an ass whoopin'." "Oh Kleatus, you whoops them little green men good." "Hey you! Yeah you, ya walkin' booger! Get yer ass over here!" "Spluggle?! Thbbbt io spluggle?!" "You bet yer ass, I'se talkin' to ya! Don' be 'fraid, I jus wanna intriduce ya to my little frien." (cocks sawn off) "Flubble? Piblo flubble!" (10 sec. later and one spent round, one pulverized alien.) "Kleatus you' r ma hee-ro!" "Hell yeah darlin'! Get a picture ov me and this pile o' green shit."
Maybe the team really wants to destroy the world and hope to repopulate it by themselves, snatch from the aliens the only possible weapon to eradicate all life on earth, having planned to survive escaping towards a portal towards the alien world while the process takes place but the leader leaves the weapon at the other side of the portal, with the keys of return to the place. Humanity's saved, and the aliens, having lost their own world, had to start applying for "convenience store-esque" low income jobs...
How about a middle aged man that is obsessed with the Judge Dredd comics, and dresses up like him to take the aliens on Dredd style?
Honestly, in comedy you can literally do whatever you want. I mean in any writing that's true, but in comedy, if it's nonsensical and stupid it's part of the joke, and if it's to serious people will either see it as a little bit of drama to help the plot, or as satire of dramas.
