The truth is out there, and there are grand plans to find it. As of Monday, 1.1 million people had RSVP’d to a Facebook event called “Storm Area 51, They Can’t Stop All of Us”. As the name suggests, the plan is to storm Area 51 – the notorious Nevada military base associated with extraterrestrial conspiracy theories. “We will all meet up at the Area 51 Alien Center tourist attraction and coordinate our entry,” the event description reads. “If we naruto run, we can move faster than their bullets. Lets see them aliens.” If you have never seen the popular internet memes of “naruto running”, you have time to track one down: the daring ambush is scheduled for 3am on 20 September.

As you may have surmised, the Area 51 plan – which was organised by an anonymous user called “Shitposting cause im in shambles” – is a joke. The US military, however, does not seem to find the viral event very funny. The US Air Force told the Washington Post that “[Area 51] is an open training range for the US Air Force, and we would discourage anyone from trying to come into the area where we train American armed forces. The US Air Force always stands ready to protect America and its assets.” Which boils down to: if you try to “see them aliens” you are going to get shot.

It is not just the military that is taking the joke a little too seriously. According to investigations by NPR, excited alien hunters have already booked up accommodation near Area 51 on the event date. “I think they’re stupid if they think they’re going to get to the test site,” one hotel owner told NPR, “but I’m gonna capitalise on it.” (Spoken like a true American.) Stupid or not, I have got to sympathise with the extraterrestrial investigators. There is a reason this event went viral: we are all desperate for the aliens to come and take us from our leaders.