Area 51-1/2: The Facility Nobody Asked For

Area 51-1/2 is a workplace sitcom in prose about the government's third-worst idea this week: a desert daycare for rejected aliens. Each chapter plays like an episode-cold open gag, A/B plot chaos, escalating misfires, a set-piece meltdown, deadpan cover-up, and a tag that sticks the joke. Private Jenkins, a by-the-book rookie turned honorary slime wrangler, tries to keep order under Major Karen Briggs, a hyper-competent babysitter in uniform, while nepo-scientist Dr. Paul Smythe abuses a lab coat like a security blanket. The inmates: Glarnock the oversharing ooze, Klop the conspiracy prophet, Princess Flarnu the royal nightmare, Zorb the involuntary polka machine, Chad (maybe human), and Snorf, an empathic mood grenade. Expect culture-clash snacks, bureaucratic forms for catastrophes, and running bits (vending machines eaten, cargo shorts not invisible). Dry, quick, and straight-faced.