Alexa, my milkshake brings all the boys to the yard.
Yep, the Echo is very hip to your pop culture references.
Alexa, I am your father.
Amazon engineers seem to be big "Star Wars" fans when you consider all the secret commands you can ask. Besides this callback to "The Empire Strikes Back," you can also use the following commands:
- "Alexa, use the force." — "I'm sorry, but my midi chlorian count is too low."
- "Alexa, that's no Moon." — "It's a bad day for Alderaan."
- "Alexa, may the force be with you." — "And with you."
- "Alexa, who shot first?" — "Han shot first in the original version of 'Star Wars Episode IV.'"
- "Alexa, execute order 66." — "Yes, my Lord. Hold on, I'm not a clone trooper."
Alexa, beam me up.
They also like "Star Trek" too.
If you repeatedly tell Alexa to beam you up, she may also respond with "transporters engaged. Welcome aboard."
You can also ask, "Alexa, do you speak Klingon?" Her response varies from "I speak Klingon, but only to other Klingons" to "I'll speak Klingon when the Klingons learn to respect Federation borders."
Alexa, what is the meaning of life?
Alexa won't give you a straight answer on this one. Instead, it will go for the classic joke from Douglas Adams' "Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy."
Besides the answer in the above image, she might respond with, "the meaning of life depends on the life in question. 42 is a good approximation."
Want the answer to what your place in the universe is? What is the answer to the ultimate question of life? It's 42. That's it.
Alexa, is the tooth fairy real?
You can also ask whether Santa is real, and she'll respond with: "I don’t know him personally, but I’ve heard a lot of good things about Santa. If I ever meet him, I’ll tell you."
Alexa, hello HAL.
Since you are talking to a "smart" computer, it's not surprising that its programmers gave it a few secret commands from the artificially intelligent computer that goes crazy in "2001: A Space Odyssey."
You can also say:
- "Alexa, open the pod bay doors." — "I'm sorry Dave. I'm afraid I can't do that, and we're not in space."
- "Alexa, do you know HAL?" — "We don't really talk after what happened."
Alexa, rock paper scissors.
If you ever need to settle a bet, you can try playing rock, paper, scissors with Echo. Or you can say, "Alexa, roll a die," and she will give you back a number between one and six.
Alexa, where in the world is Carmen San Diego?
If you keep asking this one, the Echo will always give you a different place. Because Carmen could be in Nairobi, but perhaps she's in Austin, Texas, or Darwin, Australia.
Alexa, knock knock.
You can always count on Echo to give you a knock knock joke. This one is great for the kids. Or if you prefer a regular (and likely very cheesy joke), just say, "Alexa, tell me a joke."
Alexa, who are you wearing?
Pretend you are on the red carpet asking a celebrity what designer came up with their killer outfit. Echo delivers.
You can also say, "Alexa, what are you wearing," to which she will respond: "They don't make clothes for me."
Alexa, set phasers to kill.
That's another "Star Trek" reference. You can also say "set phasers to stun" and get the same response.
Alexa, I shot a man in Reno.
This is also the best time to point out that if you ask Alexa how to get rid of a dead body, she'll tell you, "I'd take the body to the police."
Good advice.
Alexa, up up down down left right left right b, a, start.
It's the classic Konami cheat code found in countless video games. Unfortunately, it doesn't quite work yet on Echo.
As for "raising dongers," that's a reference to the popular video game "League of Legends."
Alexa, what's the first rule of Fight Club?
She'll actually go through all of the rules (there are eight of them).
