Last month, I published a list of 25 reasonably helpful queries you could ask your Amazon Alexa device. But, really, who needs helpful when there’s silly, ridiculous, nerdy, or just plain fun? So, this time, I have 18 Alexa tricks, and I promise none of them are even the slightest bit useful.
1) Alexa, make me a sandwich. The answer you get here is pretty useless, but it’s the perfect setup for the next command.
2) Alexa, sudo make me a sandwich. This is the sort of thing that delights geeks. If you’re not a command-line geek, you can just smile and nod the way you do when we start waxing poetic about grep and awk and Game of Thrones and The Expanse. It’s okay. We’re used to it.
3) Alexa, the Dude abides. What can we say? Alexa has a taste for the classics.
4) Alexa, keep calm and carry on. God save the Queen.
5) Alexa, set volume to 11. It’s such a fine line between stupid and clever. Try it. Then reset it back down to something that won’t blow out your eardrums.
6) Alexa, sing a song. Let’s be clear here. Don’t ask Alexa to play a song. You want to say, specifically, “sing a song.” It’s charming.
7) Alexa, can you rap? Is there anything Alexa can’t do?
8) Alexa, talk like Yoda. May the Force be with you.
9) Alexa, what is pi? The answer is the sort of thing you’d expect from a smart AI assistant. On the other hand…
10) Alexa, what is the value of pi? This is the sort of answer you’d expect from a smart-ass AI assistant. Let’s just say Amazon has all those datacenters for a reason.
11) Alexa, more cowbell. Never question the Bruce Dickinson.
12) Alexa, do you have any pets? Every day, she’s getting better and better.
13) Alexa, tell me a dirty joke. Make sure the kids leave the room first. You can ask this a bunch of times.
14) Alexa, find Chuck Norris. Probably best not to ask this.
15) Alexa, hello HAL. This probably means more to me than you — unless your name is also David.
16) Alexa, sneeze. Sometimes, it just seems like Alexa’s developers need to get out more.
17) Alexa, up up down down left right left right b a start. Delightful, especially if you’re into another kind of classics.
18) Alexa, never going to give you up, never going to let you down. No comment.
If you found any of these Alexa tricks useful, I’m sorry. That was not my intention. Also, don’t click this link. No, it never ever gets old.
CNET: The weird, wide world of Amazon’s Alexa Easter eggs
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