After one look at this planet any visitor from outer space would say, "I want to see the manager."

Burroughs imagines an extraterrestrial tourist reacting to Earth the way a dissatisfied customer reacts to a badly run establishment: demanding to “see the manager.” The joke turns cosmic perspective into a satirical complaint about human institutions—war, bureaucracy, exploitation, and the general mismanagement of life on the planet. By framing civilization as something that ought to have accountable leadership, the line mocks the absence of clear responsibility for systemic harm. It also fits Burroughs’s broader distrust of “control” systems: the world appears so irrational that an outsider would assume someone must be in charge—and would immediately want answers.