But the only gas discovered in the atmosphere so far is helium, probably in the upper atmosphere, which on its own would not support life.

But there may be other, more life-sustaining gases, lower down.

Imagine waiting for alien porn to download over the distance of several light years

Assuming communications travelled at light-speed, yes, "insane" is a word.

You could hold a conversation over a dozen generations.

Like the alien watching Friends.

Good thing I saved all those 50 Free Hours disks.

For a hot second I thought you were talking about my buddy M who literally learned English from watching Friends

It gets interesting if one, or both, sides invent a stasis system, so you don't have one multi-generational, but probably multi subject, conversation, but each "generation" having a conversation like that, and going in to stasis while waiting for a response. People would have to find a way to communicate between generations as well as with the aliens.

If your thinking of the reference I think you are it was ally mcbeal which they referred to as "single female lawyer"...

https://youtu.be/-06ki92PyVY

Same show but I think different episode

On first pass, did not read that last word correctly.

They also watched Friends, but as we all know, it sucks, because Ross, the largest Friend, does not simply eat the other Friends.