It’s cited as one of 366 Weird Movies.
“Would a watermelon in the midst of a chase sequence not be, in its own organic way, emblematic of our entire misunderstood enterprise? At once totally logical and perfectly irrational?”–W.D. Richter, explaining why there is a watermelon inside the Banzai Institute
…
Any movie that successfully incorporates a band of rock and roll scientists, an invasion by aliens uniformly named “John,” the Eighth Dimension, inexplicable watermelons, and Jeff Goldblum as a New Jersey neurosurgeon who dresses like a cowboy—while working inside the Hollywood system, with a $12 million dollar budget—has worked hard enough to deserve a space on the List of the Best Weird Movies ever made.
By the way, the reason that they put a watermelon in the vice is because a grape wouldn’t have shown up on camera.
IMDB link: The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the Eighth Dimension (1984)
What’s weird about all that?