The Hitchhiker's guide to the Galaxy and the meaning of life

[learningU (Scott Koshland)]

I dont know if anyone else enjoys the British humor of Hitchhiker’s guide to the Galaxy? Can we Lighten it Up for a little with your favorite lines from the books and movie.

I like this one
The planet creator engineer speaking with earlthling Arthur Dent

Dent: " All my life I have this strange feeling there something big and sinister going on in the world".
Engineer: No, that is normal paranoia. Everyone in the universe gets that. Perhaps I am old and tired but the chances of finding out what’s actually going on are so absurdly remote that the only thing to do is say hang the sense of it and keep yourself busy. I much rather be happy than right any day. "
Dent:"And are you happy? "
Engineer: "Uh. No That’s where it all falls down of course.”

[Mervin_Bitikofer]

Adams’ books are rich with both quotes and situational humor … I wouldn’t begin to choose or even remember so many favorites - but here’s a random situation that came to mind, referring I think to one of the entries in “the guide”.

"(After awhile the style settles down a bit and it begins to tell you things you really need to know, like the fact that the fabulously beautiful planet Bethselamin is now so worried about the cumulative erosion by ten billion visiting tourists a year that any net imbalance between the amount you eat and the amount you excrete while on the planet is surgically removed from your body weight when you leave: so every time you go to the lavatory there it is vitally important to get a receipt.)

The astrisk on the end of that quote makes me think the book may have had a footnote for it … and like Terry Pratchett, Adams’ footnotes are not to be missed! … (My own footnote for it might be something like … this adds a new depth of meaning to the phrase ‘vitally important’! One would not just casually leave these receipts laying about!)

[jammycakes (James McKay)]

Here’s one of my favourites:

Arthur: It’s at times like this that I wish I had listened to my mother.
Ford: Why? What did she say?
Arthur: I don’t know. I wasn’t listening.

[St.Roymond]

@learningU

Dent:"And are you happy? "
Engineer: "Uh. No That’s where it all falls down of course.”

That line reminded me of a bumper sticker a university friend and I thought up:

LIFE SUCKS*

*but it gets worse

[learningU (Scott Koshland)]

lol. I like the beginning of the movie with the dolphins song

"it’s an important and popular fact that that things are not as the seem on earth. on the planet earth man had always assumed they were the most intelligent species occupying the planet instead of the third most intelligent. The second most intelligent creatures were dolphins. (the first are mice that are experimenting on humans) who curiously enough had long known of the impending destruction of planet earth. They made many attempts to alert mankind… the song from the movie is fun

So long and thanks for all the fish

So sad that it should come to this

We tried to warn you all but oh dear

You may not share our intellect

Which might explain your disrespect

For all the natural wonders that

grow around you

So long, so long and thanks

for all the fish

The world’s about to be destroyed

There’s no point getting all annoyed

Lie back and let the planet dissolve(around you)

Despite those nets of tuna fleets

We thought that most of you were sweet

Especially tiny tots and your

pregnant women

So long, so long, so long, so long, so long

So long, so long, so long, so long, so long

[Terry_Sampson]

• What I want to know is: Why do attheists get all the funny lines?

[adamjedgar (adam james edgar)]

@jammycakes

Here’s one of my favourites:

Arthur: It’s at times like this that I wish I had listened to my mother.
Ford: Why? What did she say?
Arthur: I don’t know. I wasn’t listening

[learningU (Scott Koshland)]

lol. He was exceptional with a take no prisoner humor that cuts both ways . Humor can have great insight on belief systems of not just the target but also the humorist.

The classic on the meaning of life

They got fed up on the bickering on the meaning of life

So they commissioned their brightest and best to build a computer called Deep thought to calculate the answer

To life, the universe and everything.

“O deep thought we want you to tell us the answer to life, the universe and everything.

We would like an answer something simple.”

Deep thought: “I will have to think about that return in exactly 7 and a half million years.”

Deep thought after 7,5 million

“The answer to the ultimate question life universe and everything is

42

I have thought it over quite thoroughly it is

42”

“Only when you know the question then you know what the answer will be.”

Ford to the President: “Why do you want to know the ultimate question?”

the President “Partly the curiosity, partly a sense of adventure but uh mostly I think its for the fame and the money”

[St.Roymond]

@learningU

life, the universe and everything

Used to be when someone asked what I’d been thinking about I’d say, “Oh, life, the universe, and nothing in particular”.

[mitchellmckain (Scientist and Christian)]

So the second calculation begins… what is the ultimate question to life, the universe, and everything?

result:

“What do you get if you multiply six by nine?”

“Six by nine. Forty two.”

“That’s it. That’s all there is.”

“I always thought something was fundamentally wrong with the universe.”

Some readers noticed that 6x9=54 in base 13 is written 42. The author said this was a coincidence. But I think the funny thing is how this shows that people will go as far and as long as it takes to make things meaningful. We insist on it so much, that we will find meaning even in an answer that was made up as joke and intended to be completely meaningless.