The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

The quick version

Arthur Dent is at home, in his dressing gown, doing nothing of consequence, when planet Earth is destroyed to make way for a new interstellar highway.  Well it's no use complaining now, the aliens inform them before blasting Earth to smithereens, because the planning application has been in their local galactic council chambers for several months now!  Suddenly homeless and with only a few friends, a copy of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and a towel to his name, Arthur begins his journey across the universe...

The Guide, with it's first piece of advice printed on the cover

The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy was the first of a series of books written by Douglas Adams.  Like all the best ideas, it came to him while he was lying drunk in a field, staring at the night sky.

The books are science fiction - so space, robots, and aliens - but they are also a farcical comedy.  I suppose that in a way Douglas Adams is to sci-fi what Terry Pratchett is fantasy (the Adams fans will have me tortured with Vogon poetry for saying so), in that they know and love their chosen genres so much that they are able to mock them by cleverly turning the tropes that define them on their heads.

Marvin, in the 2005 movie

That said, Adams' humour has a sharper edge than Pratchett, and he excels at this kind of surreal comedy.  Many of the jokes are based on demonstrating to humans their own insignificance within the grand scheme of the universe, spoiling our plans, denying our sense of just desserts, and sending up our greatest triumphs.  One of the best examples is the character of Marvin.  The ship Arthur and his friends end up travelling on includes a robotic manservant, Marvin the Paranoid Android.  He is a marvel of modern technology; a robot with both a sentient personality and "the brain the size of a planet".  The irony is that because of his insanely huge intellect, there is no task he can be given that will ever satisfy him, so he suffers from constant boredom-induced depression and is incessantly moaning about how his brainpower is just being wasted on these menial jobs.

This sharply ironic humour gets applied everywhere in Adams' universe, resulting in some surreal and bizarre situations, and jokes that often revolve around someone's expectations being let down in an amusing way.  Where did the Earth come from?  It's not as impressive as you think.  What is the meaning of life?  The answer isn't as profound as you imagined.  And you thought you and your achievements were of some importance in the universe?  Think again!  It's this self-deprecating and very British sense of humour that make's the Hitchhikers series what it is


Drinking Game
Take a sip of your Pangalactic Gargleblaster when:

• Someone refers to the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy for information.
• Anyone is praised for carrying a towel.
• Marvin complains about something.
• Someone tries to do something impressive, only have it backfire disastrously.
• Anybody has a name that sounds a bit like an amusing bodily function.
• The Vogons recite poetry, or threaten to do so.

Vogon poetry is so badly written that it can kill it's listener

42

You probably know at least one reference to THHGTTG, even if you've never seen it, and that is the use of the number 42.  In the books, a computer called Deep Thought is given the task of find out "What is the answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything?"  It spends 7.5 million years on the problem and finally announces that the answer is 42.  When the astounded and dismayed crowd say that this can't possibly be right, Deep Thought replies "I checked it very thoroughly, and that quite definitely is the answer.  I think the problem [...] is that you've never actually known what the question was."

The joke pops up over and over again in popular culture, used whenever an impossible question is asked, if humans would be unable to comprehend the answer even if we knew it, anything to do with the meaning of life, or just as a shorthand for something large and universal in nature.  Several popular songs, and the TV chat show The Kumars at No 42 were all referencing this, and typing "the answer to life the universe and everything"into Google yields the same result.

The Franchise, pros and cons

Naturally there's been a bunch of adaptions of the six books that make up the series, including a TV show, which was before my time but was apparently rather good, and an attempt at a movie in 2005.  It was... ok.  Adaptions are hard to pull off, and the surreal nature of HHGTTG makes it arguably harder than most, but reviews were moderate at best and I tend to agree with that.  It may just be because I'm British, but the wholesome, zealous nature of the American actors seemed to jar with the wry and backhanded comedy of the storytelling.  The character of Arthur, played in all his bewildered exasperation by Martin Freeman, was the best and most believable thing in it for me, particularly his reaction to the Planet Factory of Magrathea.  The other highlights would be Marvin, voiced by Alan Rickman at his most doleful, Stephen Fry as the voice of the Guide, and Bill Bailey as The Whale.  

Like I said, the books have a very self-deprecating and quintessentially British sense of humour, and perhaps it takes a Brit to pull it off.

My first introduction of THGTTG was in the form it is still most famous for outside of the books - the 1978 BBC radio series.  Despite being born a decade after the show first aired, I was lucky enough to catch one of it's many repeats.  I have very vivid memories of sitting in the car with my Dad when the family got home from church to listen to that week's instalment of the show on Radio 4.  The opening theme tune (taken from 'Journey of the Sorcerer' by the Eagles) is a massive piece of cultural nostalgia that most people of a certain age or clique still recognise.

In conversation with a fan:

• DON'T say: "Gosh, I wonder if there's a special reason why Adams chose the number 42."  There isn't, and he's on record for saying there isn't.  He chose it precisely because of it's lack of specialness, and got very annoyed when people asked him about it.
• DO say: "So long, and thanks for all the fish!"