The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Difference between revisions

A'''''The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy''''' is a franchise of different media, all telling variations on the same story by [[Douglas Adams]].

Next came the book series, ''[[The Hitchhikers Guide to The Galaxy (novel)|The Hitchhikers Guide to The Galaxy]]'', probably the best-known version. Originally, it adapted the plots from the radio series, but took off afterwards, becoming five novels in all. The novels vary widely in tone and subject matter, and the fifth book in particular didn't seem to please anyone, [[Creator Backlash|even its own author]]. Adams said near the end of his life that he wanted to do a sixth which might round things out more nicely, but this was [[Author Existence Failure|cut short by his sudden death]]. Specifically, he was believed to have been [[Retool|retooling]] an in-progress [[Dirk Gently]] novel into a new Hitchhiker's story; a few reconstructed chapters were published as part of the ''Salmon Of Doubt'' anthology book. A sixth book by [[Eoin Colfer]], entitled ''And Another Thing...'' (not to be confused by [[And Another Thing|a character dispensing important info just as they're about to leave]]) was published on October 12, 2009.

* ''[[The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy/The Restaurant At The End of The Universe|The Restaurant Atat Thethe End of Thethe Universe]]''

* ''[[The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy/Life, The Universe And Everything|Life, The Universe, Andand Everything]]''

* ''[[The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy/So Long, And Thanks For All The Fish|So Long, Andand Thanks Forfor All Thethe Fish]]''

* ''[[The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy/And Another Thing|And Another Thing...]]''

* [[Cross -Cultural KerfuffleKerfluffle]]: A minor, comical example. During the section explaining how scientists view of the Babel Fish has allowed for the final proof of the non-existence of God, it is said how one can then go on to prove black is white and promptly get run over at the next zebra crossing. In Britain and many other countries, black-and-white stripped "Zebra Crossings" are the equivalent of the (often yellow or parallel lined) American "Crosswalk". Americans, when reading the joke, usually imagine the term as an equivalent to a "Deer Crossing" (that is to say, a place where ''zebras'' cross) which makes for an equally humorous, though widely different joke.

** An odd example of this trope. While the Earth is important to the mices' plans, what ''are'' those plans? To go on the talk show circuit and get rich. The only version of the Ultimate Question we learn is nonsense. When another character learned universal Truth by another method, it [[Go Mad Fromfrom the Revelation|drives some people mad]], but has more to do with frogs than universal epiphanies and isn't mentioned again in any of the following books. There is a Ruler of the Universe, and he doesn't live on Earth. All things considered, Earth is more important to the universe in this series than it seems in [[Real Life]], but it's still an absurd, farcical, nearly [[Crapsack World|crapsack]] universe full of [[Shaggy Dog Story|Shaggy Dog Stories]], so nothing is all that important.

** Well, humans ARE''are'' only the third -most -intelligent species on Earth, behind [[Sapient Cetaceans|Dolphins]], who are second-most-intelligent.

* [[Informed Obscenity]]: The word Belgium, while on Earth the name of a [[Belgium|a country]], is elsewhere a very foul expletive. See [[Pardon My Klingon]] below.