# The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is 42!



## Northerner (Mar 4, 2020)

Radio 4 Extra is to celebrate the 42nd anniversary of the first episode of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy next week.

The number, of course, correspondents to the answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe and everything – as well as the number of times this ‘mostly harmless’ planet has circled its small unregarded yellow sun in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the Western Spiral arm of the galaxy since Douglas Adams’ sci-fi comedy was first  broadcast on Radio 4 on March 8 1978.





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						The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is 42! : News 2020 :     Chortle : The UK Comedy Guide
					

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is 42! - And Radio 4 Extra is celebrating




					www.chortle.co.uk
				




I was in Russia when I first heard about this - a student from another university was reading it and couldn't stop laughing every 5 seconds, so I borrowed it from him  Utterly fantastic in every respect!


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## Contused (Mar 4, 2020)

Yes, a great hit.


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## Ditto (Mar 4, 2020)

I think it might be time to read the 'trilogy' again...  All five of them is it?


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## Wirrallass (Mar 4, 2020)

Ditto said:


> I think it might be time to read the 'trilogy' again...  All five of them is it?


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## C&E Guy (Mar 4, 2020)

Slartibartfast. His signature was the coastline of Norway.   Brilliant.


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## Docb (Mar 4, 2020)

Marvin is my hero.   Brain the size of a planet and all they asked him to do was park cars.


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## trophywench (Mar 4, 2020)

Years ago visiting La Rochelle we asked the guy running our accommodation to recommend a good local restaurant and he directed us to a fish resto at the end of a long spit of land sticking out into the sea which we obviously called the R at the end of the Universe.  We went nearish to there last September but didn't detour to see if it's still open!


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## Ralph-YK (Mar 4, 2020)

For those using Android, try asking Google using voice recognition: "What is answer to the ultimate question of life the universe and everything?"


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## Contused (Mar 5, 2020)

Ralph-YK said:


> For those using Android, try asking Google using voice recognition: "What is answer to the ultimate question of life the universe and everything?"


Similarly on Apple's i-Pad.


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## Andy HB (Mar 5, 2020)

C&E Guy said:


> Slartibartfast. His signature was the coastline of Norway.   Brilliant.


In the original radio series the signature was actually in one of the glaciers.


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## Northerner (Mar 5, 2020)

I read the book first, I wasn't a Radio 4 listener when I was 19  Thought the tv series was very faithful to the books, although a bit Blakes 7/Crossroads Motel with the sets and effects  Marvin was perfect in that  Hated the film, everything was wrong about it because they tried to appeal to the American audience


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## Ralph-YK (Mar 5, 2020)

Andy HB said:


> In the original radio series the signature was actually in one of the glaciers.


Oh yes, that's how Ford and Arthur knew they were on earth.


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## Chris Hobson (Mar 7, 2020)

My mum and dad owned a couple of Ford Prefects when I was a kid. The car was notorious for destroying its crankshaft.


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## Ralph-YK (Mar 7, 2020)

When Ford came to earth, he saw that Ford was a common name. So called himself Ford Prefect, after the car, to fit in.


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## C&E Guy (Mar 7, 2020)

Ralph-YK said:


> For those using Android, try asking Google using voice recognition: "What is answer to the ultimate question of life the universe and everything?"



Tried asking Alexa.

Hilarious. Total confusion from the family.


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## trophywench (Mar 7, 2020)

We haven't got Alexa chez nous, I do wish someone would enlighten me!


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## Ralph-YK (Mar 7, 2020)

trophywench said:


> We haven't got Alexa chez nous, I do wish someone would enlighten me!


About Alex's or 42?
When you ask on android phone or tablet, all it tells you is "42". Which is the answer given the Hitchhikers book.
Best thing them is to ask about 42. Lol


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## Docb (Mar 8, 2020)

It's a long time since I read the books but if I recall correctly, 42 was not the answer to the ultimate question ---  what is the meaning of life the universe and everything.  42 was the answer given by the computer designed to answer the ultimate question but when interrogated further it revealed that at far as it was concerned the ultimate question was, what is 9 x 6. The fact that it got the answer wrong only proves that there is something fundamentally wrong with the universe.

The idea that Alexa gives the answer 42 would, I guess, have amused Douglas Adams immensely.


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## Ralph-YK (Mar 8, 2020)

The computer that gave the answer 42 (Deep Thought), designed the computer to come after (the Earth). The Earth is the one that was to tell them what the question actually is (9x6).
Earth possibly got the question wrong.
Though, if you use a none base 10 system (13 I believe) 9x6 does equal 42.


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## Sally71 (Mar 8, 2020)

I asked Google on my Android phone and it said “now that is a very deep question, and it depends on who you ask!”


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## Docb (Mar 8, 2020)

Thanks Ralph-YK, knew there was an Adams twist in it somewhere but could not find my copy to check it out properly!


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## Andy HB (Mar 8, 2020)

Ahem! I wish to take a slight issue with some of the explanations. 

Firstly, 42 is the answer to the ultimate question. The only problem is that they didn't know (the 'mice', that is) what the ultimate question was. So, they hired the Magratheans to build a computer where life itself was part of the matrix (i.e. the Earth). This computer (designed by Deep Thought), was just on the point of providing the result of the ultimate question when the Vogons came along and blew it up.

In the meantime, many years before. Ford and Arthur had crash landed on Earth in prehistoric times along with a bunch of telephone sanitisers, hairdressers and security guards (etc).

It was during this time that Ford and Arthur were able to tease out a form of the question from one of the ape men through picking out tiles from a scrabble bag. "What do you get if you multiply six by nine". At which point, Arthur mentions that "I always knew there was something fundamentally wrong with the universe"!

Anyway, Ford basically realised that their arrival had ruined the work of the computer and that the question was wrong because if it.

I thankyou and goodnight!! 

Andy (listened to the original radio series far too often) HB


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## rebrascora (Mar 8, 2020)

Andy HB said:


> Ahem! I wish to take a slight issue with some of the explanations.
> 
> Firstly, 42 is the answer to the ultimate question. The only problem is that they didn't know (the 'mice', that is) what the ultimate question was. So, they hired the Magratheans to build a computer where life itself was part of the matrix (i.e. the Earth). This computer (designed by Deep Thought), was just on the point of providing the result of the ultimate question when the Vogons came along and blew it up.
> 
> ...



Wow Andy! What a great synopsis! I was under the impression that it was the mice that skewed the experiment because they featured in it. Clearly I need to go dig out my books and reread them, with my towel close at hand of course....


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## rebrascora (Mar 8, 2020)

Did anyone go to see the stage show and remember getting "space rations" handed out in the form of Smarties?


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## Ralph-YK (Mar 8, 2020)

rebrascora said:


> Wow Andy! What a great synopsis! I was under the impression that it was the mice that skewed the experiment because they featured in it. Clearly I need to go dig out my books and reread them, with my towel close at hand of course....


The mice were part of the program. Eating the wrong piece of cheese, going the wronge way in the maze the researches put them in, etc.


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## Andy HB (Mar 8, 2020)

Ralph-YK said:


> The mice were part of the program. Eating the wrong piece of cheese, going the wronge way in the maze the researches put them in, etc.


All of my knowledge comes from the original radio series. I think the books played around with one or two aspects. But, as I remember, this bit of information comes from Slartibartfast when Arthur tells him that it was the humans experimenting on mice (actually the projections into our universe of powerful pan-dimensional beings). But Slartibartfast corrects him saying that it was actually the mice conducting fiendishly clever experiments on the humans along the lines that you suggest.


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## Ralph-YK (Mar 8, 2020)

Andy HB said:


> All of my knowledge comes from the original radio series. I think the books played around with one or two aspects. But, as I remember, this bit of information comes from Slartibartfast when Arthur tells him that it was the humans experimenting on mice (actually the projections into our universe of powerful pan-dimensional beings). But Slartibartfast corrects him saying that it was actually the mice conducting fiendishly clever experiments on the humans along the lines that you suggest.


That's how I remember it from the TV series. I can't remember what it says in books (yes they changed things, as did the TV series) or radio series.


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## Vicsetter (Mar 9, 2020)

the BBC website has an old style text adventure of the hhgttg.


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