The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy cultural references

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Since the original radio transmission of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, there have been many references to the series in many types of media. The popularity of the books, TV series, and the many other adaptations have expanded these yet further.

Most famously, a chess computer was named Deep Thought after the computer which works out the "Ultimate Answer" in the stories. In 1989 it lost two games to the then World Chess Champion, Gary Kasparov. In 1996 one of its successors, Deep Blue, defeated Kasparov in a six-game match under tournament conditions, becoming the first machine to defeat a reigning World Chess Champion in tournament chess.

Contents

[edit] Hitchhiker's Guide to...

The title has been referenced by a variety of media:

Chronological:

Other:

  • Microsoft Press has published multiple editions of Hitchhiker's Guide to Visual Basic and SQL Server.

[edit] 42

References to the number forty-two are common:

  • Google's calculator feature displays the number 42 when asked, "answer to life the universe and everything?" [3] (only works with all lower-case letters).
  • Using search at live.com will give you a similar result. Entering "answer to life the universe and everything" (all lower case letters again) into the search box at www.live.com gives the result: "Answer: answer = 42 at the top of the list. [4]
  • The character of Lionel, in the PBS Kids' series Between the Lions, wears a '42' on his rugby jersey sleeve. This is a deliberate homage by two of the show's creators, Michael Frith and Christopher Cerf, as discussed in Cerf's introduction to the US Editions of The Salmon of Doubt.
  • The house number of the Kumars, of The Kumars at No. 42, is a reference, as the show's creator Sanjeev Bhaskar explained on the occasion of endorsing the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy in the BBC campaign Big Read
  • In SWI Prolog, if one asks for a capitalised goal predicate, such as Predicate. or X., therefore turning the goal into the uninstantiated question (in other words, one asks a question that can be loosely translated as "What matches [everything]?" or "Is there an [everything]?"), one is given 42. For example:
1 ?- X.
% ... 1,000,000 ............ 10,000,000 years later
% 
%       >> 42 << (last release gives the question)
1 ?-
  • In the text editor vim, the command ":help 42" yields the following text:

What is the meaning of life, the universe and everything? *42* Douglas Adams, the only person who knew what this question really was about is now dead, unfortunately. So now you might wonder what the meaning of death is...

  • Geoff Fortytwo changed his last name to Fortytwo in 1998.
  • The popular talker the Planes of Existence used 42 as the beginning of all of its ports.
  • In the TIFF (Tagged Image File Format) specification: Every TIFF file begins with a 2-byte indicator of byte order: "II" for little endian and "MM" for big endian byte ordering. The following 2 bytes represent the number 42. The number 42 was selected "for its deep philosophical significance".
  • In the comic "Get Fuzzy", Rob Wilco is known to wear a shirt with the mathematical equation "6 * 9 = 42". There was also a comic with a tribute to Douglas Adams (published after the author's 2001 death), with a giant 42 with the line "So long and thanks for all the laughs." Also, characters are seen holding towels, and one says "Don't panic."
  • The band Level 42 was named in direct reference to this (first mentioned in Neil Gaiman's Don't Panic).
  • In the game Dragon Quest, a free online game, you are told that the meaning of life is in room number 42.
  • In the online game Adventure Quest, there is a door labelled 42 in the inn. When clicked on, messages appear that reference the books.
  • If using the Oracle of Team Trafikk [5], the local bus company in Trondheim, Norway it will answer the question "Hva er meningen med livet?" ("What is the meaning of life?") with "42".
  • In Microsoft's Integrated Development Environment Visual C++, creating a new Dynamic-link library project will generate default code with a sample function that just returns 42.
  • The first real distribution of SUSE Linux was numbered 4.2 in reference to 42
  • The Breakout-style PC game DX Ball 2, if started and watched without interaction, displays a scrolling message ending with:
"That's it, really"
(Text scrolls to blank screen)
"No more text"
(Scrolls to blank screen again)
"The meaning of life is
- - -
the defeat of entropy"
(Scrolls to blank screen again)
"Ha-ha! You thought I was going to say
- - -
Forty-two, didn't you?

[edit] Phrases

Other popular phrases have been adapted many times:

  • Version 4.0 of the screen saver collection After Dark contained an "equation" screen saver in which one of the possible settings for things to calculate was "Life, the Universe and Everything".
  • The webcomic El Goonish Shive has one comic titled "So Long and Thanks for all the Cake".
  • The title of the episode #1.35 of the Disney animated series Darkwing Duck is "Life, the Negaverse, and Everything," referring to Life, the Universe and Everything.
  • In the game GoldenEye 007 for Nintendo 64, one of the "awards" that can be earned in multiplayer mode is "Mostly Harmless."
  • In the game Total Annihilation, a mod on the original game's AI is called "Mostly Harmless"
  • In the game Elite the player's first ranking is "Harmless", after which they progress to "Mostly Harmless." These are, respectively, the entire entries for the planet Earth in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy before and after Ford Prefect's update. The same is true of the Escape Velocity games and Evil Genius.
  • The band NOFX released an album in 1997 called So Long and Thanks for All the Shoes, in reference to the dolphins' final quote, "So long, and thanks for all the fish." "Shoes" was used because of the articles of clothing, including shoes, that are thrown onto the stage whenever the band performs live. This was stated in the insert for the album.
  • In the game Impossible Creatures, Rex says, "So Long and Thanks for All the Fish," after the villagers he saves from a fire give him a bunch of Archerfish to mix with other creatures. This is yet another reference to the title of the fourth book, and what the dolphins say shortly before departing from the earth.
  • The Coldplay song "Don't Panic" takes its name from the inscription on the front cover of the fictional guide.
  • The name of GameFAQs' most well-known message board, "Life, the Universe, and Everything", is derived from the book of the same name. It was formerly board #42, but is now board #402.
  • In S.M. Stirling's book, "Island in the Sea of Time", William Walker says "So long", and finishes with "and thanks for all the fish" in his head.
  • The website drinksmixer.com lists one recipe for a Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster here.
  • The jester in Infocom's Zork Zero will sometimes say "So long, and thanks for all the fish" (a possible reference to the computer game, because Zork Zero and the game were both implemented by Steve Meretzky.)
  • Two finnish bands, Abduktio and Poverty Stinks have used titles from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Abduktio's 2005 album Tuli kulje kanssani features a track called Enimmäkseen harmiton, which translates to "Mostly Harmless". Poverty Stinks's 1990 album is called Gargle Blaster.
  • British band Men From Earth distributed a song titled 'Salmon of Doubt' via their website the week of Adams's death, as a tribute.
  • The video game Radical Dreamers contains a book that begins in the same way as The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
  • Factor 5's Super NES game Super Turrican shows a planet named Katakis, which was billed as "Mostly Harmless".
  • An Extremetech.com article written about Bill Gates' planned departure from Microsoft was titled So Long, Bill, and Thanks for all the Phish
  • In the MMORPG RuneScape, an island exists with the name Mos Le'Harmless
  • Alien-abduction obsessed British Rave band Eat Static released a 12-inch called Monkey Man which is Zaphod's reference to Arthur in 1991 (also on the 1999 Alien EPs)
  • In the Mata Nui Online Game, created for the first year of Lego's Bionicle franchise, the question of "What do you get if you multiply six by nine" appears in Matoran text on the walls of the Ko-Koro Sanctum, a place of prophecy and knowledge. This also occurred in Mata Nui Online Game Two.

[edit] Characters and concepts

Some characters and concepts have been referenced, particularly towels:

[edit] Hitchhiker's references in Doctor Who

Because Adams wrote or co-wrote scripts for three Doctor Who serials, and was the script editor for the 1979-1980 season, many references to Hitchhiker's appear in Doctor Who.

  • In Part One, precious stones are discovered in the street that could have only come from two places in the galaxy, one of those being the planet "Bantraginus V" — in the Hitchhiker's canon, the planet Santraginus V is the location for one of the key ingredients for making a Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster.
  • In Part Two, the first time that The Doctor travels along the linear induction corridor to The Bridge, he remarks, "I'll never be cruel to an electron in a particle accelerator again!" This is a parody of a line spoken by Arthur Dent in the second radio episode, as the ship that he and Ford Prefect have hitchhiked aboard begins to travel in hyperspace: "I'll never be cruel to a gin and tonic again!" Also in Part Two, The Doctor mocks the Captain's guards in a manner similar to Ford Prefect taunting the Vogon Guard in the second episode of The Hitchhiker's Guide.
  • The Doctor's arrival, with the Mentiads, at their hiding place in Part Three is announced to take place "in 21.9 seconds" by K-9. This is compared to the Narrator announcing that Ford Prefect "will enter our story in 35 seconds" in the first episode of The Hitchhiker's Guide. Also in Part Three, when captured by The Captain, The Doctor's advice to fellow captive Kimus is "Don't Panic."
  • Dialogue cut between Romana and The Doctor in Part Four had Romana accusing The Doctor of being "impossible." The Doctor replied, "No, just very, very improbable."
  • In the 1979 Doctor Who serial Destiny of the Daleks, the Doctor reads Oolon Colluphid's book The Origins of the Universe and says he got it wrong "on the first line". This reference was inserted into the script by the script editor of Doctor Who at the time — Douglas Adams.
  • When Big Finish Productions was commissioned to record a complete version of the Doctor Who story Shada, by Douglas Adams, to be webcast on the BBCi website, other references to The Hitchhiker's Guide were added. A sequence dealing with the story's villain stealing a car (and stealing the knowledge of how to operate it from the driver's mind) was originally scripted with little or no dialogue. The new version reveals that the driver is the treasurer for a Ford Prefect society, and this model of car is the one that is stolen. This sequence can be heard on the CD release of the story. Artist Lee Sullivan also inserted a "Nutrimat" dispenser in Chris Parsons's physics lab and images of Hitchhiker's characters appear as inmates on the prison planet Shada. The latter two references can only be seen in the original webcast's animation.
  • Another reference appeared in the story Ghost Light in 1989. Sylvester McCoy's Doctor at one point asks, as a rhetorical question, "Who was it that said earthmen never invite their ancestors to dinner?" The original line, in episode one of both the radio and TV series of Hitchhiker's was: "Earthmen are not proud of their ancestors and never invite them round to dinner."
  • Russell T. Davies mentions in Doctor Who: The Shooting Scripts that one of the inspirations for all of the aliens gathered during The End of the World was Adams's The Restaurant at the End of the Universe.
  • In the 2005 Christmas special, The Christmas Invasion, the Doctor, having been revived by the smell of spilt tea before saving the day wearing pyjamas and a dressing gown, describes all this as "very Arthur Dent", adding: "Now, there was a nice man!" Which could suggest that the events of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy are canon in the Doctor Who universe — which would tie in with the reference in Destiny of the Daleks (see above). Or he could simply have been teasing his companion Rose Tyler, or else, of course, he might have been referring not to Dent but, once again (see Ghostlight above), to the creator of the character, Douglas Adams. (Alternatively, Dent could have encountered the Doctor while travelling through parallel universes in the fifth Hitchhiker's book, Mostly Harmless.)
  • In the first episode of the new Doctor Who spin-off (and anagram) Torchwood, Captain Jack demonstrates a device that is the Somebody Else's Problem field (Life, The Universe and Everything, Chapter 6).

[edit] Other references

  • In the book Star Trek: The Next Generation Technical Manual by Rick Sternbach and Michael Okuda, it is revealed (on page 77) that part of the "impulse drive system schematic panel in Main Engineering," on the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-D), the subject of the book, is labeled "Infinite Improbability Generation."
  • As reprinted in the book The Making of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine a directory of the space station's Promenade includes: "Milliways 02-984" and "Sirius Cybernetics Corporation 02-643." The numbers indicate the locations of Milliways and the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation on the space station Deep Space Nine.
  • The name of the instant messaging client Trillian comes from the nickname of the character Tricia McMillan.
  • The AltaVista Babel Fish Translator's name is a reference to the Babel fish, which is in turn a reference to the Tower of Babel.
  • The Radiohead song "Paranoid Android" refers to Marvin, the depressed robot.
  • In the children's online game Neopets, an item called a Pan Galactic Gargle Slushie can be purchased. It references the Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster, named the best drink in existence by the Guide.
  • The Dopefish in the computer game Commander Keen is listed as the second dumbest creature in the universe, a reference to the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal.
  • The Infocom adventure game was reviewed in UK computer publication Personal Computer World's January 1985 edition, which also featured cover art of Zaphod playing two computers at once. Derek Cohen, editor of the magazine at the time and fan of the series, had previously got himself listed in the London telephone directory for several years as Zaphod Beeblebrox.
  • The novel Planetfall, written by Arthur Byron Cover, and based on the Infocom game of the same name, was sold with the tagline: "In the bestselling tradition of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy," and referenced the importance of towels and also contained a variant on the "Dentarthurdent" joke between Arthur and Slartibartfast (from the first book, or radio/tv episode 3).
  • NetHack has several references to the Hitchhiker's Guide. If under the influence of hallucinogenic drugs, the player may meet a Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal or a microscopic space fleet. The game also features a towel, the entire description of which is a direct quote from the Hitchhiker's Guide. Also sometimes things can disappear "in a puff of logic".
  • The game Leisure Suit Larry: Magna Cum Laude included a Thing Your Aunt Gave You Which You Don't Know What it Is - a reference to an identically named object from the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy computer game.
  • In Starcrossed, the Finale to the Justice League animated series, the League must fight to stop a group of aliens from destroying the Earth to create a hyperspace bypass (or rather, building a hyperspace device that will destroy the Earth upon its activation).
  • In the popular video game Destroy All Humans! one scientist says "Me with a brain the size of a planet, and I can't get lucky to save my life!", which is a reference to Marvin the Paranoid Android. Also in the same game one person says "I've heard that the Dolphins have been in contact with the aliens. Mice told me that." This is a reference to what the mice and dolphins are doing in the first book in the Hitchhiker's Guide series.
  • In Kingdom of Loathing, the Probability Giant's room in the Castle in the Clouds in the Sky is reminiscent of the Infinite Improbability Drive when activated.
  • In the TV series My Life as a Teenage Robot, one of Jenny's sisters, XJ-7, possesses traits similar to Marvin. She replied "Life, Universe, Everything," when asked what was wrong.
  • Galactic Krikkit - An multiplayer web-based game with a large number of references to HHGTTG.
  • There is a nightclub in Ottawa, Canada called Zaphod Beeblebrox, which serves a number of Hitchhicker's Guide themed alcoholic drinks, including Pan Galactic Gargle Blasters and Slartibartfasts.
  • In the computer game Startopia your guide to the game, VAL, tells you to remember the words "don't panic". Also while playing sandbox mode he can give you a random message which says '42, interesting number don't you think?'
  • In Commander in Chief, Mackenzie Allen's son has a The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy movie poster in his room.
  • In the Asheron's Call computer game it is possible to obtain a wearable towel that comes with an explanatory note from Ford Prefect.
  • If you are killed by a certain enemy in Quake III Arena he taunts you by saying "No threat/mostly harmless".
  • A Quiz-show style stage in the video game Earthworm Jim 2 asks the question "What is the meaning of life?" The correct answer is, of course, 42.
  • The webcomic After Y2K featured a tribute comic to Adams after his 2001 death. [6]
  • FoxTrot made an oblique reference to Hitchhiker's by joking that the character Marcus knows Mos Def not as a rapper, but as the actor who portrayed Ford Prefect in the film adaptation of the series. The comic was first published on 28 March 2006.
  • In the 3D graphic art program Bryce, one preset liquid texture choice is named Santraginus V, with the subtitle "...or a cool frosty Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster."
  • In the Andromeda episode "A Heart for Falsehood Framed" the ship's AI says she had "a brain the size of a Planet".
  • In an episode of Foster's Home For Imaginary Friends, Bloo and others drive by a hitchhiker on the side of the road wearing a green robe and holding a sign that says Magrathea.
  • The name of the Sub-Etha galactic communications network in the Hitchhiker's Guide series found its way into the name of SubEtha Mail, a mailing-list manager for various computer platforms, and the name of SubEthaEdit, a collaborative editing program for Macintosh computers.
  • In the role-playing computer game Fallout 2, the player may encounter a dead whale in the middle of the desert. Examining the whale reveals that "It appears to have fallen from a great distance."
  • In the first episode of the anime series Full Metal Panic, Kaname Chidori has a book titled, Dolphins' last message to mankind...So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish.
  • In the Animal Planet TV program "Meerkat Manor" one of the male meerkats is named Zaphod.
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
By Douglas Adams
Books: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy | The Restaurant at the End of the Universe | Life, the Universe and Everything | So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish | Mostly Harmless | Young Zaphod Plays it Safe | The Original Radio Scripts
Media: Radio series (Phases 1 & 2, Phases 3, 4 & 5) | Television series | Movie | Computer game | Differences between versions
Characters: Arthur Dent | Ford Prefect | Zaphod Beeblebrox | Marvin | Trillian |Slartibartfast | Minor characters
Places: List of places | Total Perspective Vortex | Heart of Gold | Wikkit Gate | Starship Titanic | Galactic Empire | Whole Sort of General Mish Mash
Miscellanea: Races and species | The Answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything | Babel fish | Bistromathic drive | Cultural references | Infinidim Enterprises | Infinite Improbability Drive | International Phenomenon | Notable phrases | Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster | Point-of-view gun | Somebody Else's Problem field | Sirius Cybernetics Corporation | Vogon poetry | Other miscellanea
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