History Franchise / TheHitchhikersGuidetotheGalaxy

** It should be noted that the Guide itself doesn't even bother with the tenses, and simply mentions that they don't use the future perfect tense, [[IncrediblyLamePun because it was found not to be]].

* GiftedlyBad: The Vogons, at poetry.

* GenocideBackfire: The Vogons may be too stupid and apathetic to care, but they destroyed a five billion year old supercomputer (Earth) just as it was finishing its calculations of, basically, the ultimate meaning of everything.

* AIIsACrapshoot: [[spoiler:Hactar.]]

%%* WidgetSeries: A Western example.

To boil it down to the essentials, Arthur Dent, a fairly normal if rather feckless Earthling, wakes up one Thursday and, after a series of confusing events, is spirited away from Earth by his friend, Ford Prefect, right before [[EarthShatteringKaboom the planet is destroyed]]. He then hooks up with Zaphod Beeblebrox, former President of the Galaxy, current fugitive, and all-around cool guy; Marvin the Paranoid Android, a sarcastic and chronically depressed AI; and Tricia [=McMillan=], AKA Trillian, OnlySaneWoman and the only other human being left. Zaphod is on a quest to find The Truth, and everyone else gets pulled along for the ride.

Next came the book series, ''Literature/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxyTrilogy'', probably the best-known version. Originally, it adapted the plots from the radio series, but took off afterwards, becoming five novels in all. The third book was entirely based on a rejected story idea for ''Series/DoctorWho'', and one canon short story about Ronald Reagan was separately published without the name "Reagan" in it and made no sense as a result. The novels vary widely in tone and subject matter, and ''Mostly Harmless'' in particular didn't seem to please anyone, [[CreatorBacklash even its own author]]. Adams said near the end of his life that he wanted to do a sixth book which might round things out more nicely, but this was [[DiedDuringProduction cut short by his sudden death]]. Specifically, he was believed to have been [[ReTool retooling]] an in-progress ''Literature/DirkGently'' 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 Creator/EoinColfer, entitled ''And Another Thing...'' (not to be confused by [[AndAnotherThing characters dispensing important info just as they're about to leave]]) was published on October 12, 2009.

** Valentine Dyall's portrayal of Deep Thought. A multi dimensional super-computer is able to take hamminess to levels that are not normally physically possible.

* ScrabbleBabble: Arthur creates a Scrabble game in order to help the caveman evolve, which proves fruitless since the only word they know is "grunt" (and they can't spell it). The Scrabble game proves useful in order for Ford and Arthur to find out what the Question to the Ultimate Answer is.

To boil it down to the essentials, Arthur Dent, a fairly normal if rather feckless Earthling, wakes up one Thursday and, after a series of confusing events, is spirited away from Earth by his friend, Ford Prefect, right before [[EarthShatteringKaboom the planet is destroyed]]. He then hooks up with Zaphod Beeblebrox, former President of the Galaxy, current fugitive, and all-around cool guy; Marvin the Paranoid Android, a sarcastic and chronically depressed AI; and Tricia [=McMillan=], AKA Trillian, TheChick and the only other human being left. Zaphod is on a quest to find The Truth, and everyone else gets pulled along for the ride.

* GoingToBeOneOfThoseDays: Arthur's reaction to being told that his best friend is from a planet in the vicinity of Betelgeuse and that the Earth is about to be destroyed: "This must be Thursday. I never could get the hang of Thursdays."

''"But the Babel Fish is a dead giveaway, isn't it?" Says Man, "It proves you exist, and therefore you do not, Q.E.D."''\\

* InsaneTrollLogic: Ford uses this to persuade Mr. Prosser to replace Arthur in front of the bulldozer, so that he and Arthur can go to the pub. He argues that since the mutual assumption is that Arthur is not going to get up from in front of the bulldozer, and that therefore Prosser and his men are resigned to standing around doing nothing, then they don't actually need Arthur to lie in front of the bulldozer, so Arthur is therefore free to go--but only on condition that Mr. Prosser lies down in the mud instead of him. (The book makes it clear that Mr. Prosser does this partly because he feels that, on some level, he ''deserves'' to be lying in the mud. In the radio series, it's Arthur who does this, because of EarlyInstalmentWeirdness.)

** Also on Brontital, Ford and Zaphod come across a DerelictGraveyard where one ship is still intact and hooked up to the power, whose AI crew spent 900 years waiting to take off, keeping the passengers in suspended animation, because they were a waiting a consignment of ''lemon-soaked paper napkins''.

* {{Meganekko}}: Trillian in TheFilmOfTheBook. Unfortunately for fans of this trope, she takes them off.

* KillEmAll: [[spoiler:The ending of the book version of ''Mostly Harmless''. The radio adaptation spares the main characters through a DeusExMachina]].

* PantyShot: The hostesses' undergarments in the TV series, thanks to the Finite Improbability Generator.

** See also: Peril-Sensitive Sunglasses.
* SpotOfTea: A recurring theme is Arthur's inability to get one.

* SomethingCompletelyDifferent / OutOfGenreExperience / MoodWhiplash: ''So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish'' is radically different in story and tone from the other books in the series.