History Headscratchers / TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy

** [[Fridgelogic]] actually. Ford points out that because of the possibility Arthur is descended from the Golgifrinchans (spelling?) and the project ended right before completion, that the question may be distorted. Hence the wrong number.

** Fridgelogic actually. Ford points out that because of the possibility Arthur is descended from the Golgifrinchans (spelling?) and the project ended right before completion, that the question may be distorted. Hence the wrong number.

** I can't speak for the TV series, but the radio-series release uses a cover of ''Sorcerer'', cuts or alters the Music/PinkFloyd bits (specifically, Marvin's humming is changed to only sound vaguely like something the band might release and Arthur's line is changed accordingly), and...um...really not quite sure what the Bee Gees thing is, but my guess is that the song played backwards sounds little enough like the song played forward for it to be a non-issue. In any case, if ''FreaksAndGeeks''--which includes songs by Music/TheWho, Music/VanHalen, Music/{{Rush}}, Music/{{Styx}}, Music/TheGratefulDead, Music/TheMoodyBlues, and Music/BillyJoel--can be released with it's soundtrack untouched, than I see no reason why licensing issues for Music/PinkFloyd and the Music/TheBeeGees should be ''that'' big a problem.

** Ford's relationship with Arthur never struck me as inconsistent with either personality: Ford is mercurial, capricious and shallow. He rounds on Arthur the second someone he regards as cool - Zaphod - appears. Enjoying Earth and liking its inhabitants is a guilty pleasure for Ford. Arthur exposes Ford's slight geekiness to others (particularly Zaphod, of course). Having Arthur tagging along once Ford is back playing with the cool kids is a bit like having invited someone from your secret D&D group to a party of your cool mates on the spur of the moment. Their relationship reminds me a lot of Vince and Howard's in TheMightyBoosh: one party may have delusions of being too cool for the other one but ultimately that's the person they always return to.

* What is Marvin made out of, that means he could survive for over 500 billion years? Sirius Cybernetics don't build things to last!

** It's not just that it's depressing as that it's depressing ''coupled'' with being information overload. The joke is that the inventor's wife was always nagging him about getting a sense of perspective, when in reality an actual complete sense of perspective of your place in the universe would require you to have a complete understanding ''the entire universe'' first. As in, absolutely ''everything''. Yes, anyone who's read Carl Sagan's ''Pale Blue Dot'' can basically get the idea that in the grand scheme of things humanity is incredibly small and probably doesn't matter that much, but that's not the same as having a complete and exact understanding of just how incomprehensibly massive and complex the universe is on an atomic level. And how just exactly incredibly small and insignificant to a precise degree you yourself are when positioned within this complete and exact understanding of the universe on an atomic level.

** It's not just that it's depressing as that it's depressing ''coupled'' with information overload. The joke is that the inventor's wife was always nagging him about getting a sense of perspective, when in reality an actual complete sense of perspective of your place in the universe would require you to have a complete understanding ''the entire universe'' first. As in, absolutely ''everything''. Yes, anyone who's read Carl Sagan's ''Pale Blue Dot'' can basically get the idea that in the grand scheme of things humanity is incredibly small and probably doesn't matter that much, but that's not the same as having a complete and exact understanding of just how incomprehensibly massive and complex the universe is on an atomic level. And how just exactly incredibly small and insignificant to a precise degree you yourself are when positioned within this complete and exact understanding of the universe on an atomic level.

** The [[Music/TheBeeGees Bee Gees]] thing: on his way to the total Perspective Vortex in the radio series, Zaphod is in the uprooted office building being tortured by a sadistic custody officer who is appointed specially to give him a hard time. allowed to beleive he's escaping, Zaphod ends up in an Alien Disco where the clentele are dancing robots (sirius Cybernetics again) and the smell of hot sweat is being sprayed over everything. The insane music playing does sound vaguely familiar, but I had to read the scripts to find out it's a Bee Gees anthem from ''SaturdayNightFever'' being played backwards and otherwise electronically mucked around with. It does sound like vile alien disco music, though, and turns out to be for the Frogstar Custody Officer's sadistic amusement.

* What is Marvin made out of, that means he could survive for over 500 billion years?

** It's not just that it's depressing as that it's also basically information overload. The joke is that the inventor's wife was always nagging him about getting a sense of perspective, when in reality a actual complete sense of perspective of your place in the universe would require you to have a complete understanding ''the entire universe'' first. As in, absolutely ''everything''. Yes, anyone who's read Carl Sagan's ''Pale Blue Dot'' can basically get the idea that in the grand scheme of things humanity is incredibly small and probably doesn't matter that much, but that's not the same as having a complete and exact understanding of just how incomprehensibly massive and complex the universe is on an atomic level.

* What is Marvin made from, that means he could survive for over 500 billion years?

** It's sadly rather common when a later 'iteration' of something gains a lot more popularity. (Take, for example, any comic book title you like after a movie of that comic comes out: characters that weren't in the movie are shuffled OutOfFocus, minor characters that ''were'' in the movie become a CanonImmigrant or AscendedExtra, etc.) Adams was always looking for new ways to expand his creation, while those trying to 'keep the flame alive' would have a somewhat more conservative view of what is and isn't ''Hitchhiker's.'' Follow the dots and be praised, but step off that trail and it's 'TheyChangedItNowItSucks' time.

** I can't speak for the TV series, but the radio-series release uses a cover of ''Sorcerer'', cuts or alters the PinkFloyd bits (specifically, Marvin's humming is changed to only sound vaguely like something the band might release and Arthur's line is changed accordingly), and...um...really not quite sure what the Bee Gees thing is, but my guess is that the song played backwards sounds little enough like the song played forward for it to be a non-issue. In any case, if ''FreaksAndGeeks''--which includes songs by Music/TheWho, Music/VanHalen, Music/{{Rush}}, Music/{{Styx}}, Music/TheGratefulDead, Music/TheMoodyBlues, and Music/BillyJoel--can be released with it's soundtrack untouched, than I see no reason why licensing issues for Music/PinkFloyd and the Music/TheBeeGees should be ''that'' big a problem.

** Famous to the Mice perhaps. This quest for the ultimate question and answer appears to be [[SingleIssueWonk their obsession]], no evidence that the rest of the galaxy ever gave a damn about it in the slightest. The only other people who know about it appear to be the Magratheans, and they have closed up shop and switched all calls to voicemail. Plus, how many people can tell (without googling) where the foremost centre for philosophical discussion is in the world right now, or state why it is important, or even identify the type of computer which is the most powerful on the planet is right now never mind give its location. These things are not important to everyday life, we only know they are important in the HHGTTG-verse because we are told they are by the author, to the peoples of that verse, they aren't as important as facts of every day life such as knowing where the next Disaster Area concert is or how to avoid the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast [[note]]it is on Traal, don't go to Traal[[/note]].

** It's possible that asking for "the meaning of life" wouldn't yield the result they were looking for, being that it is a computer. Better to be vague on the whole matter.

***** Dude, the movie is supposed to have "consistency errors" Its SUPPOSED to be different.

** Since, in Trillians words, "it detects what you're craving", then maybe the machine will misinterpret the toast craving as some other burning thing.

*** It possible this is related to well known puzzling facts from probability, such as the probability of a random real number between 0 and 1 being rational, algebraic, or computable are all 0 for a similar reason to this (there are uncountably many real numbers but only countably many numbers of each of those types). Although this can be taught to high-schoolers, I doubt that Adams was referring to it though. (A kind of converse to these statements is that the probability of a number being "normal" is 1, but no rational number can be normal and none of the well known irrational numbers has ever been proven to be normal.)

*** The movie wasn't given as much leeway because (and I agree with the above troper that M J Simpson hits close to this, even if his review is nitpicky) it arguably missed the entire point of Hitchikers, which is not an epic space quest or an epic love story but a series of incredibly funny sketches on philosophical themes. Why should fans give any slack to something that rapidly departs from this ethos, just because it has the 'Hitchikers'' brand on it?

** Can't remember the exact passages to know if they explicitly state one way or the other, but perhaps Arthur was reading aloud, and the babel fish was translating?

* Second headscratcher. It is explained elsewhere that a big reason why so many series have not seen release on video/DVD, or have been butchered on release, is the fabuluous cost of paying musical royalties on other people's copyright songs. I can appreciate that. But the BBC has released every episode of the radio series on cassette, despite the radio show being chocca with borrowed, lifted and sampled tracks. Even the theme tune, ''Journey of the Sorcerer'', is an Eagles track; Pink Floyd instrumental is extensively borrowed; and to cap it all, the Alien Disco dance song, that sublimely horrible thing, is a [[Music/TheBeeGees Bee Gees]] track "Stayin Alive" played backwards. Surely the licence costs payable to three big acts should be crippling?

* If he had the babel fish, why did Arthur need to learn the birds' language at the end of Life The Universe and Everything?

** This was explained in the scripts of the radio series (and I believe some editions of the book). When Ford goes to legally change his name, he has it retroactively changed, so that ''his name was always Ford Prefect''.

** That would turn them from an ironic commentary on the low intelligence of the average man into a ShootTheShaggyDog arc. No, I think Adams was just using them to make the point that despite constant pettiness, laziness, idiocy, warmongering and CompletelyMissingThePoint of ''everything,'' humanity has managed to stagger along against all odds.