History Literature / TheLongDarkTeatimeOfTheSoul

* {{Sexophone}}: Discussed. The narration refers to [[LegFocus Kate's legs]] as being the sort which make sound-track editors feel a need to add a saxophone solo, "for reasons which no one besides sound-track editors has ever been able to understand."

* LaserGuidedKarma: Whatever Dirk claims to believe in order to extract cash from gullible people invariably turns out to really be true, but always in such a way that he looks bad, sometimes in such a way that he suffers physical or emotional trauma, and never in such a way that he gets the money.\

* TheAllegedCar: Kate's Citroën 2CV is the TropeNamer -- at one point she's in court for a traffic mishap (her car threw a wheel and nearly caused an accident) and a police officer refers to it as "the alleged car", and the name sticks.

* NinetyPercentOfYourBrain: Kate, shortly before awakening from a coma in a hospital, has a dream in which her mind is represented by an infinite collection of cabin trunks, of which ten percent contain past memories, and the remaining ninety percent contain [[EverythingsBetterWithPenguins penguins]]. She assumes this trope is in effect.

* BrickJoke: The policemen at the Anstey house taunt Dirk with warnings that "Big Bob the Finder" had been sent to haul him there - possibly in less-than-fit condition - if he hadn't shown up on his own. As Dirk is leaving, a large burly policeman who's welcomed by the name "Bob" arrives to deal with the Anstey boy upstairs ... and gets his arse kicked just as thoroughly as the ''first'' copper who'd tried to separate the teen from his telly.

* TheChewToy: Dirk, who gets his nose broken and his body pummeled by an enraged boy, has his broken nose yanked straight by a nurse without anesthesia, is nearly run over by a bus and a cyclist and then ''actually'' run over by a motorcycle, rear-ends other vehicles twice after himself being run off the road, bangs his head on the steps, tears his coat jumping out a window, had his hand stabbed and his nose (again) slashed by a huge eagle, was attacked and nearly mauled by a ''second'' eagle, and gets ''whammed'' at least fifty-seven times by his own conscience. And that's not even mentioning the destruction of [[spoiler: his house]].

* DeusExMachina: [[spoiler: The ending of the book, while appropriate, neatly finishes all the plot threads in about five pages.]] Also slightly subverted: [[spoiler:In the process of solving all the plot problems, the Deus Ex Machina also puts a massive hole in Dirk's house. In ''The Salmon of Doubt'', it's still a problem.]]

* HotPotato: Is the title of "Pugilism"'s new hit, which has a prophetic significance. [[spoiler: Toe Rag gives the Draycotts a bill for his time, which apparently stipulates that they will die at the end of a set period of time. The bill gets passed from one client to another, and Geoff Anstey loses his head when time runs out]].

* PowerIncontinence: [[spoiler: Odin arranges for this to befall Thor in order to prevent Thor from interfering with Odin's plans. Thor finally gets a handle on it once he's able to blow off some steam.]]

* SelfDeprecation: A minor character is a writer named Howard Bell. It is stated that his writing is absolutely horrible, but he remains wildly popular and successful for two reasons: he deliberately cultivates an air of freakish mystery, and his name is perfect for a book cover because the first name is long and the last name is short. On his books, his first name is written in a medium-sized blocky font followed by his last name in a larger font, so that his name fills out the cover and upstages the title. Bell is probably a NoCelebritiesWereHarmed version of Creator/StephenKing, but still, it's funny to see that character created by someone named Douglas Adams.

* BalefulPolymorph: Thor does this by accident when he's angry, thus setting off the events of the novel. His many unfortunate victims include a lamp, an airline ticket clerk, and [[spoiler:a fighter jet]].

Followed by ''Literature/TheSalmonOfDoubt'' [[AuthorExistenceFailure (unfinished)]].

* CorruptCorporateExecutive: It's strongly implied that the Draycotts are buying the likeness rights of various deities in their advertising campaign, then finding ways to palm the debt off on others [[spoiler: like Dirk's client]].

* HotPotato: Is the title of "Pugilism"'s new hit, which has a prophetic significance: [[spoiler: the contract the Draycotts struck with Odin apparently stipulated that they would die at the end of a fixed period, so they found ways of palming the contract off on others]].

* LaserGuidedKarma: Whatever Dirk claims to believe in order to extract cash from gullible people invariably turns out to really be true, but always in such a way that he looks bad, sometimes in such a way that he suffers physical or emotional trauma, and never in such a way that he gets the money.

* StickySituation: Thor finds himself in a particularly-humiliating one. At first he reads into it, interpreting it to mean "stick to the ground." Once he confronts Toe Rag, he finds out it was just the first thing that came to Odin's mind.

''The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul'' is Creator/DouglasAdams's 1988 sequel to ''Literature/DirkGentlysHolisticDetectiveAgency''. It deals with multiple dimensions, [[Myth/NorseMythology Norse Gods]], refrigerators, murder and record company contracts.

* ItCameFromTheFridge: Dirk and his cleaning lady absolutely refuse to open his fridge, and try to trick others into opening it. He eventually has to call a fence to take his fridge away and replace it with a brand new, stolen one, which he vows never to use. [[spoiler:The old one has a god of Guilt burst from it to resolve the plot, in a DeusExMachina]].

* ImpossiblyMundaneExplanation: When Dirk hears about a girl who repeatedly recites the previous day's stock quotes, he rejects the assumption that she's just memorizing them somehow (after all, the information is out there!) in favor of some more mystical explanation, because nobody would ever go to that much trouble. It's a little different since he's arguing on the basis of general human nature, not specific character, but the principle is the same. Dirk sums this up by reversing SherlockHolmes' usual maxim: Eliminate the improbable (in this case, that this girl is masterminding an elaborate complex plot with no obvious benefit to herself), and whatever remains, however impossible (that she's getting the stock prices out of nothing through some unknown and unidentified source), must be the truth.

* ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve: Said to apply to the gods, even as regards their own powers.

* StickySituation: Thor finds himself in a particularly-humiliating one.