History Headscratchers / TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy

** In ''Series/BabylonFive'', the Narn have a dish called ''breen.'' When G'kar serves up a dish to one of his compatriots, he wonders how G'Kar got ''breen'' so far from home. G'Kar says it isn't ''breen'', it's a human dish: Swedish Meatballs. Turns out every starfaring race has an equivalent to ''breen''. No one knows why. I dare say every race in the HHGTTU-verse has an equivalent beverage to tea. Or call it TranslationConvention (a different beverage takes up the same cultural niche, so "Tea"). Or just go with the MST3KMantra if none of that is satisfactory.

** It may mostly be with the original generation of Hitchhiker's fans (aging baby boomers) who resent the fact that so many of the funny bits from the original are now too dated to work without changing them. Even Adams acknowledged that the "digital watches" bit is now outdated. The pop music references are also completely alien to anyone who was born after 1980. A lot of the book, TV show, and radio series have to be appreciated from the viewpoint of late 70s or early 80s culture. This is probably why Adams ran out of things for Zaphod and Ford to do. Zaphod, being based on the hippie stoner of TheSixties was a relic of the past by the mid 80s. Ford's image seemed to be based on the late 70s era thirtysomething year old guy who still went to disco clubs trying to pick up 18 year olds but couldn't without getting them drunk first. He also fit the archetype of the "lovable ConMan", which is somewhat of a dead horse trope today due to the proliferation of real life scammers. Although the majority of Ford's antics with booze and women occurred offpage, they are still considered unacceptable today.

** By the time of ''So Long'' and ''Mostly'', Arthur had aged probably ten years. Ford being an alien probably looked the same since it was established that Zaphod was 200 years old and Ford was his cousin. Ten years is nothing to him. After a certain point, Arthur probably viewed Ford as the best friend who acted like they were still college kids while Arthur grew up and accepted on the responsibilities of adulthood. Arthur also wanted to find love and became less interested in Ford's freewheeling lifestyle that he was probably getting too old for anyway (assuming that many years did pass between the beginning of the first book and the fourth and fifth). It's also important to remember that Arthur is a nice guy and Ford's attitudes towards women and relationships wasn't much different from Zaphod's. In ''So Long'', Fenchurch didn't warm up to Ford and asked Arthur if he could be trusted. Arthur responded in the negative, probably not out of resentment but out of courtesy to Fenchurch who was a nice proper girl for him. I don't think there was any mutual dislike between Arthur and Ford in later years, just that sense of Arthur having outgrown him. For one thing Arthur had the Earth back in ''So Long'' and Ford probably assumed he was living happily ever after with his new girl. Also, Arthur had become a seasoned and experienced independent traveler by the time Ford showed up in ''Mostly''. So Ford's was no longer needed in his old role as Mr. Exposition. When meeting Arthur in ''Mostly Harmless,'' Ford was a bit more grumpy and not his usual ''let's find a party and be generally weird'' self. He was on a serious mission probably for the first time in his life, probably because his way of life was under threat. Come to think of it, the reunion of Arthur and Trillian in ''Mostly'' wasn't particularly warm either. Yet more proof that Douglas Adams was going through some rough times while writing Mostly Harmless.

** 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 ''Series/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.

*** Disappointingly, Adams never envisioned ''Hitchhiker's Guide'' as this eternal ongoing series of madcap adventures in the same tradition of ''Literature/{{Flashman}}'', ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'', or to use another sci-fi example, ''Literature/TheStainlessSteelRat''. Adams was never a big sci-fi fan and appeared to only see sci-fi as a convenient medium for the comedy ideas that he had at the time he conceived the original. He was ready to move on fairly quickly after the first two books, which for him were relatively easy to write as they were expansions of the radio series. He resorted to recycling a rejected Series/DoctorWho story for the third book. And in ''So Long'', he indulged his desire to do a RomanticComedy and ditch all of the sci-fi trappings. I am not too sure what kind of state of mind he was in during the early 90s when he wrote ''Mostly Harmless''.

** In ''LiveActionTV/BabylonFive'', the Narn have a dish called ''breen.'' When G'kar serves up a dish to one of his compatriots, he wonders how G'Kar got ''breen'' so far from home. G'Kar says it isn't ''breen'', it's a human dish: Swedish Meatballs. Turns out every starfaring race has an equivalent to ''breen''. No one knows why. I dare say every race in the HHGTTU-verse has an equivalent beverage to tea. Or call it TranslationConvention (a different beverage takes up the same cultural niche, so "Tea"). Or just go with the MST3KMantra if none of that is satisfactory.

* The Finite Probability Generator is based on "a strong Brownian Motion producer -- say a nice hot cup of tea". The one that was used to create the Infinite Improbability Drive that powers the Heart of Gold was given "a fresh cup of really hot tea". So why does nobody outside Earth, but especially not the machines on the Heart of Gold, have the faintest idea what tea even is?

* The Finite Probability Generator is based on "a strong Brownian Motion producer -- say a nice hot cup of tea". The one that was used to create the Infinite Improbability Drive that powers the Heart of Gold was given "a fresh cup of really hot tea". So why does nobody outside Earth, but especially the machines on the Heart of Gold, have the faintest idea what tea even is?

* The Finite Probability Generator is based on "strong Brownian Motion producer -- say a nice hot cup of tea". The one that was used to create the Infinite Improbability Drive that powers the Heart of Gold was given "a fresh cup of really hot tea". So why does nobody outside Earth, but especially the machines on the Heart of Gold, have the faintest idea what tea even is?

* Shouldn't the conspiracy to destroy the Ultimate Question have really seen to Arthur's use of DNA banks? One sufficiently complatible sapient wants to bear something "exotic" and boom, the Question is possibly back in play.

** Don't let it bother you. It's PositiveDiscrimination, or a mockery of same.

** It may mostly be with the original generation of Hitchhiker's fans (aging baby boomers) who resent the fact that so many of the funny bits from the original are now too dated to work without changing them. Even Adams acknowledged that the "digital watches" bit is now outdated. The pop music references are also completely alien to anyone who was born after 1980. A lot of the book, TV show, and radio series have to be appreciated from the viewpoint of late 70s or early 80s culture. This is probably why Adams ran out of things for Zaphod and Ford to do. Zaphod, being based on the hippie stoner of TheSixties was a relic of the past by the mid 80s. Ford's image seemed to be based on the late 70s era thirty year old guy who still went to disco clubs trying to pick up 18 year olds but couldn't without getting them drunk first (think VideoGame/LeisureSuitLarry)[[note]]But also think about how unacceptable Ford's antics with women and booze are considered today[[/note]].

** There are also planets where the sole lifeforms are identical mattresses. It's a big, weird universe out there, and so far as Ford is initially aware, Earth is a planet where the vehicles dominate the humans rather than the other way around. He's not being stupid, he's just coming to Earth from a skewed (and let's face it, rather snottily superior) perspective. It's also Adams taking a satirical poke at the importance of cars to human society (and, in turn, the amount of importance some humans place on their cars despite them being simply a functional object designed for transport).

** And yes, AuthorExistenceFailure and a CreatorBreakdown may have helped, but still, that's no excuse for such a massive bridge-drop.

*** That's the thing about things that are ObviousInHindsight: they're only obvious when it no longer matters.

** 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 somehow managed to stagger along against all odds.