History Literature / LifeTheUniverseAndEverything

** Possibly justified by Wowbagger not knowing anything _about_ the beings he insults, and so going for completely generic insults instead.

* NiceJobFixingItVillain: A retroactive example. In the previous book, [[spoiler: it's revealed that the Golgafrinchans eventually drive the native human-like population of Earth to extinction, thereby causing the Earth to imprint a distortion of the Question to the Ultimate Answer into Arthur's subconscious rather than the real question. In ''Life, the Universe, and Everything,'' Prak explains that if the Ultimate Question and Ultimate Answer ever become known about the same universe, the question and answer will cancel each other out, [[ApocalypseHow taking the rest of the universe with them]] and [[EternalRecurrence replace it with an even more bizarre and inexplicable one.]] This means the Golgafrinchans indirectly spared the universe from the Ultimate Question coming to light, which would destroy and replace it.]]

* NiceJobFixingItVillain: A retroactive example. In the previous book, [[spoiler: the Golgafrinchans drive the native human-like population of Earth to extinction, thereby causing the Earth to imprint a distortion of the Question to the Ultimate Answer into Arthur's subconscious rather than the real question. In ''Life, the Universe, and Everything,'' Prak explains that if the Ultimate Question and Ultimate Answer ever become known about the same universe, the question and answer will cancel each other out, [[ApocalypseHow taking the rest of the universe with them]] and [[EternalRecurrence replace it with an even more bizarre and inexplicable one.]] This means the Golgafrinchans indirectly spared the universe from the Ultimate Question coming to light, which would destroy and replace it.]]

* NiceJobFixingItVillain: A retroactive example. In the previous book, the Golgafrinchans drive the native human-like of Earth to extinction, thereby causing the Earth to imprint a distortion of the Question to the Ultimate Answer into Arthur's subconscious rather than the real question. [[spoiler: In ''Life, the Universe, and Everything,'' Prak explains that if the Ultimate Question and Ultimate Answer ever become known about the same universe, the question and answer will cancel each other out, [[ApocalypseHow taking the rest of the universe with them]] and [[EternalRecurrence replace it with an even more bizarre and inexplicable one.]] This means the Golgafrinchans indirectly spared the universe from the Ultimate Question coming to light, which would destroy and replace it.]]

* TakingTheFightOutside: PlayedWith when Thor takes offense at Arthur interrupting his conversation with Trillian at the flying party. As the situation escalates, Arthur asks Thor if he wants to step outside. Thor agrees and does so. Arthur does not follow, and resumes talking with Trillian. (Note again that it's a ''flying'' party).

** Judiciary Pag, whose private name is Zipo Bibrok 5X10^8, is very likely to be an ancestor of Zaphod Beeblebrox, by way of the accident with the contraceptive and the time machine mentioned in ''Literature/TheRestaurantAtTheEndOfTheUniverse''.

''It was a very, very small bomb which was simply a junction box in hyperspace that would, when activated, connect the heart of every major sun with the heart of every other major sun simultaneously and thus turn the entire Universe in to one gigantic hyperspatial supernova.''

* FromNobodyToNightmare: The Krikkiteers are first introduced as happy country folks living in an {{Arcadia}}, singing a charming song as they go home from work at the end of the day. It only takes one brush with the vastness of the populated galaxy around them to convert them all to {{Omnicidal Maniac}}s.

* IncrediblyLameFun: Marvin, having survived plunging into the heart of a sun, has been stuck in a swamp for around a million years, and has spent the time walking in a circle. He's thinking of spending another million doing it backwards when the Krikket robots show up.

* PuffOfLogic: When flying, it is vitally important not to say things like "I can't possibly be flying", or else you will turn out to be correct.

This novel is the only one in the ''Hitchhiker's Guide'' series to be censored in the U.S. version. The word "fuck" has been removed, several passages have been added, and American English has often replaced British English. An extensive list of changes made can be found [[https://socialjusticewargames.tumblr.com/post/187034124045/the-final-ultimate-list-of-american-changes-in here. ]]

** Agrajag is the [[UnknownRival unknown nemesis]] of Arthur Dent, who, through a freak chain of coincidences, has had all his previous incarnations unintentionally killed by him. Having incarnated as a [[BatOutOfHell gruesome bat creature]], which he refers to as his "revenge body," he abducts Arthur to his Cathedral of Hate and try to kill him.

''Life, the Universe and Everything'' (published in 1982) is the third installment of the [[TrilogyCreep increasingly inaccurately-named]] ''Franchise/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'' trilogy (although, of course, when it was first published the series was still a perfectly accurately-named trilogy). Since franchise creator Creator/DouglasAdams had told his original story in its entirety by the end of ''Literature/TheRestaurantAtTheEndOfTheUniverse'', this one was a [[DolledUpInstallment re-imagining]] of a ''Series/DoctorWho'' screenplay called ''Doctor Who and the Krikkitmen'', which Adams wrote but never produced. He simply recast his original idea with characters from ''The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'' instead of ''Doctor Who'' characters, and instant history was made. (An adaptation of the ''Who'' version by James Goss was published in 2018).

* WeirdnessCensor: The "Somebody Else's Problem" Field will hide anything sufficiently unexpected, inexplicable or disturbing.

* UnsoundEffect: The materialisation and dematerialisation of a Krikkit warship literally sound like several thousand people simultaneously saying "wop" and "foop", respectively. Both of these are common sound effects [[SdrawkcabName reversed.]]

''Life, the Universe and Everything'' (published in 1982) is the third installment of the [[TrilogyCreep increasingly inaccurately-named]] ''Franchise/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'' trilogy (although, of course, when it was first published the series was still a perfectly accurately-named trilogy). Since franchise creator Creator/DouglasAdams had told his original story in its entirety by the end of ''Literature/TheRestaurantAtTheEndOfTheUniverse'', this one was a [[DolledUpInstallment re-imagining]] of a ''Series/DoctorWho'' screenplay called ''Doctor Who and the Krikkitmen'', which Adams wrote but never produced. He simply recast his original idea with characters from ''The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'' instead of ''Doctor Who'' characters, and instant history was made. (An adaptation of the ''Who'' version by James Goss was published in 2018.)

* AbsoluteXenophobe: The Krikkiters were so isolated and convinced that they were alone in the universe that, the instant they discover that there is more of the universe beyond Krikkit, they decide "It'll have to go." [[spoiler:Of course, the circumstances were arranged by Hactar so they'd reach that conclusion. By the time of the book most of them have long since gotten over it and quite look forward to meeting aliens, but their military is on autopilot; the ones Arthur speaks to seem completely oblivious to the fact that they've committed genocide on a galactic scale.]]

* BigStupidDoodooHead: Wowbagger's insults are... kind of lame. All he has to say to Arthur Dent is that he's "a jerk" and "a real kneebiter." (In the UK edition it's "asshole", which is stronger, but still not very ''imaginative'' for someone on a quest to insult everyone.) Later on, he calls Arthur Deodat a "no-good dumbo nothing."

* BreadEggsMilkSquick: "On the way back they sang a number of tuneful and reflective songs on the subjects of peace, justice, morality, culture, sport, family life, and the obliteration of all other life forms."

** Wowbagger insults Arthur on prehistoric Earth, first verifying that Arthur is Arthur by using his full name, "Arthur Philip Dent". His next victim is a small slug belonging to the genus "aRth Urphil Ipdenu". Pages later, Wowbagger shows up on modern-day Earth to insult someone called "Arthur Philip Deodat."

* KnowsAGuyWhoKnowsAGuy: Effrafax of Wug got rid of the mountain he was supposed to render invisible with the aid of "his friends, and his friends' friends, and his friends' friends' friends, and his friend's friends' friends' friends, and some rather less good friends of theirs who happened to own a major stellar trucking company."

* MundaneMadeAwesome: Agrajag's reaction to being killed over and over again is not that he's angry as such, just "extremely upset and annoyed"; the book then raises his annoyance to epic levels, until it becomes an annoyance that "spans the universe of time and space in its infinite umbrage."

* SawStarWarsTwentySevenTimes: [[WhoWantsToLiveForever Wowbagger the Infinitely Prolonged]] asks his ship computer if there's any movie he hasn't already seen "over thirty-thousand times."

* StealthInsult: Inverted. Marvin gives a Stealth Compliment to Trillian by calling her "one of the least benightedly unintelligent organic life forms it has been my profound lack of pleasure not to be able to avoid meeting."
* SuicidalCosmicTemperTantrum: The people of the planet Krikkit live on a planet surrounded by a totally opaque dust cloud, so for centuries, they knew nothing of the universe beyond their planet and the star they orbited. When a spaceship crash-landed on the planet, they used it to take an exploratory trip, curious of where it came from, and saw the universe for the first time. Their immediate reaction? "It'll have to go." This becomes doubly important later, when Arthur, Ford, Slartibartfast and Trillian head down to the planet itself [[spoiler:and learn about the supernova bomb]].

* TakingTheFightOutside: PlayedWith when Thor takes offense at Arthur interrupting his conversation with Trillian at the flying party. As the situation escalates, Arthur asks Thor if he wants to step outside. Thor agrees and does so. Arthur does not follow, and resumes talking with Trillian. (Note again that it's a ''flying'' party.)

''Life, the Universe and Everything'' (published in 1982) is the third installment of the [[TrilogyCreep increasingly inaccurately-named]] ''Literature/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'' trilogy (although, of course, when it was first published the series was still a perfectly accurately-named trilogy). Since franchise creator Creator/DouglasAdams had told his original story in its entirety by the end of ''Literature/TheRestaurantAtTheEndOfTheUniverse'', this one was a [[DolledUpInstallment re-imagining]] of a ''Series/DoctorWho'' screenplay called ''Doctor Who and the Krikkitmen'', which Adams wrote but never produced. He simply recast his original idea with characters from ''The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'' instead of ''Doctor Who'' characters, and instant history was made. (An adaptation of the ''Who'' version by James Goss was published in 2018.)

* BreadEggsMilkSquick: "On the way back they sang a number of tuneful and reflective songs on the subjects of peace, justice, morality, culture, sport, family life, and [[KillEmAll the obliteration of all other life forms]]."

* {{Expy}}: The whole story began its life as a ''Series/DoctorWho'' screenplay (''Doctor Who and the Krikketmen''), so some of the characters are reimagined as expies of ''Series/DoctorWho'' characters. For example, Slartibartfast is an expy of the Doctor, Arthur Dent and Trillian are both expies of the Doctor's companion(s).