- When Ford explains that he and Arthur escaped the destruction of Earth by "Hitching a ride":
Arthur: Excuse me? Are you trying to tell me that we just stuck out our thumbs and some green bug-eyed monster stuck his head out and said, 'Hi fellas, hop right in, I can take you as far as the Basington roundabout?'
Ford: Well, the Thumb's an electronic sub-etha signaling device, the roundabout's at Barnard's Star six light-years away, but otherwise, that's more or less right.
Arthur: And the bug-eyed monster?
Ford: Is green, yes.
- "You'll need to have this fish in your ear."
- The entire "whale and petunia falling to the planet" sequence.
- The whale thinks, "I wonder if it'll be friends with me? Hello, ground!"
- Curiously enough, the only thing that went through the mind of the bowl of petunias as it fell was, "Oh, No... Not Again!". Many people have speculated that if we knew exactly why the bowl of petunias had thought that we would know a lot more about the nature of the universe than we do now.
- In the third book - “Life, the Universe, and Everything” - we do find out why the bowl of petunias thinks this. Arthur Dent is diverted to a cathedral of hate made by a creature called Agrajag. Agrajag is the final incarnation of a creature that Arthur Dent has killed many many times. The cathedral is a memorial to all the ways Arthur Dent has killed the bodies of the soul now living in the body of the creature Agrajag.
In other words, Agrajag has reincarnated and been subsequently killed by Arthur hundreds and possibly thousands of times. He blames Arthur. This is why the bowl of petunias, an incarnation of Agrajag, says, “not again.”
...so what we learn about the nature of the universe is that reincarnation is real, and that it is every bit as absurd in its administration as every other aspect of life. Although that is perhaps not a revelation.
- Arthur and Ford imprisoned in the Vogon ship.
Arthur: It's at times like this I wish I'd listened to what my mother told me.
Ford: Why, what did she tell you?
Arthur: I don't know, I didn't listen.
- Ford being an utter troll a few seconds earlier counts as well...
Arthur: So this is it, we're going to die.
Ford: Yes...but. No. Wait a minute! What's this switch!?
Arthur: Where!? Where!?
Ford: No, I was only fooling. We are going to die after all...
- And of course the scene with Zaphod and the Total Perspective Vortex. "Hey, is that a piece of fairy cake?"
- "If I told you how much I needed this," he said ravenously, "I wouldn't have time to eat it." He ate it.
- Oolon Coluphid's Trilogy of Philosophical Blockbusters: Where God Went Wrong, Some More of God's Greatest Mistakes and Who Is This God Person Anyway?
- In the beginning, the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move.
- The whole section on where missing pens go. One scientist figured they escaped via wormholes, and eventually tracked down where the pens supposedly fled to. "They found only an old man who claimed that nothing was true, although he was later discovered to be lying".
- As to the man himself, on becoming a nuisance with his insistent claims, he was sent into tax exile, the usual punishment for people "determined to make a fool of themselves in public". Incidentally, Zaphod Beeblebrox is noted to have a moderately successful second-hand biro business...
- "The ships hung in the sky in much the same way that bricks don't".
- "Ford, you're turning into a penguin. Stop it."
Ford: That's beside the point! The point is that I'm turning into a "perfectly safe" penguin, and my colleague here is rapidly running out of limbs!
Arthur: Oh, that's all right, I've got them all back now...admittedly, they're a little longer than I'm used to.
- The way that our heroes conduct a conversation with Shooty and Bang Bang, the Galactic cops who have them cornered behind a computer bank, in which every trope of stand-offs in dodgy 70s cop shows is parodied:
Bang Bang: Now, listen to us, Beeblebrox, and you better listen good!
Zaphod: Why?
Bang Bang: [momentarily nonplussed] Because it's gonna be very intelligent... and quite interesting... and humane.
Zaphod: Okay, fire away. [ZAP] I mean, shoot. [ZAP ZAP ZAP ZAP KAPOW]
Bang Bang: Oh, sorry. [chuckles] Little misunderstanding there.
- Ford trying to continue an intellectual conversation and explain the beginning of the universe while hammered!
Imagine, see, you get this bath. And it's made of ebony. And it's conical. And then you get some sugar. Or white sand. Doesn't matter. Sugar and/or sand. And then you fill the bath and open the stopper, see, and all the sand, all the sugar kind of spirals down. But that's not the clever bit. The clever bit is, you film it happening. No, wait, that's not the clever bit - the clever bit is when you go to watch the film, you put the film in backwards. So everything kind of spirals up to fill up the bath. [That's not how the universe began,] but it's a marvelous way to relax.
- ''BELGIUM!''
- Two in the Frogstar Scout Robot scene. First:
*scout robot whizzes past*
Zaphod: What was that?
Hitchiker: Frogstar scout robot class A looking for you.
*larger scout robot whizzes past*
Zaphod: And that was...
Hitchiker: Frogstar scout robot class B looking for you.
Zaphod: And that?
Hitchiker: Frogstar scout robot class C looking for you.
*gigantic tank-shaped robot rumbles into view and demolishes nearby building with its tracks*
Zaphod: Holy photon, what's that?
Hitchiker: A tank. Frogstar scout robot class D come to get you.
- This bit becomes even funnier in the radio version, where it's revealed that the scout robots actually knew Zaphod was there, and called the Frogstar tank to get him.
- Second: Marvin has been left alone with no weapons to deal with this tank-robot. After a long guessing game in which the tank tries to discover what they've armed Marvin with to stop him, he finds out they didn't give him anything.
Marvin: I'll tell you what they gave me to protect myself with, shall I?
Tank: Yes, alright.
Marvin: Nothing.
Tank (angrily): Nothing?
Marvin: Nothing at all, not an electronic sausage.
- The tank, after ranting some more, decides to take out his anger:
Tank: I think I'll smash the wall down! *does so* I think I'll shoot down their bloody ceiling as well! *does so*
Marvin: That's very impressive.
Tank: You ain't seen nothing yet, I'll take out this floor too, no trouble! *does so...
and falls down*
Tank: Hell's bells! *smashes itself to bits on the ground fifteen stories below*
Marvin: What a depressingly stupid machine.
- "For a moment, nothing happened. Then, after a second or so, nothing continued to happen."
- From the Secondary Phase, the book describes the motto of the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation Complaints Department, "Share And Enjoy
", and brings up how the company song is sung on special occasions by a choir of robots. Unfortunately, due to the expected malfunctions, the robots sing a flattened 5th out of tune. Hilarity Ensues, both in tonal dissonance and in utterly bizarre lyrics.Share and enjoy!
Share and enjoy!
Journey through life with a plastic boy
or girl by your side.
Let your pal be your guide.
And when it breaks down or starts to annoy
Or grinds when it moves, or gives you no joy
Cos it's eaten your hat or had sex with your cat,
Bled oil on your floor or ripped off your door,
And it gets to the point you can't take any more,
Bring it to us, we won't give a fig.
We'll tell you:
"Go stick your head in a pig!"''
- Followed afterward by the Guide stating "now imagine that it was worse."
- This little exchange:
Ford: How do you feel?
Arthur: Like a military academy.
Bits of Me Keep Passing Out.
[pause] Arthur: If I asked you where the hell we were, would I regret it?
Ford: We're safe.
Arthur: Oh good.
Ford: We're in a small galley cabin in one of the spaceships of the Vogon Constructor Fleet.
Arthur: Ah. This is obviously some strange usage of the word "safe" I wasn't previously aware of.
- "We're going to get lynched, aren't we?"
- "Vell, Zaphod's just zis guy, you know?"
- A clever joke that you probably didn't get the first time round:
Ford: It's unpleasantly like being drunk.
Arthur: What's so unpleasant about being drunk?
Ford: You ask a glass of water.
- The revelation that the most offensive word in the galaxy is "Belgium" happens while Zaphod is dangling from his fingers thousands of feet in the air, and we learn that "it is only ever used by loose-tongued people in moments of extreme peril" because, of course, Zaphod is such a person. Sure enough, he uses it in an attempt to get Ford to rescue him ("Belgium, man, Belgium!"), but it doesn't work because Ford loses his footing and soon they're both dangling, leading Zaphod to top the "Belgium" gag:
- During the disproving of God's existence we have this little gem:
Oh, that was easy," says Man, and for an encore goes on to prove that black is white and gets himself killed on the next zebra crossing.
- This doubly funny for North American readers, who are largely unaware that this refers to what they would call a "crosswalk." Getting killed at a "zebra crossing" brings up images of being trampled on an African plain, which just adds an extra level of surrealism to the original line.
- On the long-collapsed glory days of the Galactic Empire: "Men were real men, women were real women, and small furry creatures from Alpha Centauri were real small furry creatures from Alpha Centauri."
- Marvin. Just... Marvin. Right from the word "go".
Marvin: I think you ought to know I'm feeling very depressed right now.
Marvin: "Would you like me to pick up a piece of paper?" Here I am, brain the size of a planet, and you want me to pick up a piece of paper. Call that job satisfaction, because I don't.
- Funnier still in the Live-Action TV adaptation, where it talks in Machine Monotone.
- Just after Marvin's introduction, we get the first mention of the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation:
Guide: The marketing division of the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation defines a robot as "your plastic pal who's fun to be with". The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy describes the marketing division of the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation as "a bunch of mindless jerks who will be first against the wall when the revolution comes" (with an additional note to the effect that the Guide would welcome anyone looking to take over the post of robotics correspondant). Curiously, a copy of the Encyclopedia Galactica that had fallen through a time warp from a thousand years in the future describes them as "a bunch of mindless jerks who were the first against the wall when the revolution came".
- The Guide's summation of Earth, of all its history, fauna, flora, every man and woman and child, every hero and tyrant and lover and poet that ever was: "Harmless". Later, thanks to Ford Prefect's fifteen years of unintentional research, it gets spruced up a little. To "Mostly harmless".
- The fate of the scientist who invented the Infinite Improbability Drive: Lynched by fellow scientists, when they decided the one thing they couldn't stand was a smartarse.
- It's mentioned that the technology used in the Infinite Improbability Drive was developed to break the ice at parties by causing the hostess' undergarments three feet to the left. Many respectable physicists wouldn't stand for it, partially because it was a debasement of science, but mostly because they never got invited to those sort of parties.
- While leaving the Restaurant at the end of the Universe, Marvin reveals he could see The Answer inside Arthur's mind.
Arthur: ... and?
Marvin: It amazes me how you can manage to live in anything that small.
- Arthur's battle with Mr. Prosser about finding the plans to demolish his house.
Mr. Prosser: The plans were on display.
Arthur: On display? I had to go down into the basement to find them.
Mr. Prosser: That's the display department.
Arthur: With a torch.
Mr. Prosser: The lights had probably gone.
Arthur: (acidly) So had the stairs.
Mr. Prosser: But you found the plans eventually.
Arthur: Oh, I found them. In the bottom drawer of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused loo with a sign on it saying "beware of the leopard"!
- Finally, Prosser stops playing nice;
Mr. Prosser: Mr. Dent, have you any idea how much damage the bulldozer would suffer if I just let it roll right over you?
Arthur: How much?
Mr. Prosser: None at all.
- Deep Thought pointing out to the philosophers how the wait for the Answer could benefit them.
Deep Thought: So long as you keep slagging each other off in the popular press, and as long as you have good agents, you can keep yourselves on the gravy train for life. How does that sound?
- A minor one is when two intruders to the philosopher and Deep Thoughts chamber demand entrance, with mention made by Adams of one casually elbowing a pretty young secretary trying to stop them in the throat.
- The entire scene with Zaphod Beeblebrox the Fourth. Grumpy Old Man incarnate, and he's dead.
- The scene with the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation Happy Vertical People Transporter, trying to convince Zaphod that he'd like to go down a floor rather than up, followed by the Guide's explanation on Sirius Cybernetics Corporation Happy Vertical People Transporters (and the explanation in the radio show that their invention led to the reinvention of the staircase, and the reinventor funnelling his untold wadges of cash into therapy for deranged executives of the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation).
- "There is a theory that if anyone ever discovers exactly what the universe was for, it will instantly be replaced by something even more inexplicable and weird. ... there is a theory this has already happened."
- In the radio series, there is a third theory: That the previous two were made up by the editor of the Guide to sell the book. "Of these three theories, this is the most convincing."
- The Guide's war on reality, beauty and truth, when they get sued for inaccuracy, hire a poet to testify beauty is truth, truth beauty, and try to get reality itself blamed for being neither beautiful nor true. The judge agreed, "and in a moving statement, found life itself in contempt of court, and had it duly confiscated from everyone in the room, before going off to enjoy a pleasant evening's ultragolf."
- The discussion on the planet ruled by democratically-elected lizards: "The people hate the lizards, and the lizards hate the people. But if the people don't vote, the wrong lizard might get in."
- The Guide's advice on what to do if you find yourself trapped under a large boulder with no hope of rescue: Consider how good life has been to you so far. Alternatively, if it hasn't been good to you (which, if you are trapped under a boulder, is far more likely), take solace that it won't be bothering you for much longer.
- The entire section the Guide has on the universe, and its imports (none), exports (none), rainfall (only in the radio version, also none), population (might as well be none, anyone you meet is the product of a deranged imagination), money (some, actually, but either worthless or totally useless) and sex (technically none, but all those imaginary people have to do something to pass the time).
- The part on the money itself, where it describes the three main currencies, one of which (the Altarian dollar) has recently collapsed, the other (the Flanian Pobble Bead) can only be traded for more of itself, and while the third (the Triganic Pu) has a simple exchange rate of 1 Pu to 6 Ningis, a Ningi is a coin 6,800 miles long across each side, and the banks refuse to deal in small change. "From this, we can derive that the galactic banks are also the product of a deranged imagination."
- Shooty and Bang-Bang the cops, and their insistence that they're not just mindless thugs.
Shooty: I don't go around gratuitously murdering people and then brag about it in seedy space ranger bars. I go around gratuitously murdering people, and then I agonise about it to my girlfriend!
Bang-Bang: And I write novels! But I haven't been able to get any of them published, so I'll warn you, I'm in a mean mood!
- In the radio version, after the discussion on the "How, Why and Where" stages of galactic development, it also elaborates the three phases of warfare, the "Retribution, Anticipation and Diplomacy" stages, which are summed up thus: Retribution ("I'm going to kill you because you killed my brother.") Anticipation ("I'm going to kill you because I killed your brother.") And Diplomacy ("I'm going to kill my brother, and try and kill you on the pretext that you did it.")
- Marvin's advice when the organisms find themselves trapped in a spaceship with a horde of angry Haggunenons.
Marvin: If I were you, I'd feel very depressed.
Zaphod: Terrific. Monkey-man, you got anything?
Arthur: On the whole, I agree with Marvin.
- From the radio version, Arthur vs. the Nutrimatic drinks machine...note Appears in The Restaurant at the End of the Universe in the books
Nutrimatic: If you have enjoyed the experience of this drink, why not share it with your friends?
Arthur: Because I want to keep them. Will you try and comprehend what I'm telling you? That drink...
Nutrimatic: That drink was individually tailored to meet your personal requirements for nutrition and pleasure.
Arthur: Ah. So I'm a masochist on a diet am I?
- The Wise Old Bird sharing the dark story of the Blight of the Robots, much to Arthur's confusion:
Arthur: What happened, did they all turn against you?
Wise Old Bird: Oh, no. No, no, no, far worse than that. They told us they liked us!
- On the days of the Galactic Empire, mention is made of how everyone became exceedingly rich. "This was perfectly normal and nothing to be ashamed of, because no-one was really poor (at least, no-one worth mentioning)."
- Vroomfondel the philosopher, who's clearly more invested in being a Weird Trade Union representative than in being a philosopher. But he's doing better than Magikthise, at least.
We demand rigidly defined areas of doubt and uncertainty!
- The sheer fact Adams named two characters Vroomfondel and Magikthise to begin with.
- From the tertiary phase, the section on the Silastic Armorfiends of Striterax, and their tendency to take their anger out on anyone or anything nearby, their own selves included, helped by the Simpleton Voice they're given. Apparently the best way to deal with an Armorfiend is to just leave him alone, as he'll start beating himself up.
- Also, when the Wikket Gate is undone, the Guide takes a moment to explain the nature of sound effects, and how in this instance, the notoriously cheap staff of the Guide could've stood to go that "extra light-year", rather than just banging a novelty coffee cup on an editor's desk. It then goes on to plug a company who do award winning moments of silence, such as [ ] and [ ].
- In the radio version of Mostly Harmless, everyone ends up at the Restaurant at the End of the Universe. While there, Zaphod gets a phone call from a certain someone, who is slightly less dead than previously thought.
Marvin: You asked for a babe wash. Due to staff shortages, I am your babe.
- "Spend a few thousand million years in a job and eventually you get promoted. I have my own bucket now. Finally, I am somebody."
- Everything about the dolphins, the second smartest species on Earth.
- "Man thought he was cleverer than the dolphins because he had achieved so much; the wheel, war, New York, and so on, while all dolphins had done was muck about in the ocean having a good time. Dolphins thought they were cleverer than man for precisely the same reason."
- Dolphinkind's attempts to warn man of the impending destruction of Earth, which they'd long known about (after all, the plans were on display for fifty years beforehand). However, their attempts were misinterpreted as attempts to punch footballs or play for titbits. Their last try was mistaken as an attempt to do a backwards somersault through a hoop while whistling "The Star-Spangled Banner". It was actually "so long, and thanks for all the fish."
- "In the beginning the Universe was created. This had made a lot of people very angry and had been widely regarded as a bad move."
- In the second book, The Heart of Gold is being attacked by a Vogon ship and they can't move because the ship computer is too busy trying to make tea. The force-shield starts blistering and cracking under the sudden, unexpected attack. Ford thinks it would probably hold for about four minutes...
"Three minutes and fifty seconds," he said a short while later.
"Forty-five seconds," he added at the appropriate time. He flicked idly at some useless switches, then gave Arthur an unfriendly look.
"Dying for a cup of tea, eh?" he said. "Three minutes and forty seconds."
"Will you stop counting!" snarled Zaphod.
"Yes," said Ford Prefect, "In three minutes and thirty-five seconds."
- The original version of that exchange (in the radio program) was also hilarious:
Arthur: I'm sorry, it's just that I was dying for a cup of tea!
Zaphod: You soon will be, baby!
- The Dangers Of Teleportation
I teleported home one night
With Ron and Sid and Meg
Ron stole Meggie's heart away
And I got Sidney's leg.
- The first thing that hit their eyes was what appeared to be a coffin. [pause] And the next four thousand nine hundred ninety-nine things that hit their eyes were also coffins.
- The Golgafrinchans are fairly stupid, but the Captain is absolutely hilarious.
Number Two: Sir! They are trespassing on the ship!
Captain: Oh, I expect that they probably just dropped in for a quick jynnan tonnyx, don't you, Number Two?
Number Two: May I remind you... that you have been in that bath for three years?!
- The discussion about jynnan tonnyx, in which Adams manages to top the Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster routine from the earlier book, telling how each civilisation in the galaxy has a drink whose name has the same phonemes, from "jinond-o-nicks", which is "ordinary water served at slightly above room temperature", to "Tzjin-anthony-ks", which "kills cows at a hundred paces".
- The hilariously dark "Let's Meet the Meat" scene.
''"A very wise choice, sir, if I may say so. Very good," it said, "I'll just nip off and shoot myself."
He turned and gave a friendly wink to Arthur.
"Don't worry, sir," he said, "I'll be very humane."
- The author’s description of what a Kill-o-Zap gun looks like:
—> The designer of the gun had clearly not been instructed to beat about the bush. ‘Make it evil,’ he’d been told. “Make it totally clear that this gun has a right end and a wrong end. Make it totally clear to anyone standing at the wrong end that things are going badly for them. If that means sticking all sort of spikes and prongs and blackened bits all over it then so be it. This is not a gun for hanging over the fireplace or sticking in the umbrella stand, it is a gun for going out and making people miserable with.’
- The trailer. It's simply the in-universe's Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy's entry on "movie trailers", providing an example and a running commentary on the key elements. Guess which film it uses as an example.
The Guide: The standard repository for all knowledge and wisdom in the universe is called
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and it has this to say about movie trailers.
Movie trailers are designed to give you an idea of the film in question in a very short space of time.
[footage of Arthur waking up to find the bulldozers about to demolish his house] Typically, they begin with the introduction of a main character, who will very shortly have something utterly fantastic happen to him, that someone just had to make a movie about it. Often, this section is preceded by the words "
In a World…"....
[Earth explodes]....but sometimes not.
Trailers also normally employ
A DEEP VOICE that sounds like a seven foot tall man who has been smoking cigarettes since childhood.
The goal is to create a piece of advertising that is original and exciting, yet intelligent and provocative. In other words:
lots of things blowing up.
[cue montage of explosions from other movies] Occasionally interrupted
by a girl in a bikini.
- The first thing we see of this film? A full-on musical number about dolphinkind's last message to humanity; "So long, and thanks for all the fish." It features this delightful lyrics:
Your world's about to be destroyed / There's no point getting all annoyed
Just lie back and let the planet dissolve around you
- The airlock scene has an awesome moment of false hope being crushed for laughs: "So this is it? We're going to die?" "Yea, we're going to . . . No, no what's this? This . . . this is nothing; we're going to die."
- Arthur: "Ford?" "Yes?" "I think I'm a sofa." "I know how you feel." AHHHHHHH!!!!!
- Also, the scene where after using the improbability drive, everyone is animated as yarn dolls, then Arthur vomits as we return to live action, with one yarn thread sticking out of his mouth.
- See both scenes here.
- Almost everything Zaphod does, thanks to the over-the-top zaniness of Sam Rockwell's portrayal.
Zaphod: In the name of democracy, freedom, stuff like that... I hereby kidnap myself, and I'm taking the ship with me! Woo!
- The escape pod scene. Ford presses one of the pod's buttons twice, making a small wheel pop out that controls the pod's angle. Arthur tries to handle the pod but Zaphod briefly puts a blindfold on him for no apparent reason. The human then asks Marvin if he has any idea on what to do now that they are traveling far away from the Heart of Gold.
Marvin: I have a million ideas; they all point to certain death.
Arthur: Thanks very much, Marv!
- One-headed Zaphod pretends he's shooting back at the attacking Vogons. Then he starts dancing like Michael Jackson.
- Later, Zaphod keeps insisting the Vogon's homeworld is Magrathea.
Zaphod: We made it! We're in Magrathea!
Ford: It's not Magrathea.
Zaphod: Yes it is! I know it!
Ford: It isn't—
Zaphod: Yes it is!
- Trillian has been captured by the Vogons. How do they save her? By filling out a "Presidential Release Form". Yes, those exist. Of course, before this, Arthur tries filling out a regular release form beforehand, only to be kindly informed by the Vogon clerk of his mistake. It's like one of those bad days at the DMV.
- Ford, Zaphod, and Arthur sitting down while waiting for Trillian to be released.
Zaphod: Who are we waiting for again? {Arthur visibly tenses; Ford quietly places a hand on his knee to calm him} No, I'm serious.
- The paddle creatures, which pop up from the dirt and slap people's faces whenever someone thinks of anything.
Arthur: Stupid!
- Extra commentary reveals these things are both the reason Vogons are flat-faced and why they're incapable of thinking.
- After the heroes escape from Vogsphere, Jeltz declares his intention to personally track them down and put an end to this nonsense. Then a loud horn sounds. "Oh, that's one hour for lunch, everyone." And the Vogons plod off to get a meal. "I'll think I'll have the soup today..."
- The climax of the film; The Vogons are shooting everywhere, our heroes are cornered, and then Marvin the chronically-depressed robot picks up the Point-Of-View Gun. He pulls the trigger, and the Vogons become so depressed that they just topple over.
Trillian: Marvin, you saved our lives.
Marvin: I know. Wretched, isn't it?
- On beholding an incredible double sunrise from space: "Incredible. It's even worse than I thought it would be."
- When the Guide mentions Oolon Coluphid's books, Where God Went Wrong and Some More of God's Greatest Mistakes, their covers are, respectively, the female and male symbols.
- Zaphod turns into The Chew Toy when Trillian turns the POV Ray on him repeatedly. Leads to a Mood Whiplash when Zaphod gets his hands on it, then tries to take revenge, but:
- The "Really Deleted Scenes" from the DVD edition.
- Ford and Arthur's reactions to Vogon poetry: Ford writhing in agony, Arthur...not so much.
- Hearing Mos Def say the line "What if I told you I wasn't from Guildford?" is hilarious given that Mos Def is American. He doesn't even pronounce the town's name right!note With a British accent, the first D in "Guildford" is silent.
- The profoundly goofy smile Ford wears when he "introduces" himself to a Ford Prefect just sells the moment from the book.
- The answering machine message left at Magrathea...
Councilman: Greetings. This is a recorded announcement as we're all out the moment. The Commercial council of Magrathea thanks you for your esteemed visit, but regrets that the entire planet is temporarily closed for business. If you would like to leave your name and a planet where you can be contacted, kindly do so at the tone.
Arthur: Closed? How can a planet be closed?
Zaphod: For once, Aldus, I agree with you. Okay, computer. Keep going. Take us down.
Councilman: It is most gratifying that your enthusiasm for our planet continues unabated. As a token of our appreciation, we hope you will
enjoy the two thermonuclear missiles we've just sent to converge with your craft. To ensure on-going quality of service, your death may be monitored for training purposes. Thank you.
- This exchange when Ford and Zaphod try to convince Arthur to enter a portal...
Arthur: We can't just jump into that-...that! We don't even know where it leads!
Ford: If we- If we pick the wrong, we just- we come back; we pick another one. It's no biggy!
Zaphod: This is the right one! I have a hunch!
Arthur: Ford?
Ford: His hunches are good! Arthur, I say we go!
Arthur: Go with a hunch of a man whose brain is fueled by lemons?!
- They help him concentrate.
- Then after Arthur fails to follow them.
Marvin: I
told you this would all end in tears.
Arthur: (high-pitched Angrish) DID YOU?
DID YOU?!
- Zaphod Beeblebrox's ad campaign. Appears on the soundtrack.
- The Overly-Long Gag of the camera jump-cutting into outer space while Ford is holding onto Arthur and trying to hitch a ride on a Vogon ship and Arthur is screaming bloody murder before Earth is destroyed by the Vogons.
- The bit at the end where the two mice try to take Arthur's brain and Arthur talks about how the most important thing in life is to be happy. The mice respond, in high-pitched voices:
Lunkwill: Rubbish! We don't want to be happy, we want to be famous!
Fook: Yeah, what's all this 'is she the one' tripe?
Lunkwill: Take his brain!
- Zaphod signed off on the order to destroy the Earth. Reason? He didn't realize what he was doing and thought he was giving out autographs.
Trillian: "Love and kisses, Zaphod"?!....My whole planet destroyed because you thought someone wanted your autograph!
- The last lines:
Marvin: Not that anyone cares what I say, but the restaurant is at the other end of the Universe.
(Cue the Heart of Gold screeching to a halt, reversing tracks and flying back at the viewer)
