The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy cultural references

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Since the original radio transmission of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, there have been many references to the series in many types of media. The popularity of the books, TV series, and the many other adaptations have expanded these yet further.

Most famously, a chess computer was named Deep Thought after the computer which works out the "Ultimate Answer" in the stories. In 1989 it lost two games to the then World Chess Champion, Gary Kasparov. In 1996 one of its successors, Deep Blue, defeated Kasparov in a six-game match under tournament conditions, becoming the first machine to defeat a reigning World Chess Champion in tournament chess.

Contents

1 Hitchhiker's Guide to...
2 42
3 Phrases
4 Characters and concepts

4.1 ''Hitchhiker's'' references in ''Doctor Who''
4.2 Other references

Hitchhiker's Guide to...

The title has been referenced by a variety of media:

Chronological:

Ed Krol's noted 1987 internet guide, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Internet [link]
Collaborative Internet project inspired by The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - The 1991 Project Galactic Guide, which has no official affiliation.
Collaborative Internet project inspired by The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - The 1999 h2g2, a project started by Douglas Adams' company The Digital Village and currently hosted by the BBC.
Douglas Adams' final radio documentary series for BBC Radio 4 drew its title from his most famous work. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Future aired in late April and early May of 2001.
The band Ruth's Hat released an album in 2003 entitled The Hitchhiker's Guide to Rock and Roll.
Slate article from 3 May 2005: [Wikipedia is a real-life Hitchhiker's Guide: huge, nerdy, and imprecise.]
The television hospital-drama series, ER, named a 2005 chapter "An Intern's Guide To The Galaxy" (Season 11, Chapter 5).
Playboy included an article entitled The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Star Wars Galaxy in their June 2005 issue, US Edition.
Softpedia published a 2005 article on its website entitled [Hitchhiker's Guide to the IT World].
O'Reilly and Associates MacDevCenter.com published a 2005 article on its website entitled [The Hitchhiker's Guide to ADHOC] (Advanced Developers Hands-On Conference)

Other:

Microsoft Press has published multiple editions of Hitchhiker's Guide to Visual Basic and SQL Server.

42

References to the number forty-two are common

Google's calculator feature displays the number 42 when asked, "answer to life the universe and everything?" [link] (only works with all lower-case letters).
Using search at MSN will give you a similar result. Entering "answer to life the universe and everything" (all lower case letters again) into the search box at www.msn.com gives the result: "Answer: answer = 42 at the top of the list. [link]
The character of Lionel, in the PBS Kids' series Between the Lions, wears a '42' on his rugby jersey sleeve. This is a deliberate homage by two of the show's creators, Michael Frith and Christopher Cerf, as discussed in Cerf's introduction to the US Editions of The Salmon of Doubt.
Fox Mulder from The X-Files lives in apartment number 42. He has also seen the movie Plan 9 From Outer Space 42 times.
The house number of the Kumars, of The Kumars at No. 42, is a reference, as the show's creator Sanjeev Bhaskar explained on the occasion of endorsing the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy in the BBC campaign Big Read
In the popular video game Destroy All Humans!, there is a base spoofing the infamous Area 51, called "Area 42".
In SWI Prolog, if one asks for a capitalised goal predicate, such as Predicate. or X., therefore turning the goal into the uninstantiated question (in other words, one asks a question that can be loosely translated as "What matches [everything]?" or "Is there an [everything]?"), one is given 42. For example:

1 ?- X.
% ... 1,000,000 ............ 10,000,000 years later
% 
%       >> 42 << (last release gives the question)
1 ?-

In the text editor vim, the command ":help 42" yields the following text:

What is the meaning of life, the universe and everything? *42* Douglas Adams, the only person who knew what this question really was about is now dead, unfortunately. So now you might wonder what the meaning of death is...

[Geoff Fortytwo] changed his last name to Fortytwo in 1998.
The popular talker the Planes of Existence used 42 as the beginning of all of its ports.
In an episode of the TV series Early Edition, lead character Gary Hobson asks his mother how many chances she thinks we get at happiness. She answers, "42."
In the TIFF (Tagged Image File Format) specification: Every TIFF file begins with a 2-byte indicator of byte order: "II" for little endian and "MM" for big endian byte ordering. The following 2 bytes represent the number 42. The number 42 was selected "for its deep philosophical significance".
In the comic "Get Fuzzy", Rob Wilco is known to wear a shirt with the mathematical equation "6 * 9 = 42". There was also a comic with a tribute to Douglas Adams (published after the author's 2001 death), with a giant 42 with the line "So long and thanks for all the laughs." Also, characters are seen holding towels, and one says "Don't panic."
The band Level 42 was named in direct reference to this.
Computer Games and Worms World Party feature a "flag" with the number 42 on it.
One of the bosses in Resident Evil is named Plant 42.
In the comedy drama Love Soup, Alice lives in flat number 42.
The last number of the significant number series in Lost is 42.
In the British sitcom The IT Crowd, Roy wears a T-shirt with the number 42 on it.
Buzz Lightyear's spaceship in his eponymous cartoon series is number 42.
In Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends when Bloo is in a presidential debate, he concludes with "If you want 2 + 3 = 42, vote for me."
In the game [Dragon Quest], a free online game, you are told that the meaning of life is in room number 42.
On an episode of House M.D., Dr. Gregory House says his lucky number is 42.
In the online game [Adventure Quest], there is a door labelled 42 in the inn. When clicked on, messages appear that reference the books.
In Brazil by Terry Gilliam: Sam Lowry leaving public transportation at station 42 or 41.
The character Peter Griffin from Family Guy is 42 years old.
If using the Oracle of Team Trafikk[link], the local bus company in Trondheim, Norway it will answer the question "Hva er meningen med livet?" ("What is the meaning of life?") with "42".
In South Park Episode 912 a representative of the Church of Scientology waited 42 years for the reincarnation of L. Ron Hubbard.
In Microsoft's Integrated Development Environment Visual C++, creating a new Dynamic-link library project will generate default code with a sample function that just returns 42.
In an episode of "Boy Meets World", Eric asks Mr. Feeny what a passing grade is. Mr. Feeny: "65" Eric: "What if he gets a 64?" Mr. Feeney: "He fails" Eric: "What if he gets a 42?"
In another episode of "Boy Meets World", Corey, fearing the changes of puberty, says "I'm going to stay 12 until I'm 42!"
In the Extended DVD edition of , there is a scene where Gimli and Legolas have been "keeping score" of how many orcs they kill. By the end of the battle for Helm's Deep, Legolas has killed exactly 42 orcs.

Phrases

Other popular phrases have been adapted many times:

Version 4.0 of the screen saver collection After Dark contained an "equation" screen saver in which one of the possible settings for things to calculate was "Life, the Universe and Everything".
The webcomic El Goonish Shive has one comic titled "So Long and Thanks for all the Cake".
In the game GoldenEye 007 for Nintendo 64, one of the "awards" that can be earned in multiplayer mode is "Mostly Harmless."
In the game Elite the player's first ranking is "Harmless", after which they progress to "Mostly Harmless." These are, respectively, the entire entries for the planet Earth in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy before and after Ford Prefect's update. The same is true of the Escape Velocity games and Evil Genius.
The band NOFX released an album in 1997 called So Long and Thanks for All the Shoes, in reference to the dolphins' final quote, "So long, and thanks for all the fish." "Shoes" was used because of the articles of clothing, including shoes, that are thrown onto the stage whenever the band performs live. This was stated in the insert for the album.
In the game Impossible Creatures, Rex says, "So Long and Thanks for All the Fish," after the villagers he saves from a fire give him a bunch of Archerfish to mix with other creatures. This is yet another reference to the title of the fourth book, and what the dolphins say shortly before departing from the earth.
The title of the Radiohead album OK Computer is a possible reference to a line Zaphod Beeblebrox uses several times to address the computer aboard the Heart of Gold. (The song "Paranoid Android" is a hit single off of this album. See below in 'Characters and concepts'.)
The Coldplay song "Don't Panic" takes its name from the inscription on the front cover of the fictional guide.
GameFAQs's most notorious message board: "Life, the Universe, and Everything" (LUE) is derived from the book of the same name; strangely the board's identity number is 402 (forty-two with the numbers separated by a nought), although at one period of time the identity number was actually 42. (LUE has since been made into a private board, and is no longer accessible except to those that can already access it.) Other boards named after the Guide include "Mostly Harmless".
In S.M. Stirling's book, "Island in the Sea of Time", William Walker says "So long", and finishes with "and thanks for all the fish" in his head.
The website drinksmixer.com lists one recipe for a Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster [here].
The jester in Infocom's Zork Zero will sometimes say "So long, and thanks for all the fish" (a possible reference to the computer game, because Zork Zero and the game were both implemented by Steve Meretzky.)
Two finnish bands, Abduktio and Poverty Stinks have used titles from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Abduktio's 2005 album Tuli kulje kanssani features a track called Enimmäkseen harmiton, which translates to "Mostly Harmless". Poverty Stinks's 1990 album is called Gargle Blaster.
British band [Men From Earth] distributed a song titled 'Salmon of Doubt' via their website the week of Adams's death, as a tribute.
The video game Radical Dreamers contains a book that begins in the same way as The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
An Extremetech.com article written about Bill Gates' planned departure from Microsoft was titled [So Long, Bill, and Thanks for all the Phish]
In Danny Phantom: The Ultimate Enemy, a worker at the Nasty Burger mentions that there are 42 secret herbs and spices in the Nasty Sauce.

Characters and concepts

Some characters and concepts have been referenced, particularly towels:

Hitchhiker's references in Doctor Who

Because Adams wrote or co-wrote scripts for three Doctor Who serials, and was the script editor for the 1979-1980 season, many references to Hitchhiker's appear in Doctor Who.

Douglas Adams wrote the four episodes for the 1978 Doctor Who serial The Pirate Planet at the same time that he wrote the original six-part radio series for The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Because of this, the serial contains multiple Hitchhiker's "in-jokes":

* In Part One, precious stones are discovered in the street that could have only come from two places in the galaxy, one of those being the planet "Bantraginus V" — in the Hitchhiker's canon, the planet Santraginus V is the location for one of the key ingredients for making a Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster.

* In Part Two, the first time that The Doctor travels along the linear induction corridor to The Bridge, he remarks, "I'll never be cruel to an electron in a particle accelerator again!" This is a parody of a line spoken by Arthur Dent in the second radio episode, as the ship that he and Ford Prefect have hitchhiked aboard begins to travel in hyperspace: "I'll never be cruel to a gin and tonic again!" Also in Part Two, The Doctor mocks the Captain's guards in a manner similar to Ford Prefect taunting the Vogon Guard in the second episode of The Hitchhiker's Guide.

* The Doctor's arrival, with the Mentiads, at their hiding place in Part Three is announced to take place "in 21.9 seconds" by K-9. This is compared to the Narrator announcing that Ford Prefect "will enter our story in 35 seconds" in the first episode of The Hitchhiker's Guide. Also in Part Three, when captured by The Captain, The Doctor's advice to fellow captive Kimus is "Don't Panic."

* Dialogue cut between Romana and The Doctor in Part Four had Romana accusing The Doctor of being "impossible." The Doctor replied, "No, just very, very improbable."

In the 1979 Doctor Who serial Destiny of the Daleks, the Doctor reads Oolon Colluphid's book The Origins of the Universe and says he got it wrong "on the first line". This reference was inserted into the script by the script editor of Doctor Who at the time — Douglas Adams.

When Big Finish Productions was commissioned to record a complete version of the Doctor Who story Shada, by Douglas Adams, to be webcast on the BBCi website, other references to The Hitchhiker's Guide were added. A sequence dealing with the story's villain stealing a car (and stealing the knowledge of how to operate it from the driver's mind) was originally scripted with little or no dialogue. The new version reveals that the driver is the treasurer for a Ford Prefect society, and this model of car is the one that is stolen. This sequence can be heard on the CD release of the story. Artist Lee Sullivan also inserted a "Nutrimat" dispenser in Chris Parsons's physics lab and images of Hitchhiker's characters appear as inmates on the prison planet Shada. The latter two references can only be seen in the original webcast's animation.

Another reference appeared in the story Ghost Light in 1989. Sylvester McCoy's Doctor at one point asks, as a rhetorical question, "Who was it that said earthmen never invite their ancestors to dinner?" The original line, in episode one of both the radio and TV series of Hitchhiker's was: "Earthmen are not proud of their ancestors and never invite them round to dinner."

In the 2005 Christmas special, The Christmas Invasion, the Doctor, having woken up and saved the day wearing pyjamas and a dressing gown, describes all this as "very Arthur Dent", adding: "Now, there was a nice man!" Which could suggest that the events of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy are canon in the Doctor Who universe — which would tie in with the reference in Destiny of the Daleks (see above). Or he could simply have been teasing his companion Rose Tyler, or else, of course, he might have been referring not to Dent but, once again (see Ghostlight above), to the creator of the character, Douglas Adams. (Alternatively, Dent could have encountered the Doctor while travelling through parallel universes in the fifth Hitchhiker's book, Mostly Harmless.)

Other references

In the book Star Trek: The Next Generation Technical Manual by Rick Sternbach and Michael Okuda, it is revealed (on page 77) that part of the "impulse drive system schematic panel in Main Engineering," on the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-D), the subject of the book, is labeled "Infinite Improbability Generation."
As reprinted in the book The Making of a directory of the space station's Promenade includes: "Milliways 02-984" and "Sirius Cybernetics Corporation 02-643." The numbers indicate the locations of Milliways and the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation on the space station Deep Space Nine.
The name of the instant messenger program Trillian comes from the nickname of the character Tricia McMillan.
The AltaVista Babel Fish Translator's name is a reference to the Babel fish.
The Radiohead song "Paranoid Android" refers to Marvin, the depressed robot.
In the children's online game Neopets, an item called a Pan Galactic Gargle Slushie can be purchased. It references the Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster, named the best drink in existence by the Guide.
The Dopefish in the computer game Commander Keen is listed as the second dumbest creature in the universe, a reference to the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal.
The Infocom adventure game was reviewed in UK computer publication Personal Computer World's January 1985 edition, which also featured cover art of Zaphod playing two computers at once. Derek Cohen, editor of the magazine at the time and fan of the series, had previously got himself listed in the London telephone directory for several years as Zaphod Beeblebrox.
The novel Planetfall, written by Arthur Byron Cover, and based on the Infocom game of the same name, was sold with the tagline: "In the bestselling tradition of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy," and referenced the importance of towels and also contained a variant on the "Dentarthurdent" joke between Arthur and Slartibartfast (from the first book, or radio/tv episode 3).
NetHack has several references to the Hitchhiker's Guide. If under the influence of hallucinogenic drugs, the player may meet a Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal or a microscopic space fleet. The game also features a towel, the entire description of which is a direct quote from the Hitchhiker's Guide.
The game included a Thing Your Aunt Gave You Which You Don't Know What it Is - a reference to an identically named object from the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy computer game.
In Starcrossed, the Finale to the Justice League animated series, the League must fight to stop a group of aliens from destroying the Earth to create a hyperspace bypass (or rather, building a hyperspace device that will destroy the Earth upon its activation).
In the popular video game Destroy All Humans! one scientist says "Me with a brain the size of a planet, and I can't get lucky to save my life!", which is a reference to Marvin the Paranoid Android. Also in the same game one person says "I've heard that the Dolphins have been in contact with the aliens. Mice told me that." This is a reference to what the mice and dolphins are doing in the first book in the Hitchhiker's Guide series.
In Kingdom of Loathing, the Probability Giant's room in the Castle in the Clouds in the Sky is reminiscient of the Infinite Improbability Drive when activated.
In the TV series My Life as a Teenage Robot, one of Jenny's sisters, XJ-7, possesses traits similar to Marvin. She replied "Life, Universe, Everything," when asked what was wrong.
[Galactic Krikkit] - An multiplayer web-based game with a large number of references to HHGTTG.
There is a nightclub in Ottawa, Canada called Zaphod Beeblebrox, which serves a number of Hitchhicker's Guide themed alcoholic drinks, including Pan Galactic Gargle Blasters and Slartibartfasts.
In the computer game Startopia your guide to the game, VAL, tells you to remember the words "don't panic".
In Commander in Chief, Mackenzie Allen's son has a The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy movie poster in his room.
In the Asheron's Call computer game it is possible to obtain a wearable towel that comes with an explanatory note from Ford Prefect.
If you are killed by a certain enemy in Quake III Arena he taunts you by saying "No threat/mostly harmless".
In the after Jack Sparrow escapes from an uninhabited island for the second time and shows up at Isla De Muerta for a second time, Captain Barbosa says "It's not possible!" upon seeing Jack. Jack replies "Not probable."
A Quiz-show style stage in the video game Earthworm Jim 2 asks the question "What is the meaning of life?" The correct answer is, of course, 42.
The webcomic After Y2K featured a tribute comic to Adams after his 2001 death. [link]
FoxTrot made an oblique reference to Hitchhiker's by joking that the character Marcus knows Mos Def not as a rapper, but as the actor who portrayed Ford Prefect in the film adaptation of the series. The comic was first published on 28 March 2006.
In the 3D graphic art program Bryce, one preset liquid texture choice is named Santraginus V, with the subtitle "...or a cool frosty Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster."
In the Andromeda episode "A Heart for Falsehood Framed" the ship's AI says, she had "a brain the size of a Planet".

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