A review by isabellarobinson7
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

adventurous funny lighthearted fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

Eighth read: 11/06/24 - 11/06/24

Rating: 1,764 stars

I present to you, my essay on The Various Kinds of Douglas Adams Humour in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy That Are All Equally as Funny and Make Me Laugh Hysterically Every Time, Even Though This is the Eighth Time I Have Read This Book (with evidence):

The One-Two Punch - a traditional set up for a joke followed by the punchline.
Example:

" 'You know,' said Arthur, 'it's at times like, this when I'm trapped in a Vogon airlock with a man from Betelgeuse and about to die of asphyxiation in deep space, that I really wish I'd listened to what my mother told me when I was young.'
'Why, what did she tell you?'
'I don't know, I didn't listen.' "

The One Liners - a singular line of text (often just a description or offhanded comment) that is hilarious in few words.
Example:

"The ships hung in the sky in much the same way that bricks don't."

Related: Character One Liners - a humorous dialogue quote from a character who is usually unaware of its hilarity.
Example:

" 'Ford, he said, 'you're turning into a penguin. Stop it.' "

The Inside Joke - this is the kind of humour where Adams puts a spin on a real world thing, and often the fact that it is related to the real world thing makes it funny.
Example:

"...to boldly split infinitives that no man has split before."

Recurring/Running Jokes - a joke where in its repetition, the comedy is produced.
Example:
Humanity's love and reverence of digital watches

Related: Comedic Characters - certain characters that have a comedic bit, and their purpose in the story is (largely) for the repeated delivery of this comedy.
Example: Marvin (I could put any and all Marvin quotes here, but I shall choose only a select few... and I'm really trying to go for the "few" here)

"The suns blazed into the pitch of space and a low ghostly music floated through the bridge: Marvin was humming ironically because he hated humans so much."

"He pointed down into the crater.
'Is that robot yours?' he said.
'No,' came a thin metallic voice from the crater, 'I'm mine.' "

" 'But how are you, metalman?' said Ford
'Very depressed.'
'What's up?'
'I don't know,' said Marvin, 'I've never been there' "

The Paragraph Joke - a joke where Adams goes on for entire paragraphs about something singular, and it is somehow just as funny as his one liners.
Example: towels paragraph (excerpts included)

"A towel, it says, is the about most massively useful thing and interstellar hitchhiker could have. Partly it has great practical value - you can wrap it around you for warmth[...]; you can sleep under it beneath the stars[...]; wet it for use in hand-to-hand combat;[...]
More importantly, a towel has immense psychological value. For some reason if a strag (strag: non-hitchhiker) discovers that a hitchhiker has a tower with him, he will automatically assume that he is also in position of a toothbrush, face flannel, soap, tin of biscuits, flask, compass, map, ball of string, gnat spray, wet-weather gear, space suit, etc., etc. Furthermore, the strag will then happily lend the hitchhiker any of these or a dozen other items that the hitchhiker might have accidentally 'lost'. What the strag will think is that any man who can hitch the length and breath of galaxy, rough it, slum it, struggle against terrible odds, win through, and still know where his towel is is clearly a man to be reckoned with."

The Anti-Climax Joke - when the setup for a plot or character point ends up resulting in something rather underwhelming. (I left this one for last because it is probably the most famous)
Example:
The meaning of life, the universe, and everything being 42

I mean at this point I have practically quoted half the book, but so it deserves. People exaggerate and say that they have post-it noted every page of a book, but I am not exaggerating when I say every second page of my copy of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy has a marker on it, because every single time I read it I find something new to mark.


Seventh read: 13/06/23 - 15/06/23

Rating: 42 stars

It’s reread time!!!!! Actually, I have never explained why I read Hitchhiker's every year in June. Not that anyone particularly cares, but here's how it started:

2017: I borrow The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy from the library and read it for the first time, giving it 4 stars.
2018: I note that the sequel, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, is at a library a fair way away from me, so I sit and hope that it will eventually come closer. (Spoiler: It didn't.) I then see the same copy of book 1 at my local library and decide to reread that in the meantime.
2019: I give up waiting for the second book to come closer and order the entire series online instead. I then reread Hitchhiker's in order to continue on with the series.
2020: I finally convince my dad to read the book, so I pick it up again to read it alongside him. I (also finally) upgrade my rating to 5 stars and give the book a long overdue promotion to my favourites list.
2021: I only just now realise that I have read the book over five consecutive years in more or less the same month. I figure that I'm this deep in now, so I might as well continue.
2022: I purchase the audiobook narrated by Stephen Fry to read alongside my physical copy
2023: I read Hitchhiker's for the seventh time

And the rest, as they say, is history. Well, it isn't history because it hasn't happened yet, but you get the idea.



Sixth read: 11/06/22 - 13/06/22

Rating: 5 stars

There’s crazy and then there’s reading a book six times in six years in almost the same month each time. I am the latter. Why? I am yet to discover the answer to that question. It might be 42.


Fifth read: 24/06/21 - 24/06/21

Rating: 5 stars

I've read this five years in a row. It is kind of an unintentional tradition at this stage. And I just realised the past three years I've read it in June. This is all coincidence, I swear. Or should I say, a very improbable occurrence ;) ;)

Also Marvin is the best thing ever. He is up there with my favourite robots (the list is very exclusive and only includes Data and Marvin) (droids are on a different list) and he is a manifestation of my soul. I mean look at him:
How can you not love him.


Fourth read: 10/06/20 - 10/06/20

Rating: 5 stars

Fourth time around, still amazing.