Thread 24843126

Is this shit actually good? I watched the movie and didn't like the humor, I tried playing the game back in the late 80s and didn't like the humor, I tried reading it in high school and didn't like the humor, am I just not getting it? It was everywhere at the time, was it just a product of its age and I was of too advanced intelligence for my era?

>>24843126 (OP)
the restaurant at the end of the universe is a genuinely great book but the overall quality of the series goes downhill after it.

>>24843132
I feel like the phrase "the restaurant at the end of the universe" is a billion times cooler than anything the actual book can provide.

>>24843162
then you obviously haven't heard of the total perspective vortex. just read the book you fucking retard.

>>24843126 (OP)
Sounds like you aren't a fan of English humor. If that's the case, you should definitely pass.

>>24843178
I love so many of their sitcoms though, including the sci-fi ones like Red Dwarf.

>>24843126 (OP)
Its Wodehouse for reddit manchildren.

>>24843126 (OP)
If you don’t like the humor you don’t like it. It scratches a very specific itch. I was a fan when I was in middle school, but now I feel like it’s trying too hard to be funny.

>>24843126 (OP)
I heard the only way to appreciate it is through the radio play. Something about the delivery ins important.

but idk.

It's the origin of reddit humor. All the redditors are really just trying to be Douglas Adams.

>>24843126 (OP)
listen to the radio show. with your eyes closed. good headphones.

>>24843718
yeah I came here to say this. I probably read this for the first time 20 years ago and I re-read it this year. It is the foundational text for early Internet humour, which by now is just Reddit humour. But contextually in those relatively early Internet days the vast majority of people who were extremely online were nerds so it makes sense how early online humour was formed from books like this. Worth a read for sure, it's nothing incredible but it's like 100 pages and a classic

>>24843745
>It is the foundational text for early Internet humour
Like what? Give some examples. I understand it's kind of Reddit-like but early internet humor doesn't seem Reddit-like to me at all, and especially not Hitchhiker's-like.

>Is this shit actually good?
Yes.
Adams was a great writer when it comes to comedy. He used the Guide as a good tool to put gags into his writing. However, you should not expact greate wisedom out of it.
Many of his assertations about politics, religion and philosophy a rather midwit. Not his fault. This is absolut okay for comedy.
> It was everywhere at the time, was it just a product of its age and I was of too advanced intelligence for my era?
Yes you are right when you suspected this. If Adams would life today, his writing would be or may be more... woke... I fear.

Read Sheckley instead

>>24843198
The other way around.
Reddit, early Hacker and internet culture, the co called new Atheism etc. Their were all influenced by Douglas Adams.
>>24843214
It's your brain. No shit. There are scientific studies that the human braine change with age and can't take absurd humor anymore.
>>24843745
>It is the foundational text for early Internet humour, which by now is just Reddit humour.
Idk, has the early 4chan not be smiliar in some direction?
Just more open cynical.
>>24843883
Do you ever read the usenet? I mean, Google has buy the archives and destroy it. Anyway. There were some allusions to Adams, to 42 and so on.
Before memes and all.

>>24843126 (OP)
read the first one a bunch of times as a kid and I still stand by it. Really short and genuinely unique. Mostly downhill from there, by the end of the series it's kind of unreadable to me, and same for his other books honestly. Even though it's totally goofy and surreal it kind of falls into the same trap as a lot of sci-fi book series; every new book has to find a way to nullify the last crazy twist, crank the story back up and top itself somehow. It gets to be kind of a bummer, better to read the first one and forget it

>>24843126 (OP)
There are some clever parodies of typical sci-fi tropes (e.g. Babel fish, Improbability Drive) but mostly it's a satire of 1980's English manners.
Virtually all English novels are about middle-class manners, and this one is no exception.

>>24844290
Isn't English middle class what normal people would call upper class?

>>24844035
Anon, please improve your spelling and grammar, I mean this kindly

its really funny, but the humour gets repetitive

>>24844338
Nope. The upper class are the literal aristocracy. The middle class are the well-off, white collar workers.

>>24844035
Are you dumb?
Wodehouse wrote his books long before there was an internet idiot.
If you read Wodehouse, you’ll quickly see his tone, gag architecture, rhythm, it’s all ripped directly from Wodehouse, in the same way Vonnegut does to Twain’s nonfiction comedic writing.

>>24844492
this. people compare it to monty python (and he was deemed an unofficial member) but that had far more variety with its jokes.

it's overall fun and pretty funny. varying degrees of quality across the books

>>24844828
>people compare it to monty python
I love Monty Python though.

>>24844035
>Idk, has the early 4chan not be smiliar in some direction? Just more open cynical.
ESL aside, early 4chan was also cribbing Adams' and other British humorists' style.
Everything people hate about Reddit, originally came from here. It's just the knee-jerk shame that comes with remembering your younger self.
t. been here since 2010 or 2011, not a "real" oldfag but old enough to be a fag.
>Before memes and all
Richard "Checkmate, Christtard" Dawkins coined the word "meme" in 1976, and he used it to describe the ways ideas spread, propagate, and mutate through a culture over time, similarly to how genes do. Memes pre-date the word meme (see: the SATER Square), we just didn't have a word for them.

Is it good?
I don't know.

Do I love it?
Yes.

>>24843126 (OP)
it's overall enjoyable. you'll crack a smile here and there. but yes the humor wears out it's welcome. at least read it once.

>>24843126 (OP)
It’s good but you don’t like it
And that’s fine

>>24843185
How the fuck can you like Red Dwarf and not Douglas Adams. It’s like preferring an insect burger to the real thing.

>>24846028
I don't know, Red Dwarf seems more grounded and not lolsorandomXD.

>>24844035
I had a few so-called friends in school that carried around copies of Hitchhikers and watched Monty Python but at the end of the day there were certain things about their worldview that either clashed at the time or eventually clashed later on. I didn't get it honestly although Monty Python is occasionally funny.

>>24843126 (OP)
listen to the radio series or watch the TV show. i rolled my eyes at the book but found it funny when delivered aurally.

>>24846477
Is the movie just that bad compared to everything else? I'm in love with Zooey and I found her character extremely annoying and the movie boring and bland.

>>24843126 (OP)
How to find out if book is good:

1) read from book

Please follow these steps carefully and in the order I have provided.

The movie isn't funny because it assumes you already think it's funny whereas the book is funny most of the time.

>The Stainless Steel Rat
>Bill the Galactic Hero
>Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
>Discworld
>The Eyes of the Overworld
>Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser
>Myth Adventures
What other reddit humor books should I read?

>>24843883
I don't have a copy of the book so I can't provide any examples but as someone else mentioned being in the know of what '42' means would have been required knowledge for anyone frequenting forums in the early aughts.
It does depend on what your definition of 'early Internet' is I guess because I'm speaking about early mid aughts. Steam had just come out, forums were still the primary place (and 4chan but the average person had no clue what it was) of discussion. Honestly just go read a bit of the book, I feel like it's more of the tone of the humour than anything. I mean also depends how old you are but before Google translate you had to use Altavista Babel Fish to translate languages, a creation from hitchhiker's guide. It informed a lot as I'm sure other sci fi novels and shows did but I'm not a sci fi nerd

>>24846606
a good example of early Internet humour I am referring to would be something like bash dot org

>>24846606
>I don't have a copy of the book so I can't provide any examples but as someone else mentioned being in the know of what '42' means would have been required knowledge for anyone frequenting forums in the early aughts.
Yeah but that's not exactly humor is it.

>>24846955
just go read the book retard

>>24845130
as do I. the point i was making was that there are similarities in absurdity found in each but hitchhikers is more of the same as you read each book.

One of the most overrated series of all time and seriously not funny.

>bring a towel!
>42!
>the world is run by mice!

It’s just above The Big Bang Theory in terms of smart humor. Read it if you like, but just know you are a midwit if you laugh at this shit

>>24846507
The only good part of that movie was the extremely brief 45 seconds Zooey was in short shorts. I’m serious. Skip it

>>24844731
You may very well be right about Wodehouse. I find myselfe unable to judge, since I never read Wodehouse.
>>24845221
>ESL aside, early 4chan was also cribbing Adams' and other British humorists' style.
>Everything people hate about Reddit, originally came from here.
Unnecessary explanation about the word "meme", aside...

Somehing like Douglas Adams was just the spirit of the time back then.
If somebody from 2035 cares to look back and read current postings, he or she will cringe as much as we do. The positive takeaway is that time evolves. Woke will pass by.
>>24846475
I've zero idea what you're talking about.

If I would need to do a guess, I would say the following:
Yes, the New Atheism is known to be (part) of the origin of Woke. As much as it is part of the shit of the current right wingers. It's merely the newer generation who never gets the message and dreams about a comeback of orthodox Christianity or trad-larping or whatever.
The first adapters were atheists to the bone, who started to criticize that some new developments in social philosophy challenged the primacy of the sciences.
The first battle of the "culture war", as far as I remember, has been some variation of social constructivism vs. the idea that the scientific method, gained from fields like physics, should be the single method to understand the world. Things starts to get uglyer and uglyer after this battle.

The 1980s tv-series is the definitive version for me

>>24847169
And then I'll find 42 funny as a non sequitur?

>>24844020
>not Dimension of Miracles
You had one job, anon.

>>24844290
>mostly it's a satire of 1980's English manners
So that's why he refused to call it science fiction?

Doctor Who, but good

>>24848144
Maybe, but I think he was just wary of being ghettoised as a genre author.
All the same, he cleary knew sci-fi well enough to satirise its cliches, which makes his protestations sound disingenuous.

>>24843126 (OP)
>I was of too advanced intelligence
If you're on here, I can guarantee you weren't.

Only 11 mentions of Reddit in 52 replies. I expected it to be way more. Good job, /lit/.

>>24846606
>Early 00s

Noob.

Go back a decade she start again.

>>24847611
Same anon but even back then I hated faggots and thought women belonged in the kitchen. It wasn't up for debate.

>>24847611
>The first battle of the "culture war", as far as I remember, has been some variation of social constructivism vs. the idea that the scientific method, gained from fields like physics, should be the single method to understand the world. Things starts to get uglyer and uglyer after this battle.
On second thought, I actually remember that too

>>24843168
people asking if this is good is why white people- nay, anyone, can rein in their culture
it's obviously good
you should be ridiculed for asking this question
the entire premise is based off 5 years of internet history
does that make me a fake bald person?

>>24843162
Yeah, even going in with that attitude, it's still going to disappoint you. The Hitchhiker's Guide Trilogy was low-effort boomer "humor" and, while I don't regret reading it lo these decades gone, I cannot recommend it to anybody outside of geriatric hospice care. There's just too many better optoons if you're looking for a laugh. Now, the Dirk Gently novels, on the other hand, do manage to entertain without relying on dementia patients remembering the thing being referenced, but your mileage may vary.

>>24843745
42 is the original "the cake is a lie"
Or, as the elderly seem to believe kids these days say, 6, 7.

>>24844290
Oh, the poor Babel-fish. That gag still holds up. Super edgy.

>>24848131
God, no. You'll be morally justified in punching people that do in the throat, though, so you'll have that going for you, which is nice.

>>24848604
I dunno take a picture of your dome first so I can assess that properly

>>24848604
>the entire premise is based off 5 years of internet history
?