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Comment by mbrundle | Hacker News Reader

I know I'm hanging out on the right site when a link like this gets promoted to the top spot. : )

A quick note to Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy newcomers, your mileage may vary depending on your background. I read all the books when I was a kid, and absolutely loved them. And when the most recent film came out, a bunch of engineer friends and I went to see it. Me and the other British friend howled with laughter throughout, but the two other (from India and Brunei) looked utterly baffled. So, it may, based on this limited sample, play better to those with a British sense of humour...

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As an American, I think it's worth investing in the necessary background in British culture to appreciate the humor. If you don't, you miss out on Douglas Adams of course, but also the incredible and varied world of panel shows, everything that the alumni of 'Monty Python's Flying Circus' ever touched (Fawlty Towers!!!), and so on.

As a kid, Douglas Adams was my first major introduction to British humor, and questions about "what does that mean exactly?" drove me to learn a lot more about it.

Also from the States, I read the Hitchhiker's Guide when I was eleven and laughed so hard I couldn't breathe. Predictably, I delight in the Pythons and their works. And Eddie Izzard, who seems to mine the same vein. But the reason I'm posting this is not to reminisce. It's that, out of sheer coincidence and for reasons having nothing at all to do with British humour, I'm carrying a towel around today.

I've noticed that brit humour seems to appeal to a particular subset of Americans. Not quite sure how to define the ones that appreciate it most, but regardless, it's great to have them in the brit humour appreciation club. Glad to know that someone else out there gets us crazy people, when the rest of the world doesn't. : )

A good gateway drug to Douglas Adams, if you're into talks, may be this great piece of his titled 'Parrots the Universe and Everything' (available on Ted: http://www.ted.com/talks/douglas_adams_parrots_the_universe_...)

As well as Fawlty Towers I would strongly recommend Ripping Yarns particularly Tomkinson's Schooldays:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ripping_Yarns

Not to forget Blackadder!

For something a little newer, also check out:

"Green Wing": http://www.amazon.com/Green-Wing-Plus-Special-Format/dp/B00C...

(As well as "Black Books" "The IT Crowd" etc).

You. I like you. I love absolutely anything that Graham Linehan has ever touched, and that definitely goes for Black Books and IT Crowd!

I always felt that the first two novels, "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" and "The Restaurant at the End of the Universe", where far better than the last three. Almost to the point where the three last novels aren't worth re-reading.

YMMV, but I just finished laughing my way through the unabridged, author-narrated(!) "The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul" audiobook; for me, the experience stands up to the best of his treasured early works. The opening chapter (getting to the airport) is singular. Don't miss it! :)

After the Dirk Gently books have a go at Neil Gaiman's Good Omens, co-written with Terry Pratchet. I also highly recommended Robert Rankin's Brentford Triangle "trilogy" (in 9 books).

The BBC Radio Plays for the Dirk Gently books are terrific as well:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dirk_Gently%27s_Holistic_Detec...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Long_Dark_Tea-Time_of_the_...

Some of us were lucky enough (and old enough) to have heared the radio series when they were both first broadcast...

I wanted to mention the radio series as well! When I (re)read the books, I always hear the radio series in my head -- which is just and right, I might add.

I loved the book but was really disappointed with the hitchhikers movie, particularly the casting (with the exception of Martin Freeman). And they ruined my mental image if Marvin. But I guess that's why books rule; you can picture characters however you wish.

I did enjoy the movie but not as much as I thought I would. I had watched the old BBC TV production so many times that I just expected the characters to look like that, cheesy production values and all!

It was nice that the original Marvin and Simon Jones (Arthur Dent in the original radio and TV versions) had cameos though.

The visual might be off, but casting Alan Rickman was great. I can't read the books now without imagining Marvin's lines in Rickman's voice.

Good point about Rickman. I guess visually I just imagined Marvin to be this moping, hunched, depressed C-3PO kind of figure. He was such a funny character in the book!

I listened to (repeats) of the radio show, then read the books, then watched the TV show. They all shone in their own, different ways. I can't bring myself to watch the movie because I know I won't be able to overcome the sentimentality of the originals.

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is one of those types of books that can't really be successfully adapted to any other medium. That's probably the reason, unless the style of humour doesn't, well, humour them.

Considering it was a radio series before it was a book, and was also adapted into an innovative text adventure, I'm not so sure that's true.

I'm aware of that, yet I still consider it not working well in any other medium. Just my opinion.

Indeed. Hitchhikers can be as inaccessible as Pootie Tang to many people, especially if you lack knowledge about the cultural framework.

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