The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy/Funny

"Arthur: It's at times like this I wish I'd listened to what my mother told me.
 * "You'll need to have this fish in your ear."
 * The entire "whale and petunia falling to the planet" sequence.
 * "I wonder if it'll be friends with me?"
 * "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."
 * Arthur and Ford imprisoned in the Vogon ship.

Ford: Why, what did she tell you?

Arthur: I don't know, I didn't listen."

"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!
 * 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.
 * Just the name 'Dr. Dan Streetmentioner'.
 * 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?
 * Well that about wraps it up for God.
 * "They found only an old man who claimed that nothing was true, although he was later discovered to be lying".
 * "The ships hung in the sky in much the same way that bricks don't".
 * "Ford, you're turning into a penguin. Stop it."

Arthur: Oh, that's all right, I've got them all back now...admittedly, they're a little longer than I'm used to."

"*scout robot whizzes past*
 * Ford trying to retain his intellectuality and explain the universe while hammered!
 * BELGIUM!
 * This troper busted a gut twice in the Frogstar Scout Robot scene. First time:

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.

Zaphod: Hey, pretty stupid robots eh?


 * 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."

"Marvin: I'll tell you what they gave me to protect myself with shall I?
 * 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 time: 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.

Tank: Yes, alright.

Marvin: Nothing.

Tank (angrily): Nothing?

Marvin: Nothing at all, not an electronic sausage."

"Tank: I think I'll smash the wall down! *does so* I think I'll shoot down their bloody ceiling as well! *does so*
 * The tank, after ranting some more, decides to take out his anger:

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."

Specific to the radio series
"Ford:How do you feel?
 * This little exchange:

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?"

Specific to the TV series

 * The illustration that pops up when the Guide says, "Most leading theologians claim that this argument is a load of dingo's kidneys..."

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
""...with two large axes crossed over the front door. His wife wanted hanging roses, but he wanted axes. He didn't know why, he just liked axes.""
 * Oh sweet Jesus, everything. Just in the first few pages there's the bit about the word 'bulldozer' going through Arthur's head, Arthur in the mud, Genghis Khan, putting a bag over your head when the world is ending . . . trying to describe it all would barely be shorter than simply posting the entire thing.
 * The foreman in the first book, who is distantly descended from Genghis Khan and repeatedly has urges to go tearing around the countryside doing the standard maim pillage burn routine.

""I'd rather be happy than right."
 * I've always been partial to this little bit of dialogue, partly because it's a fantastic commentary on the human condition, but mostly because it causes me to gasp for air anytime I hear it. It's delivered absolutely perfectly in the television version.

"And are you?"

"No. That's where it all falls down, of course.""

The Restaurant at the End of the Universe
""Three minutes and fifty seconds," he said a short while later.
 * In the second book, The Heart of Gold was

"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.""

"Arthur: I'm sorry, it's just that I was dying for a cup of tea!
 * The original version of that exchange (in the radio program) was also hilarious:

Zaphod: You soon will be, baby!"

"I teleported home one night
 * The Dangers Of Teleportation

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.

Life, the Universe and Everything
"Arthur: I thought you must be dead...
 * I found the whole "Eddies in the space-time continuum." confusion to be hilarious, for some reason.
 * I found Ford's elaboration on his temporary madness right before it even better.

Ford: So did I for a while, and then I decided I was a lemon for a couple of weeks. I kept myself amused all that time jumping in and out of a gin and tonic.

Arthur: Where did you...?

Ford: Find a gin and tonic? I found a small lake that thought it was a gin and tonic, and jumped in and out of that. At least, I think it thought it was a gin and tonic. I may have been imagining it."


 * "There is an art, it says, or rather, a knack to flying. The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss."
 * "...except for your sudden obsession with whelks."
 * The entire Agrajag sequence is quite possibly the funniest segment ever put to prose.
 * Not to mention the fact that it is the punch line of the funniest Brick Joke in literature.

So Long & Thanks for All the Fish

 * The old lady on the plane, looking on as Arthur and Fenchurch join the mile-high club in the most unconventional way possible.
 * They sit next to her on their return flight from L.A. She asks them if they fly much.

Mostly Harmless

 * Arthur and Ford catching up in the woods. The entire scene.
 * Ford delibrately running up huge expenses as a restaurant critic, culminating in trying to charge the purchase of London Zoo and the entire hotel he is staying in to room service.

And Another Thing

 * Whatever else you may have to say about And Another Thing, most of the business with the cows desperate to be eaten were pretty funny, especially the "I'll track down your entire family and not eat them!" bit.

Specific to the movie
"Zaphod: We made it! We're in Magrathea!
 * 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 including the usage of In a World, Stuff Blowing Up and Fan Service. Guess which film it uses as an example.
 * "Ford?" "Yes?" "I think I'm a sofa." "I know how you feel."
 * Also, yarn puppets.
 * See both scenes here.
 * 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.

Ford: It's not Magrathea.

Zaphod: Yes it is! I know it!

Ford: It isn't--

Zaphod: Yes it is!"

"Zaphod: Who are we waiting for again? [Ford calms Arthur] No, I'm serious."
 * Ford, Zaphod, and Arthur sitting down while waiting for Trillian to be released.

"Arthur: Stupid!"
 * The things popping up from the dirt and slapping people's faces whenever someone thinks of anything.

"Trillian: Marvin, you saved our lives.
 * The Vogons become as depressed as Marvin.

Marvin: I know. Wretched, isn't it?"

"Arthur: The name's Dent! Arthur Dent! DO panic, mother]!"
 * "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 male and female symbols.
 * Most of the Guide's explanations have either a Freeze-Frame Bonus or a Funny Background Event.
 * The "Really Deleted Scenes" from the DVD edition.
 * One features the scene where Arthur, Ford and Zaphod burst in on the room full of queues. Except this time, Arthur is wearing a headband and maniacally brandishing a BFG, while the others add emphasis. Then the "take" ends, while everyone wanders off to take phone calls or complain to the production crew.


 * In the other, Arthur is about to embark on his tour of the planet factory, when he beats up Slartibartfast, rescues a random dog and runs off, with Bill Nighy left Chewing the Scenery in his wake.