As I sit here, contemplating my navel, pulling out the inevitable fluff and trying to think of how Olivia is going to get out of the sinister clutches of Bill Sykes, I am having one of my normal thrice a day incidents of writers block.
In an attempt to unblock my brain, I remembered someone once saying that if you have a problem and you don’t know the answer, forget about it and do something else, so I thought about of all things The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
I recalled the bit where a Race of hyper-intelligent pan-dimensional beings built a computer named Deep Thought to calculate the answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything. It came up with the answer 42.
This could be correct, you never know as life is funny like that. Is it sillier than imagining that we on earth are the only intelligent beings in the universe?
There may be a lack of total proof that others exist elsewhere but it doesn’t mean that there isn’t.
Perhaps some pan-dimensional beings have visited us, taken one look at some of the drivel on TV (soaps being one example and so called reality programs being another) perhaps sampled a Big Mac, have shaken their collective heads/tentacles and gone elsewhere.
As for the meaning of life? A difficult one for me, all I know is that I am going to have a babel fish and chips from the takeaway tonight and I’ll leave it at that.
Now back to the story…
Comments
Douglas Adams
produced a small book called the, 'Meaning of Liff' which was very funny and mocked religion. He was a great friend of Richard Dawkins, so I'll say no more.
As for intelligent life somewhere else? Is there any here, cos I haven't noticed it. Sir martin Rees thinks it might be rarer than we think, the conditions for carbon based life forms being rather precise.
What we don't know is if life started on this planet spontaneously or whether it was seeded by a comet or meteor strike. In which case, it does exist elsewhere, but is it intelligent? Could it be coming to earth?
Angharad
Angharad
Surely Monty Python?
The Life of Brian or The Dead Parrot. Maybe back to the Goon Show, But possibly you're not old enough. The Two Ronnies? There has to be inspiration in so much madness, somewhere. Stop slacking,
Hugs,
Joanne
Douglas Adams
Aechel
from The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
"There is a theory which states that if ever anybody discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable.
There is another theory which states that this has already happened."
"42"
Did Joannabarbella intend the "Goon Show" or the "Gong Show". Don't forget that wondeful example of good taste "The $1.98 Beauty Contest".
Aechel
Sorry Aechel
I never heard of the Gong Show. Was it another piece of inspired lunacy? I was lucky enough in the very early sixties to score a ticket to a studio session recording of the Goons. It was even funnier than listening to it on the radio (radio? That's right. You had to use your imagination.) But most of you are too young to remember.
Joanne
Radio Joanne?
Aechel
I found out about ten minutes after I wrote that the the Goon show was a UK thing. The Gong Show and the $1.98 Beauty Contest were 70's US TV shows deliberatly in as bad taste as possible. I loved them.
Radio? I remember that - listning in my ear phones, trying to pick up some kind of a signal on my crystal set.
A
Aechel
Gong Show
The Gong Show was a riot. Think of American Idol while looking for the worst "talent" imaginable. The gong was used to shut off an act when it became unbearable. A couple of examples I still remember: A pretty girl comes on the show with a fishbowl with a goldfish inside. She claims to have a trained fish. The act starts and she sticks a pencil in, swirling it around. "Swim away from the pencil," she instructs the fish, as it dutifully avoids it. A man comes on the show with around eight to ten candles of varying lengths, stacked right to left in order of height. He lights the candles and moves his hand over them, screaming the various pitches to Jingle Bells.
The Soupy Sales show from the 60's was pretty good, too. Soupy Sales was an inspired impromptu comedian on a nominally children's show. He couldn't lay off the adult double entendres though, and kept getting into trouble. I remember him once telling the kids to look in daddy's wallet for the green stuff and to mail it to him -- and some of them did. :)
Aardvark
"Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony."
Mahatma Gandhi
"Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony."
Mahatma Gandhi
and if?
What on earth would the pan-dimensional beings have thought (assuming thought processes not dissimilar to ours) if they'd sampled BCTS? Hugs,Daphne
Daphne
You Remind Me of a Show
The BBC (British Broadcasting Commission) ran a show for years with two characters called Seaman Steynes and Captain Pugwash. Nobody ever picked up on it and it was a programme for little children!
Joanne
42?
That's what a US First class mail rate will soon go to for under one ounce weight.
Sue, no writers block allowed.
John in Wauwatosa
P.S. Heard the Goon Show in Milwaukee on PBS radio rebroadcasts in the 70s and 80s, wacky, surreal comedy. Supposedly a huge influnece on Beyond the Fringe, Monty Python and The Beatles, really. Peter Selars was their most famous alumni.
John in Wauwatosa