Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Not as bad as Vogon poetry

[barondave]

Reasons to like The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, The Movie:

1.

2. Good uses for your towel

3. Incessant insults of George W. Bush.


If you go to the movie:

1. Have very low expectations.

2. Stay for the fun bit during the closing credits (you don't have to wait until it finishes).


On the Shockwave ratings scale of 9-23 where 9 is low, 23 is high and all Steve Brust novels get a 17, I rate HHGttG at about a 14.

Comments

[vaxjo.livejournal.com]

Lower than a Steven Brust novel? oh my.
I think I'm going to wait on this one and not go tonight.

In other news, the Uptown Theater is showing the 1932 classic, Freaks, Saturday night (midnight).

[asimovberlioz.livejournal.com]

Incessant insults of George W. Bush.

Well, that will afford momentary pleasure, I'm sure, and a great deal of it, but it's going to date the film terribly.

The radio series is just about as funny today as it was when I first heard it 25 years ago. Shrub jokes just won't hold up, I'm afraid.

[433.livejournal.com]

Um, what? Adams wrote stuff like No-one who will do what it takes to become president should ever, under any circumstances, be allowed to have the job while W was still drunk. Just because there are dimwitted President jokes doesn't mean it's making fun of our dimwitted President.

I enjoyed the hell out of it. Is it a carbon copy of the book? No. Did Garth Jennings break into your house and destroy your copy of the books/miniseries/radio series? No.

[asimovberlioz.livejournal.com]

Haven't yet seen the movie; I was merely responding to DavE's post, specifically the phrase I quoted in italics. Are you suggesting the insults are general rather than specific?

While denigrations of Bush43 (I call him that 'cause it's his IQ) are amply deserved and meritorious, I say once again that I doubt they will hold up well as humor for future generations. Nixon shots still do hold up, largely because Nixon was a competent and capable man who was totally blind to his own venality. But Bush43 will ultimately emerge as just another errant blotch of feces on the toilet of the American presidency.

[barondave.livejournal.com]

I think the humor will hold up. They never mention W. by name, and the stupid jokes works internally. Monty Python is still funny if you don't know who Reginald Maudling was.

Today's show: Some of the original HHGttG BBC radio play from 1979. From Episode 2: where Marvin gets introduced. Not even the best bit, but still better than the same sequence in the movie.

[433.livejournal.com]

I'm aware of that, I was responding to Mr. Romm's comment about alleged Bush jokes and making you aware of my opinion that the humor was not aimed at anyone specific, just people in power.

[asimovberlioz.livejournal.com]

They never mention W. by name

Well, excuuuuuuuse me, when you said "Incessant insults of George W. Bush," I just stupidly thought you meant incessant insults of George W. Bush. You could as easily have said "incessant insults of political leaders," because those, like teenaged virus authors, will never date.

Monty Python is still funny if you don't know who Reginald Maudling was.

Welllll.... Dead Parrot, Ministry of Silly Walks, Argument Sketch, Penguin on top of your television set will explode, and so many others, are certainly still funny and will probably be funny for a very long time. Contextless references to Reginald Maudling, Semprini, and other too-specific things are not, IMAO.

Mr. Neutron, of course, never has been funny, isn't funny, and never ever will be funny.

[asimovberlioz.livejournal.com]

And in that case, they certainly have a chance at staying power due to their non-specifity.

[barondave.livejournal.com]

Sam Rockwell's Zaphod is unmistakeably W, including cracks about stupidity and stolen elections. He's never mentioned by name and all the jokes work internally as digs on Zaphod, but no one will be fooled. And they make a lot of fun of Zaphod...

Sorry if that wasn't clear. But it is one of the few bright spots of the movie.

I looked up Reginald Maudling, and it doesn't make any of the jokes funnier, but they work without knowing who he is. "Reginald Maudling's naughty bits..." MP was really good at making pop references that work without knowledge of the referant. (I admit I had to think twice about the attack of the Keep Left signs. It's a Brit thing.)

[pudding-tame.livejournal.com]

I refuse to go see the new Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy movie.

I quite liked Adams' books, the radio play, and the TV show--therefore, seeing the movie would probably prove a traumatic experience.

One of my friends fell asleep in the cinema when he went to see it. Poor kid.