Infinitely Probable Reference
The whale, restaurant, space, and improbability of this toon reference 'The Restaurant at the End of the Universe' by Douglas Adams
From: Drive-Thru
Posted on: 23:06, 19 March 2007 (UTC)
Arguments for:
- A whale suddenly appears in Douglas Adams's series for no reason, as in this toon.
- Douglas Adam's series of books contains a virtual litany of improbable actions and reactions, as does this toon.
- This toon contains a missile that goes into space, as does the series.
Arguments against:
- Re: arg for #1: H*R is full of impossibilities, no reference is intended there.
- Re: arg for #2: Whales are inherently funny, and so it is no coincidence TBG and DA used such imagery.
- Re: arg for #3: Missile into space? It was some sort of non-missile spacecraft to be sure. This is unadulterated speculation.
- Even if we assume it is a missile, there's no characteristic to connect it to H2G2 and not the endless list of other space-missiles in the world of fiction.
- The sperm whale in H2G2 has no connection to The Restaurant at the End of the Universe and does not appear in the book of the same name. It only appears in the first H2G2 book, so it can't be counted as evidence for the reference as it is currently written. This part of the reference is therefore patently false.
- Just because they have the same things doesn't mean its a reference(Oh yeah, there's a air-propelled rocket in there that means its a reference to random movie #5 which has a kid playing with one in the backround).
Additional comments:
- Hopefully this wont come down to ppl arguing based on their like and dislike of Douglas Adams' work. I tried to think of a way to word it that would split the difference between a reference and not, but in the end, Douglas Adams wrote about TONNES of different things, from shoes to computers to telephone sanitizers. Eventually a few of them would come up. If TBC were big Adams fans, it would've shown up before this.
- Some people who have declined this fact have stated in their edit summaries that they are fans of the H2G2 series.
- True, but on certain STUFFed facts in the past (not to give names), people voted for and said they were fans of the work in question without judging the merits of the fact, or because they said they wanted it to be a reference. (This was more noticeable in the older STUFF format, when arguments and votes were placed together.)
- Maybe we could just count the whale 'cause that's the only reason I chose to accept.
- I wouldn't accept that version either, personally, but feel free to create a revision if you want to...
- Urgh, I want to accept this so bad but I know it's probably wrong. I never considered the whole thing as a reference. Maybe if it had more connections than a restaurant and a whale, I'd consider it. After all, there are very many unique things about TRATEOTU that would have been decisive had they been referenced. For now... decline.
- Don't forget the whale came into being after they used the Improbability Drive to stop missiles. It's possible they're referring to the film.
- If there was a bowl of petunias in the toon then I might give you that, but it looks too much like a coincidence to me. as stated above, whales are just inherently funny, that's all.
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