Douglas Adams/Simpsons

I, like many, was saddened to see the passing of Douglas Adams this weekend. I read the news at 6:30 in the morning on Saturday, the rest of the weekend was pretty well shot.

For the sake of discussion, does anyone know of any Douglas Adams references in the Simpsons? I can't think of a single one, which is odd since I'm sure there is a lot of crossover between Simpsons fans and Douglas Adams fans.

The only things I can think of (and these are pretty tenuous, conspiracy-theory-level connections):

Having Burns' head grafted to Homer's body (Zaphod Beebelbrox?)

Dr. Who has appeared on the show once or twice, and Adams wrote a few of the scripts for the original program

Futurama is probably a much more appropriate venue for Adams references, some have said there's a slim connection between Bender and Marvin the Paranoid Android. (I don't entirely buy that argument, though--Bender's too positive.)

--Shi Bao Nai

That's sad...how'd he die?

No...not on an even remote level. It's not even the same thing whatsoever. It was just a plot twist they were going for in the Halloween episode. Beeblebrox is an alien who is supposed to be like that, it's nothing done surgically. So this is just really, really stretching things.

Eh...that's more being a Dr Who fan, not a Douglas Adams fan, though. So that really means nothing.

Again, that's really stretching things. Having a robot character on Futurama most likely wasn't inspired by anything Douglas Adams wrote, and the fact that Bender is a social reject is just the norm for something the Groening <sp?> would do.

Jason

He had a heart attack Friday night. 49 years old, too damned young, leaving behind a wife and a young daughter.

The BBC has some good coverage on his death, with a really good photo of Adams (alive, naturally), as well as some pictures from the terrible BBC TV production of the story.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk/newsid_1326000/1326657.stm

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As for the references, like I said, those were the only remote, tenuous connections I could possibly think of, and none of them are solid. (I'm going to go back and look at the episode with the Sci-Fi convention to see if there's anyone standing around in a bathrobe holding a towel.)

Granted, sometimes trying to read too much into the Simpsons puts us in the same category as those people who see the face of Elvis in a coffee stain, but I am curious as to whether or not anyone has any solid evidence of a Hitchhiker's reference. :)

--Shi Bao Nai

I have a feeling that it was a parody of an old Twilight Zone episode, although I'm not sure which one it would have been.

I believe he WAS born with two heads, but that his third arm was added later.

The Universe ended. Weren't you there?

"Shi Bao Nai" wrote in message news:140520011502528774%[email]...

Anyone that would like to listen to HHGTG, most of it seems to be streaming from

http://209.114.200.145:8000/default

as for any refs.... How bout the white mouse that keeps beating Homer at the tests during the crayon up the nose ep. ?

In article , Gumby wrote:

Although that element of the HHGTTG books is one of my favorites, the mouse in that episode is pretty clearly representative of the mouse Algernon in "Flowers for Algeron" by Daniel Keyes. The rest of the HOMR episode is loosely connected to that book, in which a retarded man is made intelligent through surgery.

Damnit, this is going to bug me. I might have to just settle for all of those shots of Homer wearing nothing but a towel. ;)

--Shi Bao Nai

What about THOH X? That *must* be a reference to the Golgafrincham B-ark in TRATEOTU.

John Cody

the

That was a "Flowers for Algernon" reference.

"Zan Hecht" wrote in message news:m23M6.4229$[email]...

Ok, How bout at I + S land, they had a bar where it was always New Years, kinda like Milliways and the end of the Universe. Wasn't there a guy sitting at a table that resembled Hot Black.

"Shi Bao Nai" wrote in message news:140520011502528774%[email]...

i think it was from an old Rosie Grier movie

"Shi Bao Nai" wrote in message news:140520011502528774%[email]...

Hmm...Homer insisting on buying 42 bathtubs in "Homer vs. the Eighteenth Amendment"? Probably not.

In his introduction to the More Than Complete and Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guides, Adams includes a "How to Leave the Planet" section, giving the alleged numbers for NASA, the White House, the Kremlin, and the Pope. Homer calls the first two in "Deep Space Homer," and refuses to say where he got the numbers.

Uh, probably not. Oh, well. I tried.

Nathan

Nathan

On Mon, 14 May 2001 20:02:29 GMT, Shi Bao Nai wrote:

There are several listed at snpp.com, but all but one I think are stretches. The strongest candidate is [BABF01], "Treehouse of Horror X", where the useless people are tricked into going on a "B" ship.

The others are: [3F03] Lisa the Vegetarian -- credits "resistance is useless" to HHGTG. (I think that's a rather generic SF villain line.) [4F02] Treehouse of Horror VII -- likens the mini spaceships to the ones in HHGTG (which were eaten by a small dog). [AABF01] Treehouse of Horror IX -- referring to Earth as "an obscure, T-shirt producing planet" sounds like HHGTG.