A random thread for small entertainment things not warranting their own thread..

[TheLurker]

Did I ever mention that Lord of the Rings is shite too?

I think it's OK if you're a geeky 14YO and you skip the utterly, utterly tedious Tom Bombadil section, but if you haven't read it by the time you're ooh 15 1/2, forget it. 

HHG?  I enjoyed the radio series enormously, but it helped that I was a geeky 14YO, that the pictures in your head are sooo much better than anything on TV or in films and it had Peter Jones as The Book.  The books were a poor substitute and the trailers for the TV series left me so cold I didn't watch it.

[mattc]

This won’t make me any friends here but…

They’ve been repeating HHGTTG from the beginning on Radio 4 Extra. If I’m being kind, I would say it has not aged well.
...

I've been banging this drum for a while. I never liked it. Yes, Douglas Adams was smart and funny, but I have always found HHGTTG to be fairly cringy and wearing, like an extended student comedy revue.

Absolutely and unequivocally your loss! (and no, you don't need to love Hitchhikers to be my friends x )

The fact that citoyen mentions it in the same post as LOTR suggests a lack of ... thinking?!? They're totally unrelated - there is only some overlap in the fans because both were niche interests that the same group of people knew about.

I just about finished the LOTR books, but they're a plodding swords-n-dragons saga. Of course some folks love that stuff.
Hitchhikers is actually funny as well as stunningly creative, with plenty of snappy satirical observations (many of which have still endured well since 1978!). By-the-by, I don't know of any audio-only production that has even come close to the things he achieved; it would be a fun listen without the humour.

But of course its subjective. Go watch Red Dwarf or Mrs Browns Boys if you prefer 

[Nuncio]

We just turned on the tv, and got a glimpse - no more than 10 seconds - of a film. I said “I wonder what that is”. My wife replied “The Remains of the Day”. It was. She has apparently never seen it (I can believe that) but she’d “read the book”.

I did the same and guessed it within 8 seconds. So I would have won (had it not been Shadowlands I was watching).

[Kim]

HHG?  I enjoyed the radio series enormously, but it helped that I was a geeky 14YO, that the pictures in your head are sooo much better than anything on TV or in films and it had Peter Jones as The Book.  The books were a poor substitute and the trailers for the TV series left me so cold I didn't watch it.

I read the first book as a kid, but they repeated the radio series at some point in my early teens, and I thought that was a lot more enjoyable.  I eventually read the other books over the years, and was underwhelmed.

The TV series gave us the lovely wire-frame animations, but added little else.

The recent film is best regarded as a completely unrelated entity^[1], and enjoyed on its own terms.


_{[1] I recommend the same approach to the recent Dirk Gently TV series.}

[rogerzilla]

Did I ever mention that Lord of the Rings is shite too?

I think it's OK if you're a geeky 14YO and you skip the utterly, utterly tedious Tom Bombadil section, but if you haven't read it by the time you're ooh 15 1/2, forget it. 

HHG?  I enjoyed the radio series enormously, but it helped that I was a geeky 14YO, that the pictures in your head are sooo much better than anything on TV or in films and it had Peter Jones as The Book.  The books were a poor substitute and the trailers for the TV series left me so cold I didn't watch it.

Tom Bombadil and the Eagles are atrocious dei ex machina.

[Cudzoziemiec]

I enjoyed the first radio series. I think I was less than 14.* I've never read the books and I only vaguely remember the TV series.

I read The Hobbit around the same time and enjoyed it, but got bogged down when trying to read LOTR a little later. Just too much of it, too many digressions, too much detail, too many genealogies and too much history. LOTR compared to The Hobbit is like the Old Testament compared to Jesus Christ, Superstar!**

*Just checked. Significantly less than 14!
**I've never seen it but we all sang the songs in the school playground, with humorously rearranged lyrics, at some time probably before even HHGTTG.

[citoyen]

The fact that citoyen mentions it in the same post as LOTR suggests a lack of ... thinking?!? They're totally unrelated - there is only some overlap in the fans because both were niche interests that the same group of people knew about.
…
But of course its subjective. Go watch Red Dwarf or Mrs Browns Boys if you prefer 

Do you ever get the feeling you’ve touched a nerve?

[Kim]

It's wholly unfair to mention Red Dwarf in the same sentence as Mrs Brown's Boys. 

[Mrs Pingu]

Agree

[Kim]

(Unless it's a list of things that should never have been made, in which case the USAnian version is allowed.)

[citoyen]

I understand Mrs Brown's Boys is very popular. I've never watched it so can't comment.

[drossall]

I got into HHGTTG on what I think was the first repeat radio broadcast, while I was a student. First time round, while I was still at home, it had made no impression on me. I didn't think it came over as well in the other media, but I still appreciate it now.

LOTR remains an all-time favourite book. I earned my copy a volume at a time from the newsagent where I was a paper-boy (tenuous cycling connection!)

[Jaded]

I understand Mrs Brown's Boys is very popular. I've never watched it so can't comment.

Thankfully it fell out of the TV top ten this Christmas. That could mean the beginning of the end of it…

[mattc]

Do you ever get the feeling you’ve touched a nerve?

Do you ever get the feeling that someone posted with the explicit intention of then saying " ... touched a nerve"?

(I only replied to your post to say why I think H2G2 is so great - no doubt you had an even better/cleverer motivation x )

[citoyen]

(I only replied to your post to say why I think H2G2 is so great - no doubt you had an even better/cleverer motivation x )

I wasn’t implying a connection with LOTR other than they are both things that people inexplicably like. Not necessarily the same people - so no need to take it as a personal slight, and no need for the chippiness either.

[mattc]

(Unless it's a list of things that should never have been made, in which case the USAnian version is allowed.)

I hope you're not saying the Americans have remade Mrs Brown's Boys??

[rogerzilla]

,Apparently Mel Brooks is actually going to make History Of The World, Part II.  Whether it will actually include Jews In Space and Hitler on Ice, remains to be seen.

[Kim]

(Unless it's a list of things that should never have been made, in which case the USAnian version is allowed.)

I hope you're not saying the Americans have remade Mrs Brown's Boys??

I seriously hope not...   

[Basil]

(Unless it's a list of things that should never have been made, in which case the USAnian version is allowed.)

I hope you're not saying the Americans have remade Mrs Brown's Boys??

I seriously hope not...   

why would we care?
We don't watch the British version, why would we watch usa shit?
T,V can produce as much shit as it likes, it doesn't affect me.

[mattc]

(Unless it's a list of things that should never have been made, in which case the USAnian version is allowed.)

I hope you're not saying the Americans have remade Mrs Brown's Boys??

I seriously hope not...   

why would we care?
We don't watch the British version, why would we watch usa shit?
T,V can produce as much shit as it likes, it doesn't affect me.

I'd quite like to see how Family Guy uses it.

[Cudzoziemiec]

I suspected there would be, so I looked and yes there is, and yes it's even by Stephen Fry: an audiobook of HHGTTG. Isn't an audiobook of a radio series rather missing the point, or are the books different enough from the original for it to be meaningful?
https://www.audible.co.uk/pd/Hitchhikers-Guide-to-the-Galaxy-Audiobook/B0093Q1NFS

[Kim]

I suspected there would be, so I looked and yes there is, and yes it's even by Stephen Fry: an audiobook of HHGTTG. Isn't an audiobook of a radio series rather missing the point, or are the books different enough from the original for it to be meaningful?
https://www.audible.co.uk/pd/Hitchhikers-Guide-to-the-Galaxy-Audiobook/B0093Q1NFS

Probably easier to fall asleep to, on account of the lack of exploding computer banks and so on.

And no doubt the dulcet tones of Stephen Fry sell a few audiobooks irrespective of content.

[mattc]

I suspected there would be, so I looked and yes there is, and yes it's even by Stephen Fry: an audiobook of HHGTTG. Isn't an audiobook of a radio series rather missing the point, or are the books different enough from the original for it to be meaningful?
https://www.audible.co.uk/pd/Hitchhikers-Guide-to-the-Galaxy-Audiobook/B0093Q1NFS

Probably easier to fall asleep to, on account of the lack of exploding computer banks and so on.

And no doubt the dulcet tones of Stephen Fry sell a few audiobooks irrespective of content.

Probably both true!

But yes, there are quite a lot of differences in the book. Some are quite sensible, given the change in medium.

[drossall]

But do they remain sensible, when changed back to audio again?

[Cudzoziemiec]

But do they remain sensible, when changed back to audio again?

Is the question...