42
From Encyclopedia Dramatica
| Warning!: 42 is nowhere near nine thousaaaaaaand |
42 is the answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe and Everything, to which the question is 6 X 7. However Given that Life, the Universe and Everything are totally meaningless it must be concluded that 42 actually means sweet fuck all. Additionally, you can't know both the answer AND the question to life, universe and everything, according to some dickhead that laughed himself to dead, so you're now pretty fucked.
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The Origins of 42
In truth, 42 is the number that was invented so that counting could progress beyond the stale, boring and pedestrian number 41.
Its popularity as a divine numeral stems from The Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy, a bunch of dubious radio plays, a record, a text based adventure game and awesome series of books written by Douglas Adams at least 100 years ago. In this retro multimedia massacre the number 42 was given as the answer to Life, the Universe and everything by the super-computer "Deep Thought" (moar liek Deep Throat, amirite?). This began one of the oldest of the old memes, having been a staple of basement-dwelling nerd culture since those dark days that preceded the internets.
42 is revealed in the story to be the answer to the question "What do you get when you multiply six by nine?" This is one of the cheapest tricks in humor, namely nonsense. Basement dwellers later noticed that 9x6 = 42 is, in fact, correct if the calculations are done in base 13. Douglas Adams is said to have commented, when some goddamn nerd mentioned this to him, "fuck you, I'm a dragon!"
I always knew there was something fundamentally wrong with the universe.
Some argue 42 has something to do with Lewis Carroll or monks or some shit. Douglas Adams argues otherwise[1]. In truth, 42 is 7 times 6.
The resurgence of 42 in popular culture
With the recent "release" (albeit more like the cinematic equivalent of a still birth) of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy movie, a whole new generation of 13 year old boys are discovering "42." These mall-going Runescape players just love to toss themselves over 42 OL, using it as an answer to complex or stupid questions whilst failing to realize that the joke died decades ago and really wasn't very funny in the first place...
All true Hikers know that the origin of 42 was actually in the radio series and not the book. I sure know where my towel is, I used it to vomit in while watching that total abortion of a film.
42 is also one of the 6 numbers that gives John Locke the power to fuck up your shit!
Godwin's Law of 42
On slashdot, as a discussion approaches ten posts, the probability that someone will write "obviously, the answer is 42!" approaches one. This has proven to be true in varying degrees elsewhere as well.
