42

Warning! 42 is nowhere near nine thousaaaaaaand

This shit is fact and is even known to the google calculator [google]

Cool lensflare bro

This man still thinks 42 is funny.

42 is the answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe and Everything. However Given that Life, the Universe and Everything are totally meaningless it must be concluded that 42 doesn't actually mean 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.

The ultimate question to life the universe and everything

Well, it's been discovered.

The ultimate question to life the universe and everything: Why don't white rappers put on blackface so they can pretend to be black and get more street cred?

Though some argue that the very existence of Chris-chan himself is the ultimate question and 42 is the age at which he both dies and loses his virginity (not counting sex with the joooolllaaaay doll).

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 number 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 Pi by 1337 and divide it by 100? " 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.

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.

Fart At You

Douglas Adams had earlier used proto-lulz linguistics tricks for character names:

	“	“The names Slartibartfast, Majikthise, and Vroomfondel were intended to sound like rude words, while slipping under the radar of the censors. According to Douglas Adams, ‘Slartibartfast’ started out as ‘Phartiphukborlz’, and then he played around with the syllables until he had ‘something which sounded that rude, but was almost, but not quite, entirely inoffensive’.”	„

Some argue that Adams's now-established lulz-stealthening algorithm is definitely behind the claim that 42 is “the funniest of the two-digit numbers”— because 42 is the result of having applied that method to the phrase “fart at you” as pronounced in some especially fucked-up British accents.

This controversial and sophisticated conjecture is obviously true and farts are always funny.

Adams went to his grave never having revealed this one-man conspiracy of farts, because he feared the chaos that it would unleash even more than he feared the The IRL Banhammer itself.

42 IRL

While ED newfags claim that 42 is simply the answer to "6 times 9," the true meaning is far more complicated. The movie, (as well as the book) which, by the way, clearly defines dolphins as gheii, also states that the correct answer is "What is the question?" Thus, Deep Thought, a "supercomputer," designed Earth, an even more complex computer which could supposedly discover the question. Unfortunetly, Earth got surprise buttseck'd by some aliens 5 minutes before the program was complete. All of this happened IRL, and you know it.

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 while 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.

See Also

• The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
• Numberwang

42 is part of a series on Memes Visit the Memes Portal for complete coverage.