How It All Goes Down
- Slartibartfast's study is a mess because the cleaning staff all died, which is a real shame. For one thing, they have no one to clean up the dead cleaning staff.
- But Slartibartfast can still find the Sens-O-Tape, which gives Arthur a complete sensory experience. It's like virtual reality, or Las Vegas.
- In Chapter 25, the computer Deep Thought said it would take 7.5 million years to find the answer to the question of life, the universe, and everything. Now we fast-forward to the day when Deep Thought will finally answer the question.
- There's a huge audience waiting in the streets for an answer. It's like New Year's Eve in New York, plus Mardi Gras in New Orleans. A speaker works up the crowd, noting that soon they'll have an answer and will no longer have to worry about why they're here.
- Inside the building with the computer terminal, two computer programmers, Loonquawl and Phouchg, prepare to hear the answer from Deep Thought. There's a lot of suspense over this answer.
- Deep Thought is a little hesitant about revealing the answer and tells them they won't like it, but they demand to hear the answer.
- So Deep Thought gives them the answer to life, the universe, and everything. The answer is: 42.