Our latest Freakonomics Radio podcast “Where Have All the Hitchhikers Gone?” has a pretty obvious premise. You can download/subscribe at iTunes, get the RSS feed or read the transcript here.
What may not be super obvious to everyone out there is the meaning of the graphic above. So let’s play name that reference and throw in some swag for good measure!
We haven’t forgotten that your preferred method of giveaway is “random,” and we’ve had a contest before on this blog where the prize is contingent on your comment number. So here’s how it’s going to work this time: the 42nd comment will win if it bears the correct answer. If comment 42 has the wrong answer, the winning number doubles and the 84th comment will win — but again, only if the answer is correct. The winning number will triple, quadruple, etc. until we get a winner.
So tell us, what does 42 signify and where is it from? Hint: the title of this post.
and 
. You can also watch it on 
It’s the answer to the universe from the Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy
Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy:
The answer to life, the universe, and everything? 42
It frustrates me that every person will post ‘the meaning of life’, and that I will not be in time to post the correct answer as the 42nd post.
It is, of course, the Ultimate Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, The Universe and Everything, from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, written by Douglas Adams. Of course, we don’t know what the question is.
On a related side note: God’s last message to His creation was ‘We Apologise for the Inconvenience.’
So, is Ford Prefect a joke on misspelling “Perfect”?
No, the Prefect was a model of car by Ford. When Ford came to Earth, he mistook automobiles as the sentient beings and picked what he thought was an inconspicuous name: Ford Prefect. (If Douglas Adams was American, he might have been named Honda Civic)
42 is the ultimate answer to the ultimate question-the meaning of life- given by the computer Deep Thought, in the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
as per The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, it is the “Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything”.
It is the ultimate answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe, and everything, from Douglas Adams’s The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
It’s the Ultimate Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life the Universe and Everything from Hitchiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
42 is the answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe, and everything from Douglas Adams’ book The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.