Vogon Poetry (the Books)

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (1979) Douglas Adams

"Oh freddled gruntbuggly..." he began. Spasms wracked Ford's body--this was worse than even he'd been prepared for.

"?...thy micturations are to me/As plurdled gabbleblotchits on a lurgid bee."

"Aaaaaaarggggghhhhhh!" went Ford Prefect, wrenching his head back as lumps of pain thumped through it. He could dimly see beside him Arthur lolling and rolling in his seat. He clenched his teeth.

"Groop I implore thee," continued the merciless Vogon, "my foonting turlingdromes."

His voice was rising to a horrible pitch of impassioned stridency. "And hooptiously drangle me with crinkly bindlewurdles,/ Or I will rend thee in the gobberwarts with my blurglecruncheon, see if I don't!" (Adams, pg. 59)

Other Versions of Hitchhiker's Guide

The Comic Book: Adaptation of first novel by John Carnell with artwork by Steve Leialoha. (1992) (Simpson, pg. 61)

The Movie: Directed by Garth Jennings (2005) (imdb.com) after Douglas Adams' death. See a clip of the Vogon Poetry scene here.

Interactive Computer Game: Infocom (1984) Text version. Text with Images version.

Vogon Poetry (TV series)

McLuhan's Tetrad.

Vogon Poetry in TV Series

What is most remembered about the television series version is the animation. Rumored to be an early example of computer technology, the animation was actually created frame by frame, like a cartoon. (pg. 198, Webb)

Another example:

Babble Fish

For more examples, visit www.rodlord.com.

Criticism of cost of TV series:

[For the original radio series] There were no imaginative or budgetary constraints...such freedom does not apply to a visual medium. So Douglas couldn't just adapt the radio scripts; he had to re-imagine the whole adventure visually. (Webb, pg. 191)