a large spaceship has crashed into harrods of london, and a large robot has emerged, and said, “take me to your lizard”. ford prefect explains this to arthur dent:
“It comes from a very ancient democracy, you see …”
“You mean it comes from a world of lizards?”
“No,” said Ford, “nothing so simple. Nothing anything like so straightforward. On its world, the people are people. The leaders are lizards. The people hate the lizards and the lizards rule the people.”
“Odd,” said Arthur, “I thought you said it was a democracy.”
“I did,” said Ford. “It is.”
“So,” said Arthur, hoping he wasn’t sounding ridiculously obtuse, “why don’t the people get rid of the lizards?”
“It honestly doesn’t occur to them,” said Ford. “They’ve all got the vote, so they all pretty much assume that the government they’ve voted in more or less approximates the government they want.”
“You mean they actually vote for the lizards?”
“Oh yes,” said Ford with a shrug, “of course.”
“But,” said Arthur, going for the big one again, “why?”
“Because if they didn’t vote for a lizard,” said Ford, “the wrong lizard might get in. Got any gin?”
ROTFL!
i’m going to go make a nice tuna fish pita and ponder the perfection of this post.
Douglas Adams and kd…doing it, fluid.
Gee, the best I can usually do is “I’m voting for the lesser of two evils.”
I haven’t read those books in forever…time I re-read them, huh?
i would think so, Linkmeister. i’ve been re-reading lots and lots of Douglas Adams lately, it’s become quite familiar to me, and yet, never gets old.
imminently quotable too. i keep the ultimate hitchhiker’s guide right by the computer for those instances in which life reminds me of surreal sci-fi comedy. that is, pretty much all the time.
I have the collected hitchhikers stuff – and want to go reread now – but I’m burried in other books I need to get through! Argh!
Meanwhile I always vote for the lesser evil of the lizards.
Only I always thought they were weasels, not lizards.
And Now For Something Completely Pointless
It’s been hella busy IRL for me this weekend, which is a good thing, methinks. As I said Fran and
Woo hoo! That is awesome! Love Douglas Adams. I have the Arthur quote, “Look, would it save you all some time if I just gave up and went mad now?” quotation over my desk at work. Just heard that they have recently released a documentary about his life that I would love to see. Will have to check with my local “stocks-hard-to-find-video” shop to see if they have it yet.
Who is this Douglas Adams, then? Hes a spy, isn’t he? Hes good though… I live here and I didn’t know we were in space yet. Wow. He’s got it all right though. My people hate the lizards, and yet they continue to vote them in…