Note the phrase, “movies or television shows.” As I recall, neither of those made it into the recent movie version. And while I haven’t seen the BBC miniseries, the context is American media, so wether or not the series included Oolon or the full explanation of the babel fish is moot.
According to imdb’s
[quotes]
(http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0371724/quotes), the movie included the guide entry on the Babel fish (which gives Oolon Colluphid’s argument for the nonexistence of God), and also separately referred to “Oolon Colluphid’s trilogy of philosophical blockbusters: ‘Where God Went Wrong’, ‘Some More of God’s Greatest Mistakes’, and ‘Who is this God Person Anyway?’”
Well, I stand corrected.
(In my defence, the movie wasn’t exactly memorable to begin with.)
I’ll give you that.
And that. It’s not that I disagree with much of what Penn believes in and advocates. To the contrary, his ideas and mine are quite similar. It’s just that I don’t care much for his churlishness in making his points.
Brown Eyed Guy loves the show and I’ve watched it with him on occasion. The first few I watched were quite entertaining, but eventually his increasing bluster just made it less fun to watch. I don’t think you need to vilify your opponents to prove them wrong. I don’t know…it’s a matter of taste, I suppose. Vehemence and obnoxiousness seems to sell in this day and age.
The old BBC TV version certainly included this. However, I never thought of Oolon Colluphid as being a “sympathetic protagonist” of the show. (He may have been one in the recent movie, which I blotted out of my memory on account of it sucking horribly.)
I don’t think that any of the actual characters were presented as being atheist in any discernable way, not even in the books.
(Oh, and Oolon Colluphid’s argument explicity hinges on the fact that God does exist -until then. So I’m not sure it technically counts as an atheist position…)
Well, maybe Zaphod. 
I don’t think they were presented either way to be honest.
-XT
All discussions of god in the books and the movie - and the radio plays and the TV show, if I remember them - are designed to get the biggest laughs, not to make points. As such they’re mutually contradictory.
And I didn’t mind the movie, as a movie. Weak compared to the other material, since it was too short.
I watched the first two seasons from NetFlix. I don’t mind the bluster, but in many cases they poisoned the argument by presenting dingbats for the opposition side and reputable and well spoken people for their side. The second hand smoke was one example, as was global warming. Even when it was made there were better spokespeople than some college students at an Earth Day celebration. I finally gave up on it.
It occurs to me that Dr. Cox from Scrubs fits the list too, in a similar “I’m a rather prickly person who has no ability to feel religious sentiment, but as a top-notch doctor, I have great faith in science instead” way to Dr. House.