Shit. Now my life has no purpose. 
What is odd is that that “confirmation” is from Dec. 2003, and yet this dialogue about the origins of this phrase continues on the internet… which makes me think that this suggestion didn’t really pan out. Surely everyone interested in this would know by now if it really came from Hitchhiker’s Guide.
I’m pretty sure it is from hitchhikers guide, as soon as I saw post #19 it popped into my head and I heard the guy on the audio book saying it (i’m too lazy to read, so sue me! :)). I’m trying to remember what they are talking about but can’t.
This is infuriating. I have a specific memory (or so I think) of this being spoken aloud somewhere. I read the Hitchhikers Guide, haven’t seen the film. Alright. I have the vague idea that it’s describing some sort of scheme or product–but that’s not that helpful. Crap. Sorry I even brought it up.
(subscribing to thread so as not to go insane)
I have my copy of Hitchhiker’s Guide handy. I’ll read through tonight and see if I can find it. For whatever reason, I feel very strongly that it’s in there.
Note that the person claiming to have found it was referring to the DVD of the early '80s British miniseries.
It does sound very hitchhiker-y.
Perhaps but wasn’t that T.V. series very faithful to the original text? They started showing the series again on T.V. at the time the movie was released over here and it seems to be word for word identical to the books, which I did eventually read, the first two anyway.
Dont confuse it with the quote here;
http://gatherer.wizards.com/gathererlookup.asp?set=Weatherlight&name=null_rod
A friend and I agree it’s Douglas Adams. He says, however, that it’s not in HHGTTG. It’s in one of the later books – perhaps Restaurant?
I don’t think it’s in the Dirk Gently books; I read 'em within the last year and can’t really place them in there. The quote in my head has a British accent…
Aparantly there’s a reissue of the HG2TG trilogy that has it, but it dates from only a year or so ago. Too many links to scroll thru now, tho.
If it is a real quote, and not a combination of several quotes, then we need to look pretty far back into classic movies or older literature. We’re not going to find the original in anything recent. If someone does, it’s there because of this conundrum in the first place, I would wager.
Look, if thousands of people, using several different methods of search on the net can’t find it, that tells me it’s not on the net, except in the form of this question. Won’t stop me from trying, tho.
No, I don’t have it. This came up a couple of months ago on some other board and I never checked to be sure. Either way, it doesn’t fit the original problem of where the quote originated.
Samclem? Bibliophage? Others well versed in word/phrase origins?
I notice The Hudsucker Proxy isn’t on the list in the linked IMDB thread. Could that be it?
I’ve been trying to find the answer to this one all night and have come to the personal conclusion that it isn’t in any film, or at least that isn’t where it originated. I find it hard to believe that so many people can recongnize a quote, indicating that it must be from something incredibly popular, but not one of them can name it. Sounds to me like it is a phrase that has come into common usage and people just assumed it must be from a film. That’s my story and i’m sticking to it dag-nammit, for the sake of my own sanity.
If you’re thinking it was said in relation to Tim Robbins’ invention I don’t think that’s right. IIRC when asked about the drawing he always replied, “You know, for kids.”
Well, I’m hooked. I could swear it sounds so familiar…just can’t place it.
Is it just me, or does the Hitchhiker’s Guide trilogy have lots of various editions with different words? For instance, on every printed edition of the first book I’ve read, it says something like “The guide says that if you take a lungful of air you can survive in the vacuum of space for thirty seconds.” And that always bugged me, since that’s supposed to be a good way to ensure your death by embolism. But on the audio book I just listened to, Douglas Adams says “The guide says that if you hyperventilate and then empty your lungs, you can survive in the vacuum of space for thirty seconds.” A much more accurate quote.
So maybe the “That’s the beauty of it, it doesn’t do anything” quote exists only in some particular edition of the HHGTTG trilogy … Hmmmm, I see NoClueBoy says that’s true. But that doesn’t explain why so many people find the quote familiar…
Dr. WHO, with Tom Baker as the Doctor.
Don’t know the episode, but he and his companion were collecting fragments of some quasi-crystaline thingamajiggy (one of the fragments was a giant squid…the inhabitants of the swamp-world who worshiped the squid called the outsiders invading their world “dry-foots” :dubious: )
While the Doctor was assembling it, the companion asked" What does it do?"
He replied " it dosent do anything, it just is."
Maybe some resident Whovian can expand on my 25 year old shoddy memory?
BTW, shouldn’t this be in Cafe Society?
It would be great if the quote happened to be from that literary work which inspired Dorothy Parker to declare: “This is not a book to be tossed aside lightly. It should be hurled with great force.” I can’t find the thread now, but the attempt to track down the origin of that quote drove the Teeming Millions mad a while back…