A split lump of coal with a small silver rocket inside and a matchstick ladder leaning against it.

Original artwork, not a still

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy  ·  1979

Douglas Adams

"It's at times like this, when I'm stuck in a Vogon airlock with a man from Betelegeuse about to die of asphyxiation in deep space, that I really wish I'd listened to what my mother told me when I was little"

Behind the line

What it means

Our interpretation.

Facing asphyxiation in deep space while trapped in a Vogon airlock with someone from Betelgeuse, the speaker regrets ignoring childhood advice from their mother. The joke sets extraordinary danger beside an ordinary expression of hindsight, without revealing what the advice was or how it could help.

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