Talk:Paranoid Android

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[edit] Hitchhiker references

There is no talking pig in the restaurant at the end of the universe, it is a cow, trying to sell Arthur its body parts.

Actually I don't think it's either, but some genetically engineered... thing. I changed 'pig' to 'animal'. --Moochocoogle 03:07, 6 May 2005 (UTC)

Some of these allusions to the guide series seem a little contrived. Is there any way we can verify some of these references? --Jordan 12:21, 22 May 2006 (UTC)

I agree - even as a HHGG fan, some of these look to me like the most oblique imaginings of some dedicatedly obsessive fan forum.
I checked the most plausible-looking one - the "OK, computer" reference - and to my mind it's not even close to being accurate (at least according to my American edition of the book) - the exact quote (referring to Zaphod) is: "'Okay', he said, 'Computer!'". So the album should be called "Okay, computer", no? And Marvin has already been introduced some pages before this event, in the previous chapter. So the link between this line and the Paranoid Android/"Paranoid Android" is tangential at best.
Regardless of which, the vocative "Okay, computer" is something pretty mundane and unremarkable for Zaphod to be saying at some point in the narrative, since he's on a spaceship-with-a-computer-you-have-to-talk-to and all... (presumably this is why, five chapters later, he says it again...)
And before I get an objection on the grounds the quote comes from the TV series - Zaphod says "Hey, computer" at this point on the TV series.
"But it's from the radio series!", you might further object - well, he simply says "Computer!" in the radio series in this scene - so, hard luck guys.
But the title of this song does come from HHGG. Definitely. It really does.
And, er, that's it.
I vote the HHGG allusions should be trimmed down (and suitably tidied) to something verifiable like:

The title is a reference to a character from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy named "Marvin the Paranoid Android".

Then resume with "Lead singer Thom Yorke explained..." (or some suitably tidied up version thereof).
As the lead-off paragraph in this article, those alt.obsessive.nerd speculations look a bit embarrassing to me. --DaveG12345 22:24, 22 June 2006 (UTC)

I concur 100% with DaveG's assessment. Those are fun and all, but they're essentially speculation. I'll check back in a week or so, and if nobody has objected, I'm going to alter it. --Woodstein52 16:36, 24 August 2006 (UTC)

Okay, it appears that nobody has objected, so I went ahead and deleted the speculation about Hitchhiker's Guide. Speculative interpretation of song lyrics would seem outside the scope of a wiki entry. Woodstein52 04:32, 4 Sept 2006 (UTC)

I removed another largely speculative bit about Hitchhiker's Guide, partially due to the fact that "first against the wall" is a common saying in the English lexicon. Good enough.Where Anne hath a will, Anne Hathaway. 21:25, 2 April 2007 (UTC)

An anonymous user came around and re-inserted the trivia; rather than get into a revert war, I just decided to tag it "citation needed". If someone can find a source of anybody involved with the band explicitly stating that the "first against the wall" this is, in fact, a reference to "Hitchhiiker's Guide", that's awesome. But if it hasn't happened in a couple of weeks, I'm going to take it out again, cos it doesn't belong. Where Anne hath a will, Anne Hathaway. 00:59, 20 April 2007 (UTC)

Okay, I removed this:

as per above.Where Anne hath a will, Anne Hathaway. 19:08, 21 May 2007 (UTC)

I have now requested a citation on the sole Marvin reference left using {{fact}}. Over on the Marvin, the Paranoid Android page it states "'Paranoid Android' is the name of a song by British rock band Radiohead, possibly named after Marvin, but without any other apparent explicit reference." I really don't see any connection other than the name. If there is no citation for this then let's have it out. 216.123.197.3 04:12, 23 July 2007 (UTC)