"This must be Thursday. I never could get the hang of Thursdays"
About this Quote
Time travel is supposed to be glamorous; Adams makes it petty. “This must be Thursday. I never could get the hang of Thursdays” lands because it shrinks cosmic disorientation down to the most recognizable human complaint: the weekday that never quite fits. It’s a joke with a double exposure. On the surface, it’s mild grumbling - the kind you hear in a break room. Underneath, it’s a clean little thesis about how we process chaos: we reach for routine, and when routine fails, we blame the calendar.
The line’s comic force comes from its misplaced certainty. “This must be Thursday” pretends there’s a stable clue in a reality that, in Hitchhiker terms, is fundamentally hostile to neat explanations. The follow-up - “never could get the hang of” - treats a day of the week like a skill, as if Thursday were a bicycle you keep falling off. That phrasing is classic Adams: bureaucratic language applied to existential vertigo, turning the absurd into the administratively familiar.
Context matters. The Hitchhiker’s universe is full of grand systems that don’t care about you: hyper-intelligent beings, galactic bureaucracy, improbable physics. Against that scale, the protagonist’s problem isn’t metaphysical dread; it’s Thursday. Adams’ subtext is quietly cynical and oddly comforting: if the universe won’t provide meaning, you can at least keep your small, cranky preferences. The joke isn’t escapism; it’s survival, delivered with a shrug.
The line’s comic force comes from its misplaced certainty. “This must be Thursday” pretends there’s a stable clue in a reality that, in Hitchhiker terms, is fundamentally hostile to neat explanations. The follow-up - “never could get the hang of” - treats a day of the week like a skill, as if Thursday were a bicycle you keep falling off. That phrasing is classic Adams: bureaucratic language applied to existential vertigo, turning the absurd into the administratively familiar.
Context matters. The Hitchhiker’s universe is full of grand systems that don’t care about you: hyper-intelligent beings, galactic bureaucracy, improbable physics. Against that scale, the protagonist’s problem isn’t metaphysical dread; it’s Thursday. Adams’ subtext is quietly cynical and oddly comforting: if the universe won’t provide meaning, you can at least keep your small, cranky preferences. The joke isn’t escapism; it’s survival, delivered with a shrug.
Quote Details
| Topic | Witty One-Liners |
|---|---|
| Source | Verified source: Oxford Dictionary of Humorous Quotations (Gyles Brandreth, 2013)ISBN: 9780191060441 · ID: I_auCgAAQBAJ
Evidence: ... This must be Thursday. I never could get the hang of Thursdays. □ Douglas Adams 1952–2001 English science fiction writer: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (BBC radio, 1978) 2 Time is an illusion. Lunchtime doubly so. □ Douglas ... Other candidates (1) Douglas Adams (Douglas Adams) compilation40.5% take us there there may be other people out there i dont have any opinions abou |
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