Disclaimer: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy was created by the late Douglas Adams. "The Gallant Forty-Twa", to which's tune this filk is meant to be sung, is a traditional Scots ballad that I first heard performed by the Clancy Brothers.
Once there were some being dimensionally high.
They liked their watch digital; they started wond'ring why.
They thought their great computer would take all their doubts awa';
They never dreamed he'd come up with the Answer Forty-Twa.
Oh!
There were Phouchg and Loonquawl sitting in their booth,
Waiting nice and patiently to hear the Cosmic Truth.
They really were quite startled, and it took their breath awa',
When Deep Thought spoke and gave to them the Answer Forty-Twa.
Now that mighty Deep Thought had finished up his task,
They had to go and build the Earth and find out what they'd asked.
They dealt with Magrathea and threw piles of cash awa',
Intent to find the Question to the Answer Forty-Twa.
Oh!
Thousands of millennia the Earth spun in its sphere,
Until there came the day when it was due to make all clear.
But then a fleet of Vogons came and blew the Earth awa'
Before it learned the Question to the Answer Forty-Twa.
(At this point, in the original song, there are a few bars of instrumental pipe music. If, therefore, you wish, at this juncture, to imagine Zaphod Beeblebrox in traditional Celtic garb and playing a fife, please don't let me stop you.)
The entities who'd just spent ten million years as mice
Were darned if they were going to go through that whole thing twice.
Instead, they captured Arthur Dent, to steal his brain awa';
Perhaps it held the Question to the Answer Forty-Twa.
Oh!
At that very moment, a host of sirens whined;
The mice's cups were shattered, and they lost the Earthman's mind.
Disgusted, they forsook the search – they let Truth slip awa' –
So no one knows the Question to the Answer Forty-Twa.
