h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

As Deadman noted in the neighbouring Gilbert and Sullivan forum, Gilbert was the rebel and Sullivan the sycophant who got the knighthood.

When Peter Paul & Mary recorded the song of the Merry Man and the Maid from the Yeoman of the Guard (all right, I'm old) a friend asked me if all G&S songs were that good, and I had to say they weren't. Much later I discovered that Sullivan didn't even write that one. Gilbert wrote the lyric to a traditional sea shanty; Sullivan knew when he was beaten and left it as it was.

Apart from his wonderful limerick (which I put in a forum to the Limerick entry) I don't know much about Gilbert's other work. But I heard an operetta Sullivan wrote with a different lyricist on the radio, 'Box and Cox', which was dreadful

Could it be that Sullivan was knighted because his contribution to the world of music included the hymn "Onward Christian Soldiers", while Gilbert did a dissertation on how a man born 29 February 1864 won't have his 21st birthday until 1948 -- and it was really 1952 because he forgot there would be no 29 February 1900?