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

Didn't the chap that presents the programme used to be on TV in the mornings too? The thick plottens.

Last nights show was pretty dire, the only interest remaining seems to be just what the hoax really is. I can't buy into them not knowing it's a hoax anymore, it's just not convincing.

One flaw i noticed in the first show was the helicopter which flew them to the S.T.A.R. base from somewhere deep inside Russia. Johnny Vaughn described it as a Sikorsky (adding to the Russian effect), it was, but it also had GB markings on the side, and was painted Red, White and Blue. I don't believe even a gullible numpty would have missed that.

"Johnny Vaughn described it as a Sikorsky (adding to the Russian effect"

Actually, my first thought when Vaughn said it was a Sikorsky was "What a bunch of idiots, why have they used an AMERICAN helicopter, not a Russian one?". Sikorsky is an AMERICAN company.

http://www.sikorsky.com/details/0,3036,CLI1_DIV69_ETI683,00.html

Of course, if you're the kind of numpty who'd appear on (or for that matter to continue to watch) this show, you're hardly likely to know that....

SoRB

*Pulls on his NUMPTY AND PROUD hat*

(for continuing to watch)

I thought that "the nearest galaxy to the Milky Way is called the Hazlenut Cluster" was pretty convincing.

The actor even asked for the name to be repeated and no-one questioned it. Have they never been given a box of Dairy Box or Milk Tray?

Glad I didn't bother to watch it after reading this thread.

alji

My brother pointed out that one of the almost-rans who didn't make it onto the show from the auditions was a "random audience member" from a Jimmy Carr dvd he owns.

Is everyone on the show an extra?

The plot thickens...

I'll buy into the concept that, despite there being several contestants on the show who have appeared as extras, they don't know that it is all a hoax. The people who sign up as extras are the sort of people who are wannabes. They will sign up for everything.

As to that guy with the hair. Yes, of course he could have got the gig on the blood advert and still be an electrician. It's not like he would have got paid much for the advert - fifty quid maybe. That's not a career. So he'll need some other job to support himself, and maybe being a waiter - the usual career in these circumstances - didn't appeal

I have to say I haven't been watching more than a couple of minutes a day of this show after the first one (and I didn't watch that one all the way through). I am intrigued however, as to how they are going to convince the final few that they are actually in space. A good enough impression of the launch can be done with a simulator. But how are they going to simulate the lack of gravity? Surely the first time someone drops something and it heads straight down and goes ::clunk:: the game is up.

They've already explained that one. There will be three "prototype gravity compensators" fitted to the ship.

* slaps forehead *


But of course!

....methinks some of them may not be as dumb as they look, just seen the Spacecadets satelitte show from yeterday, and someone said surely if this was Russia in winter the weather would be a lot colder than this?

Global warming.

<....methinks some of them may not be as dumb as they look, just seen the Spacecadets satelitte show from yeterday, and someone said surely if this was Russia in winter the weather would be a lot colder than this>

Um, Jade Goodey anyone? A person so thick they should use her as shielding for nuclear reactors? SHE would not even know where Russia is. She was a reality show contestant (who has made a million pounds now which says a lot about the power of PR and people as dumb as her going to laugh at her while she laughs back as she watches her bank balance rise.) They can easily get people dumb enough and focussed enough on the easy route to stardom - the reality show - to go alongwith anything. Do you think they would squander the chance of Big Brother style fame even if they did think it was a bit dodgy? Better to shut up and go along with it just in case.

The lack of no-gravity I believe is being explained by the fact that thye are not going into space so much as into very high orbit but not out the pull of Earths gravity.

Alfster is right about not saying anything if they'd rumbled it, of course they'd play along in the hope of greater 'stardom'.

After last night i'm even more convinced they are all in on it though. The 'actor' Charlie has spent so much time gurning and giggling at the back of the class no-one could have missed it. I also doubt that the producers would allow him to stay (if his job really is to convince the rest it's real), as he's continually risking the mission with his questions to the experts, and asking the others to repeat some of the more ridiculous theories.
Hazlenut cluster anyone?

Who wants to place bets that an Elvis impersonator will float past, when only one of the "contestants" can see out the porthole? Or an alien craft?

I no longer feel sorry for any of them, considering they're being paid £15,000 each, according to my morning paper.

Talking of Derren Brown doing it better, I noticed this:
http://www.derrenbrown.co.uk/news/heist

Which I'm quite looking forward to.

Sikorsky, wasn't that the guy who invented helicopters? I guess perhaps dressing a chopper up to look like it was from another country could violate some flight rules.

I am in a real quandry here.
Just seen the part where they see the "earth" from the space craft for the first time.
My problem is that up till now, I have just thought of contestants as gullable jokes.
But they were genuinely awed and humbled by the sight of earth from space, as you or I would, and one was close to tears.
To see the earth from space must be the dream for many, I have 2 really important memories from a Maldives holiday, one was the view from the small seaplane of electric blue sea and fantastic paradise islands, another memory to cherish was snorkling in shoals of brightly coloured fish literally touching my skin and even smelling the fish.....had I found out after that such moving things were tricks played on me, it would have been really upsetting, even more so for a view of earth from space, maybe shattering dreams is a step too far for entertainment......

They could sue for mental torture!

Oh no, you need to prove you have a brain to torure and by moonwalking on a space shuttle in normal g sort in space sort of negates that.

Um, yes, I was channel flicking and saw that bit (honest).

I suppose your saying they were moved proves they are not faking - unless it was one of the actors who could all emotional first and the others just got dragged along wi...hang on I have a life...bye.