When I'm Forty-Two

• started: 2021-12-13
• finished: 2022-05-03 (all verses parodied)

Lyrics

(from The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy: The Musical)

When you're all finished working it out
 millions of years from now
will there still be any electricity
 so you can print the question you see?
While you are busy doing those sums,
 will I have things to do?
What can the answer possibly mean, sir
 when it's forty-two?

I'll just wait for you.
And when it's all spelled out,
 what is next to do?

Give me a clue now, show me your work --
 how far have you got?
Have you squared the circle, found the end of pi,
 got it cut and hung up to dry?
Just how close are you to getting it solved?
Please give me a clue.
I'm getting impatient - I need the equation
 which equals forty-two.

Maybe then I'll really understand just how to get along
 in this messed-up place.
We can work it out!
Recalculate the world
Fix the human race.

Will I know exactly, in every detail
 how I'm supposed to be?
Will there be instructions to explain my life,
 mapped and laid out when I arrive?
Will there be answers filled in a form
 that tells me what to do?
Will I still be so hopelessly ditzy
 when I'm forty-two?