Pour yourself another Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster and enjoy these laugh-inducing listens

“Don’t Forget Your Towel” — This is the most important advice offered in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, the titular guidebook to interstellar travel from Douglas Adams' beloved sci-fi series. For space farers newly exploring the universe, there is a great deal to know and learn, and without this helpful guide, many hapless space travellers would find themselves overwhelmed by the endless challenges. Emphasizing the importance of a bath towel doesn’t seem like key information, but the whimsical, absurd advice fits perfectly with the whimsical and absurdist world Adams creates.

Science fiction has a long-standing reputation for dealing with dark and sombre themes, but the titles we’re exploring below prove that science fiction isn't always about the ultra-serious. Using scientific or sociological trappings to explore and poke fun at life’s more ridiculous elements, the latest in can often serve as a side-splittingly spot-on examination of the chaos of human existence.

For decades, science fiction has offered a unique form of escapism, mixing whimsy, humour and fantastical elements — allowing us to confront the absurdities of life and have a good chuckle at the same time. When you listen to the , you’ll never want to stop.

So strap in, buckle up, and let’s travel to the far horizons of hilarious with these uproarious sci-fi titles.

While humour in sci-fi existed before Douglas Adams, this title and its many sequels — *including , , and— has become the genre’s true milestone.

Surrealist writer Andre Breton once , “the mind, placed before any kind of difficulty, can find an ideal outlet in the absurd.” That has never been more true than for protagonist Arthur Dent, the Earthling plucked from his quiet, mundane existence in Middle Britain and thrust into an interstellar adventure with a rogue’s gallery of aliens aboard a stolen spacecraft.

Narrated brilliantly by British humorist Stephen Fry, this surreal story follows Arthur as he encounters hyper-intelligent mice, planet-sized supercomputers, the architect of Earth’s landmasses and the recipe for the ultimate cocktail, the Pan-Galactic Gargle Blaster.

The sheer vastness of the cosmos is itself absurd and the unending possibilities of what we might find out in the deep blackness of space offer the perfect arena to explore the hilarious and the surreal. The fact that Adams uses playful language and his signature British wit to chart that path makes listening to this classic even more of a treat.

Rhett McLaughlin and Link Neal are probably best known for their extraordinarily popular daily internet show, as well as their podcast, New York Times-bestselling book and other creative ventures.