Achievements
Zaphod invented the
Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster. He was voted "Worst Dressed Sentient Being in the Known Universe" seven consecutive times. He's been described as "the best
Bang since the
Big One" by
Eccentrica Gallumbits, and as "one hoopy frood" by others. In the
seventh episode of the
original radio series, the narrator describes Beeblebrox as being the "owner of the hippest place in the universe" (his own left cranium), as voted on in a poll of the readers of the fictional magazine
Playbeing.
He was briefly the
President of the Galaxy (a role that involves no power whatsoever, and merely requires the incumbent to attract attention so no one wonders who's
really in charge, a role for which Zaphod was perfectly suited). He is the only man to have survived the
Total Perspective Vortex, though it was established (in the books and first two radio series) that he survived only because he was in an
Electronically Synthesised Universe created especially for him, thus making him the most important being in that universe and thus uniquely equipped to survive its version of the Vortex. His brain-care specialist, Gag Halfrunt, also said, "Vell, Zaphod's just zis guy, you know?" He used his position as President of the Galaxy to steal the
Heart of Gold, a spaceship taking advantage of
Infinite Improbability Drive, at its unveiling.
Early in Zaphod's career (whilst heading the
The Beeblebrox Salvage and Really Wild Stuff Corporation) he joined forces with the
Safety and Civil Reassurance Administration to investigate the loss of the
Starship Billion Year Bunker, on which were stored compounds so powerful a teaspoonful could blow up/infect/irradiate a whole planet, and by-products of The Sirius Cybernetics Corporation synthetic personalities programme.
[1]
As a character
As a character, Zaphod is hedonistic and irresponsible,
narcissistic almost to the point of
solipsism, and often extremely insensitive to the feelings of those around him. In the books and radio series, he is nevertheless quite
charismatic which causes many characters to ignore his other flaws. Douglas Adams claimed that he based Zaphod on an old friend of his from
Cambridge called Johnny Simpson, who "had that nervous sort of hyperenergetic way of trying to appear relaxed."
[2]
In (at least) the books, he is, according to screening tests that he ran on himself in the
Heart of Gold's medical bay, "clever, imaginative, irresponsible, untrustworthy, extrovert, nothing you couldn't have guessed" (
Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide, page 98). In the movie, however, he is not very bright, and perhaps even more boorish than his previous portrayals. He is portrayed as a vacuous
California surfer-type, and
Sam Rockwell, the actor who played him in the film, cited
Bill Clinton,
Elvis Presley and
George W. Bush as influences.
[3] Zaphod in the film is very much immature (in contrast to the books where he was immature, but had a lot of power and was smart and devious), acting very eager about everything, eating messily with his hands, throwing temper tantrums, and doing things without reason, such as pressing the Improbability Drive button just because it was large and shiny.
Throughout the book and radio versions of the story, Zaphod is busy carrying out some grand scheme, has no clue as to what it is and is unable to do anything but follow the path that he laid out for himself. Zaphod's grand schemes have included, over time, a second-hand ballpoint pen business (which may or may not have been established with the help of
Veet Voojagig). He was forced to section off the part of his brain that stored the plan so that scans of his mind, which would be necessary for him to become president, wouldn't reveal his plan, which included his being President of the Galaxy and subsequently stealing the prototype Infinite Improbability Drive starship. However, in his altered state of mind he follows the path he left only reluctantly and very much wishes to go off and lie on beaches rather than see the scheme through. In the second radio series and the book version of
The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, we learn (and so does Zaphod) that the object of his plan was to find the man who
actually ruled the universe – who turns out to be a man living in a shack with his cat who doesn't believe anything is real or certain except that which he is seeing and hearing at that moment.