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Douglas Noël Adams was an English author and screenwriter, best known for The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Originally a 1978 BBC radio comedy, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy developed into a "trilogy" of five books that sold more than 15 million copies in his lifetime. It was further developed into a television series, several stage plays, comics, a video game, and a 2005 feature film. Adams's contribution to UK radio is commemorated in The Radio Academy's Hall of Fame.

William Melvin Hicks was an American stand-up comedian, social critic, satirist, and musician. His material—encompassing a wide range of social issues including religion, politics, and philosophy—was controversial and often steeped in dark comedy.

Karl Pilkington is an English presenter, comedian, actor, voice-artist, producer and author.

Tucker Max (born September 27, 1975 in Atlanta, Georgia) is an American author and public speaker. He chronicles his drinking and sexual encounters in the form of short stories on his website TuckerMax.com, which has received millions of visitors since Max launched it as the result of a bet in 2000.

I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell was a New York Times #1 Bestseller and made the Best Seller List each year from 2006 to 2012. It has sold over one million copies worldwide, including 400,000 copies in 2009 alone. His book was subsequently made into a feature film of the same title, which received generally negative reviews and numerous critics considered to be one of the worst films of the year. In 2010, he released a book titled Assholes Finish First, and in 2012 marked the literary releases of both Hilarity Ensues and Sloppy Seconds: The Tucker Max Leftovers. He was a 2009 Time 100 finalist based on internet votes, although he did not make the magazine list.

A Year with Swollen Appendicesis a book by Brian Eno.

The book published by Faber and Faber in 1996 is divided into two sections. The first part is a diary covering the year 1995, the second part, the 'swollen appendices' of the title is a collection of essays, short stories and correspondence. The cover photograph is by Anton Corbijn.

The diary covers the year 1995, which proved to be particularly productive for Eno. It details four different musical projects he was involved in: the albumSpinnerwith Jah Wobble, the Passengers albumOriginal Soundtracks 1with U2, David Bowie'sOutsideand the War Child charity albumThe Help Albumas well as exploratory sessions with the band James.

Nicholas Jonathan Frost (born 28 March 1972) is a British actor, author, comedian, painter, producer and screenwriter. He has appeared in the Three Flavours Cornetto trilogy of films, consisting of Shaun of the Dead (2004), Hot Fuzz (2007), and The World's End (2013), and the television comedy Spaced (1999–2001). He also appeared in Joe Cornish's film Attack the Block (2011). He co-starred in the 2011 film Paul, which he co-wrote with frequent collaborator and best friend Simon Pegg. He has also portrayed various roles in the sketch show Man Stroke Woman. In 2020, he co-created and starred in the paranormal comedy horror series Truth Seekers with Pegg.

Frost was born on 28 March 1972 in Hornchurch, East London, the son of John Frost and his Welsh wife, Tricia (died 2005), who were office furniture designers. When he was 10, his sister died of an asthma attack, aged 18. He attended Beal High School in Ilford. When Frost was 15 his parents' business failed and they lost the family home. They moved in with neighbours where he witnessed his mother having a stroke due to the stress. Frost left school and took a job with a shipping company to support the family. He subsequently spent two years at a kibbutz in Israel. He met actor Simon Pegg while working as a waiter at a North London Mexican restaurant and the two became close friends and flatmates. Pegg and Jessica Hynes wrote a role for Frost in the cult slacker comedy series, Spaced, that was partly based on Pegg and Frost's lifestyle at the time.

Russell Edward Brand is an English comedian and actor. He is known for his flamboyant, loquacious style and manner. Brand has received three British Comedy Awards: Best Newcomer (2006), Best Live Stand-Up (2008), and the award for Outstanding Contribution to Comedy (2011).

Ricky Dene Gervais is an English comedian, actor, writer, and director. He co-created, co-wrote, and acted in the British television sitcoms The Office (2001–2003), Extras (2005–2007), An Idiot Abroad (2010–2012), and Life's Too Short (2011–2013). He also created, wrote and starred in Derek (2012–2014), and After Life (2019–2022). He has won seven BAFTA Awards, five British Comedy Awards, two Primetime Emmy Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, and the Rose d'Or twice. Gervais was listed in The Observer as one of the 50 funniest performers in British comedy in 2003. In 2007, he was placed at No. 11 on Channel 4's 100 Greatest Stand-Ups, and at No. 3 in their 2010 list. In 2010, he was included in the Time 100 list of World's Most Influential People.

Stanley Kubrick (; July 26, 1928 – March 7, 1999) was an American film director, producer, screenwriter, and photographer. Widely considered one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, his films, almost all of which are adaptations of novels or short stories, cover a wide range of genres and are noted for their innovative cinematography, dark humor, realistic attention to detail and extensive set designs.

Kubrick was raised in the Bronx, New York City, and attended William Howard Taft High School from 1941 to 1945. He received average grades but displayed a keen interest in literature, photography, and film from a young age, and taught himself all aspects of film production and directing after graduating from high school. After working as a photographer for Look magazine in the late 1940s and early 1950s, he began making short films on shoestring budgets, and made his first major Hollywood film, The Killing, for United Artists in 1956. This was followed by two collaborations with Kirk Douglas: the war picture Paths of Glory (1957) and the historical epic Spartacus (1960).

Stephen John Fry (born 24 August 1957) is an English actor, broadcaster, comedian, director and writer. He first came to prominence in the 1980s as one half of the comic double act Fry and Laurie, alongside Hugh Laurie, with the two starring in A Bit of Fry & Laurie (1989–1995) and Jeeves and Wooster (1990–1993). He also starred in the sketch series Alfresco (1983–1984) alongside Laurie, Emma Thompson and Robbie Coltrane, and in Blackadder (1986–1989) alongside Rowan Atkinson. Since 2011, he has served as president of the mental health charity Mind.

Fry's film acting roles include playing his idol Oscar Wilde in the film Wilde (1997), for which he was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor; Inspector Thompson in Robert Altman's murder mystery Gosford Park (2001); and Mr. Johnson in Whit Stillman's Love & Friendship (2016). He has also made appearances in the films Chariots of Fire (1981), A Fish Called Wanda (1988), The Life and Death of Peter Sellers (2004), V for Vendetta (2005), Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011). He portrays the Cheshire Cat in Alice in Wonderland (2010) and its 2016 sequel, and the Master of Lake-town in the film series adaptation of The Hobbit. From 2001 to 2017 he hosted the British Academy Film Awards 12 times.

George Denis Patrick Carlin (May 12, 1937 – June 22, 2008) was an American stand-up comedian, actor, author, and social critic. Regarded as one of the most important and influential stand-up comedians of all time, he was dubbed "the dean of counterculture comedians". He was known for his black comedy and reflections on politics, the English language, psychology, religion, and taboo subjects. His "seven dirty words" routine was central to the 1978 United States Supreme Court case F.C.C. v. Pacifica Foundation, in which a 5–4 decision affirmed the government's power to censor indecent material on public airwaves.

The first of Carlin's 14 stand-up comedy specials for HBO was filmed in 1977. From the late 1980s onwards, his routines focused on sociocultural criticism of American society. He often commented on American political issues and satirized American culture. He was a frequent performer and guest host on The Tonight Show during the three-decade Johnny Carson era and hosted the first episode of Saturday Night Live in 1975. His final comedy special, It's Bad for Ya, was filmed less than four months before his death from cardiac failure. In 2008, he was posthumously awarded the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor. In 2004, he placed second on Comedy Central's list of top 10 American comedians. In 2017, Rolling Stone magazine ranked him second (behind Richard Pryor) on its list of the 50 best stand-up comedians of all time.

Wesley Wales Anderson (born May 1, 1969) is an American filmmaker. His films are known for their eccentricity and unique visual and narrative styles. Cited by some critics as a modern-day example of the work of an auteur, three of Anderson's films—The Royal Tenenbaums (2001), Moonrise Kingdom (2012), and The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)—appeared in BBC Culture's 2016 poll of the greatest films since 2000.

Anderson was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for The Royal Tenenbaums (2001), Moonrise Kingdom (2012) and The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014), as well as the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature for the stop-motion films Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009) and Isle of Dogs (2018). With The Grand Budapest Hotel, he received his first Academy Award nominations for Best Director and Best Picture, and won the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy and the BAFTA Award for Best Original Screenplay. He currently runs the production company American Empirical Pictures, which he founded in 1998. He won the Silver Bear for Best Director for Isle of Dogs in 2018.

Doug Stanhope is an American stand-up comedian, author, political activist and podcast host. His stand-up material favors caustic and often obscene observations of life in the style of Bill Hicks and Bill Burr, which he delivers while consuming alcohol. Politically, he has favored libertarianism and once endorsed the Free State Project, a proposed political migration of at least 20,000 libertarians to a single low-population state to foster libertarian ideas.

Bruce Lorne Campbell (born June 22, 1958) is an American actor and director. He is known for portraying Ash Williams in Sam Raimi's Evil Dead franchise, beginning with the 1978 short film Within the Woods. He has starred in many low-budget cult films such as Crimewave (1985), Maniac Cop (1988), Sundown: The Vampire in Retreat (1989), and Bubba Ho-Tep (2002).

In television, Campbell had lead roles in The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr. (1993–1994) and Jack of All Trades (2000), and a recurring role as Autolycus, King of Thieves, in Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and Xena: Warrior Princess (1995–1999). He played Sam Axe on the USA Network series Burn Notice (2007–2013) and reprised his role as Ash Williams on the Starz series Ash vs. Evil Dead (2015–2018).

Ransom Riggs is an American writer and filmmaker best known for the book Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children.

Björk Guðmundsdóttir ( BYURK; Icelandic: [pjœr̥k ˈkvʏðmʏntsˌtouhtɪr̥] (listen); born 21 November 1965) is an Icelandic singer, songwriter, composer, record producer, and actress. Noted for her distinct three-octave vocal range and eccentric persona, she has developed an eclectic musical style over her four-decade career that has drawn on electronic, pop, experimental, trip hop, classical, and avant-garde music.

Born and raised in Reykjavík, Björk began her music career at the age of 11 and gained international recognition as the lead singer of the alternative rock band the Sugarcubes, by the age of 21. After the band's breakup in 1992, Björk embarked on a solo career, coming to prominence with albums such as Debut (1993), Post (1995), and Homogenic (1997), while collaborating with a range of artists and exploring a variety of multimedia projects. Her other albums include Vespertine (2001), Medúlla (2004), Volta (2007), Biophilia (2011), Vulnicura (2015), Utopia (2017) and Fossora (2022).