Yeah, I can see where you're coming from. I might be critical as well, if I hadn't read it until adult and could compare it to other kind of humour. (Say, Monty Python.)
Thing is, the Guide (the local translation of the radio play and then the book) was about my 4th or 5th science fiction thing ever (after some Star Wars and Star Trek I had seen in TV, and some occasional book, probably Heinlein), and for a ~12 year old, it was a formative experience. Not a single Monty Python or Dr Who contact prior to that.
I once turned on the radio right in the middle of an NPR interview with some older sci-fi writer. Unfortunately I couldn't catch the name, which saddens me to this day, but he said something very interesting.
The author had been reading and writing sci-fi for decades, and he was asked what he considered to be the "golden-age" of science fiction, whether it was the material he first read in the 30s or 40s, or later.
I can't remember the exact reply, but it was along the lines of:
"The golden age of science fiction is ... 13. At 13 you are just becoming aware of the world around you enough to really comprehend the ideas in the story, but your personal experience is limited enough that it is all still new, and your mind is blown.
Therefore the golden age of sci-fi is whatever sci-fi you were reading at 13."
Thing is, the Guide (the local translation of the radio play and then the book) was about my 4th or 5th science fiction thing ever (after some Star Wars and Star Trek I had seen in TV, and some occasional book, probably Heinlein), and for a ~12 year old, it was a formative experience. Not a single Monty Python or Dr Who contact prior to that.