BBC Studios
17 HN mentions · mentioned in 15 months, 2013–2026
3:10 · 1.1M views · Jul 19, 2007
A Red Dwarf clip where Kryten fixes a toaster and finds it to be the most annoying machine in the universe, endlessly offering toast.
HN uses it as a recurring joke reference whenever threads feature annoying, over-eager smart devices and AI products.
17 comments from Hacker News
Apologies, didn't notice when I got the link from YT's "Share" button. Won't make that mistake again. Comment is now to old to edit: for convenience, here's the link without the parameter -- this video
It really does get as annoying as you'd expect. The Sci-Fi comedy Red Dwarf has a toaster that does essentially this, this video
Very few companies survive Robotics projects, as the public has decades of unrealistic expectations from entertainment media. If the plan is an unconstrained general purpose use-case design, than the reality of the processing power needed to do simple tasks will quickly hit the product. If the board is serious, than just purchase the universal-robots.com company. Then add whatever branding and software you thought was useful on top of the existing platform. Making a profitable Robotics company is hard, as they are not generally a consumer product. I'd try Apple branded appliances, and you know people would buy a talking toaster: this video Best of luck =)
Check out Paul Robinson's comment for a general refutation. Given the popularity of 'artisanal'-type portable food preparations in both the UK and the US I think it unlikely the market could get away with such standards even at the low-end. I find your comment valuable though for the insight that bread products may be cut by waterjets: [LINK] This is astonishing: surely sogginess ensues? Bonus bready humour: this video
> I don't expect a smart toaster to talk like a BBC host; Well sure, the BBC have already established that it's supposed to sound like a brit doing an impersonation of an American: this video