onemediamusic
6 HN mentions · mentioned in 5 months, 2020–2026
3:36 · 3.1M views · Nov 2, 2011
A classic 1967 comedy sketch from At Last the 1948 Show, with Tim Brooke-Taylor, John Cleese, Graham Chapman and Marty Feldman as four prosperous Yorkshiremen trying to outdo each other with exaggerated tales of childhood poverty. It is the precursor to the version later performed by Monty Python.
Commenters post it as a joke whenever a thread turns to one-upping hardship or nostalgic reminiscing.
6 comments from Hacker News
> Much later, in the second half of the 90s, I remember the four of us carrying an IBM HDD -- I think it was your normal 5.25" drive but it needed four people because it was mounted on a vibration dampening base ... Continuing the shades of Monty Python theme[1]: I remember one of my first few nights being in charge of the new IBM kit (I was a "computer operator" back then, in 1980), leaning back in the fancy new chair at the desk with its fancy "virtual" teletypes (a couple "terminals" displaying the status of the OS with a CICS system), and showing off to an "underling" by swinging a long plastic slide rule or something stupid like that (I no longer recall), and me accidentally banging it on the desk. Right "near" a recessed big red button. Or perhaps "on" the button? As I snapped my head around to look at the button and begin to understand what I may have just done I heard an ominous series of whirring and clicking sounds coming from the cpu box, right near where there was an 8" diskette drive that wasn't supposed to be doing anything while the OS was running (it was just for starting the OS). Then I looked at the console... Uhoh. They didn't fire me but it took months before they decided to let me be "in charge" again with someone else actually hovering over me... Fast forward to when I was a coder (BCPL) in a small software startup, during the second half of the 80s, presumably 10 years before you were carrying your 5.25" drive monster, I vividly recall someone bringing
YC's model has never been to fund startups for long, only to get through the batch and then hopefully raise longer-term funding at Demo Day. When Scott and I were in the Winter 2009 batch, we got $15k. Costs have gone up since then but not by that much. $150k and $125k are both more than enough to accomplish the primary purpose. Actually I wish they'd lower it further. this video
Definitely not a non-argument. Its a circumstancial argument, that does not prove a whole lot, but its perfect against a unsubstantiated claim like the one its used against. It doesnt even have to have happened to be a good argument, because the counterparty does not give any facts either. Just a hollow statement. I love the Monty Python sketch on this subject: this video
It's always been a totally normal conversation, at least where I live (the UK), for the last few decades. I had a colleague who complained that he couldn't reasonably be expected to live on his pitiful salary, which turned out to be £80k (about $120k, adjusted for inflation). Poverty oneupmanship from 1967: this video
C’mon, isn’t he obviously channeling Mark Twain and the long American tradition of a tall tale? Here’s a British version of the old men reminiscing: “ this video ”