Robin Verhagen-Guest
3 HN mentions · mentioned in 3 months, 2015–2026
2:57 · 200K views · Mar 16, 2013
A short sketch from That Mitchell and Webb Sound, the BBC radio comedy, about a safety measure that works perfectly and so gets no credit for the lack of disasters.
It is used as a joke or shorthand for the prevention paradox, where successful safety work looks unnecessary because nothing bad happens.
3 comments from Hacker News
Yes, we've all heard [0] and probably agreed with the person Mitchell plays, but the cost of bollards is actually really low. I can buy concrete hemispherical bollards for less that $20 a piece. Let's make the total installation cost $50 per bollard. How many bollards does a 7/11 parking need? [0] - this video
This reminds me of a sketch by Mitchell and Webb (a pair of British comedy actors). It is a satirical news broadcast, in which Mitchell points out that the fact that there was not a single death from drowning in the local region proves that too much money is being spent on anti-drowning measures. this video
I am reminded of a certain Mitchell and Webb skit that suggests the absence of deaths by drowning in a county indicates perhaps too much public funding has gone into preventing them: this video