Talks to Watch

Bagger 288!

4.8M views · May 1, 2009 · 2:18 · 0 HN recommenders · 4 mentions · discussed 2021–2025

A short, absurd happy-hardcore song and animation celebrating the Bagger 288, the enormous bucket-wheel excavator, in dramatic over-the-top terms.

Why Hacker News points people here: HN mostly drops it as a joke whenever giant machines or huge ships and excavators come up.

What Hacker News said 4

Cites itfragmedeOct 2025

“You should see this one!”

Linked as a sight of a huge excavator; the commenter adds facts.

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You should see this one! this video It's a bit dated (completed in 1978) and cost approximately $100 million. At one point it was the heaviest land vehicle, clocking in at 13,500 tons. It's since been succeded, but this bucket-wheel excavator needed only five people to operate. Those five people could mine 240,000 tons of coal[8] or 240,000 cubic metres of overburden (rock/soil on top of the coal) per day . That's 2400 coal wagons! After totally tapping out all of the coal at the Tagebau Hambach mine, in 2001, it took a crew of 70 together to move it 14 miles to the next mine. This move cost 15 million German Marks. (Just watch the linked documentary.)

in “New England's last coal plant has stopped operating, according to its owners” · view on HN
JokeDefenestresqueJan 2021

“The leaders of the free world sat around a secret table...”

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The leaders of the free world sat around a secret table... this video (I know this comment is not exactly in the mood of HN, but this is the one thing I never fail to think of when someone mentions the Bagger family of murderous machines!)

in “EU Signs €145B Declaration to Develop Next Gen Processors and 2nm Technology” · view on HN
JokeArrathMar 2021

“Obligatory”

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Just bring in a Bagger 288[1] and use it to excavate a new diversion canal in front of the ship long enough to get it out of the main canal, bada-bing bada-boom. Simple! [1]Obligatory: this video

Jokedan-robertsonNov 2021

“I’ve heard ideas[1] about supersized machines and they terrify me.”

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I’ve heard ideas[1] about supersized machines and they terrify me. Thankfully it is probably NP-hard in size to make a thing so we’re probably fine. [1] this video

in “On the Impossibility of Supersized Machines (2017)” · view on HN