Talks to Watch

Moss Introduces Jen To The Internet | The IT Crowd Series 3 Episode 4: The Internet

5M views · Mar 17, 2009 · 3:01 · 1 HN recommender · 10 mentions · discussed 2017–2026

In an IT Crowd episode clip, Moss and Roy convince Jen that the internet is a small black box. She believes it and carries it around.

Why Hacker News points people here: It is used as a recurring joke whenever threads touch on the internet as a physical thing, and sometimes praised as a favorite sitcom.

What Hacker News said 10

Strongly recommendstheospeakApr 2025

“One of my absolute favourite shows. what a gem”

A favourite sitcom episode about the internet

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One of my absolute favourite shows. what a gem - this video . Also one of the best bits in my opinion - link . For those who have never indulged - Enjoy :-)

Cites ittoomanybeersiesJun 2021

“that XKCD strip feels heavily inspired by an episode of the IT Crowd”

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Fundamentally, a large "do not unplug" sign is just like any other failsafe system. Nuclear missile silos, probably the most "do not touch this switch" systems in existence, are only slightly more refined, and have red covers over all the important switches instead. The alternative is to epoxy the keyboard in. But then when you legitimately need to unplug it, you need to find a hammer. As an aside, that XKCD strip feels heavily inspired by an episode of the IT Crowd [1] [1] this video

in “HBO Max accidentally sent an integration email test to users” · view on HN
JokevanattabApr 2017

“the "IT Crowd"'s prank where moss and roy trick jen into thinking that the "internet" is a single piece of hardware”

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I have not read the article but the title reminds me of this skit. Its the "IT Crowd"'s prank where moss and roy trick jen into thinking that the "internet" is a single piece of hardware. this video followed by link

in “What if the internet stopped working for a day?” · view on HN
Jokeicc97May 2017

“the internet comes in a small box, just make sure you don't drop the box”

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Don't worry, the internet comes in a small box, just make sure you don't drop the box [0] [0]: this video

in “The Blockstack Browser: A Gateway to a New, Decentralized Internet” · view on HN
JokecodethiefSep 2018

“Let's assume that we put the internet ( ) into the elevator and ship it off to space.”

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While total angular momentum is certainly conserved in any rotationally invariant system (read: Earth + space elevator + objects traveling upwards + atmosphere), the situation only for an object traveling to space in the elevator is different: Angular momentum is given by L = I * ω where I is the moment of inertia and ω is the angular velocity. Let's assume that we put the internet ( this video ) into the elevator and ship it off to space. Let's also say that the internet has a mass m and is of negligible diameter compared to Earth's radius. Clearly, its angular velocity ω will stay constant, assuming that the space elevator was built perfectly straight and perpendicular to Earth. However, the internet's moment of inertia I = m r^2 will not stay the same but increase quadratically with its radial position r and its angular moment will thus have to increase, as well. If you take the initial radius to be Earth's radius (~6,300km) and the final radius to be the geostationary orbit (~36,000km), the quadratic dependence will give you an enormous difference in angular momentum which will have to be accounted for by some torque that we apply to the internet. It doesn't matter where this torque comes from--for instance we could imagine the internet to have some kind of jet propulsion engine, where the emitted gas's angular momentum would exactly match the internet's change in angular momentum, so that total angular momentum is conserved. Moreover, it could actually be a small torque, pr

in “Japan starts space elevator experiments” · view on HN
JokepolitelemonMar 2022

“their loading screen appears to use 'The Internet' box from IT crowd”

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Alright I was slightly cynical going in, but this doesn't seem too bad of a way to learn. Runs well in the browser, some clear presentation, and I can see its appeal towards a younger crowd or a crowd that's comfortable with gaming in general. But mainly I like that their loading screen appears to use 'The Internet' box from IT crowd. this video

in “Amazon's new role-playing game can help you build your AWS skills” · view on HN
JokeDrBazzaJun 2022
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The majority of people go to the most-popular (walled garden) social media these days. In that sense, the majority rarely realise what the internet is [1] and that it's more than just Facebook, Amazon etc. > It takes no effort to get online and speak your mind so nobody respects the technology. In my day, you either walked past the crazy person on the street corner and paid no attention to their insane rantings, or you spent several days cutting out letters from a newspaper and glueing them onto A4 before popping in the snail-mail. 1. this video

Jokee808Apr 2023
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The few instances I travelled in remote areas with little to no Internet, and moreover no over the air TV reception, I always mulled how a simple 1K-2k setup with a mini PC running plex and a 10-20TB of disk space could provide an plex TV media library (movies, tv, audio) for a small neighborhood. Throw in Ubooquity for books and audiobooks, you can provide a massive library of media entertainment and education to the area. (of course, copyrights be damned) also: this video

JokejasoneckertNov 2025

“the sitcom "The IT Crowd" has ruined me”

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The first thought that popped into my mind when reading this article was whether Andrew Strangeway was the Elder who maintained The Internet on Big Ben, because the sitcom "The IT Crowd" has ruined me: this video

in “A man who changes the time on Big Ben” · view on HN
JokeButlerianJihadJul 2026
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Just for clarity's sake, what is "the Internet", and how does "the United States" have "control" over it? this video

in “Texas wins court order to suspend domain name for violating age-verification law” · view on HN