Talks to Watch

Erlang The Movie II: The Sequel

117K views · Mar 22, 2013 · 9:55 · 6 HN recommenders · 15 mentions · discussed 2013–2025

A humorous 10-minute parody sequel to Erlang: The Movie, in which Erlang's creators discuss the aging language and meet a surprise helper. It plays on the Outlaw Techno Psychobitch joke for OTP.

Why Hacker News points people here: HN loves it as a funny, shorter sequel and even uses it to introduce Erlang in university classes.

“I use Erlang the Movie and its Sequel whenever I teach my classes at Oxford Uni.”HN comment, 2018

What Hacker News said 15

Strongly recommendslelfMay 2013

“Don't think wtf. Just watch.”

Classic Erlang parody sequel; just watch

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And if you haven't seen it, here is some classic. “Erlang: the Movie”: — link And sequel “Erlang: the Movie II”: — this video Don't think wtf. Just watch.

in “Erlang's Open Telecom Platform (OTP) Framework [video]” · view on HN
Strongly recommendsdavidwOct 2016

“Erlang the Movie II", which I'd also highly recommend”

Hilarious Erlang parody worth sharing

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I don't care about downvotes, I thought that video was hilarious and enjoy sharing it. He's the same guy behind "MongoDB is web scale" and "Erlang the Movie II", which I'd also highly recommend: link this video

in “The State of JavaScript – Survey results” · view on HN
Strongly recommendsfrancescocDec 2018

“I use Erlang the Movie and its Sequel whenever I teach my classes at Oxford Uni.”

Used in university classes to teach Erlang

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I use Erlang the Movie and its Sequel this video whenever I teach my classes at Oxford Uni. #studentlife :-)

in “Twenty Years of Open Source Erlang: A Retrospective from the trenches” · view on HN
RecommendsqohenDec 2013

“check out "Erlang The Movie II: The Sequel", by Garrett Smith (aka gar1t)”

Sequel by gar1t, creator of MongoDB is Web Scale

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And, after you've watched the original, check out "Erlang The Movie II: The Sequel", by Garrett Smith (aka gar1t): this video (You are likely familiar with one of gar1t's earlier videos, the classic "Mongo DB is Web Scale": link And he's got more on his YouTube channel: link )

RecommendspaulsutterApr 2018

“The sequel is shorter and more fun”

Shorter, funnier sequel to the original

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The sequel is shorter and more fun, “all erlang needs is an image upgrade.. we need something fresh, something edgy” this video

in “What Erlang Taught Me About Distributed Systems” · view on HN
RecommendsubercowApr 2019

“I came here just to post another wonderful remix”

Wonderful remix of the Erlang movie

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It's funny you mention that, I came here just to post another wonderful remix, "Erlang The Movie II: The Sequel". this video

Cites itkelseydhOct 2015

Erlang movie linked in a scaling discussion

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Not at all. Have you ever thought about caching Twitter? It's an archetypical example of a site that's extremely difficult to cache well, which is the source of so many of its scaling problems. Every person's new feed is uniquely generated based on their followers. That means you can only at best cache at the individual tweet level -- you still need to uniquely generate a news feed for each user. This means that for every user you need to individually grab information simultaneously from the same high velocity tweets, while still being able to present information to each user uniquely based on conditions regarding how twitter should display tweets for that specific user individually. That's incredibly demanding data wise because it makes horizontal distribution of load much more difficult --- a huge number of people are all making demands on the same set of data resources, and you can't easily cache that data because of how real time and quickly updating it is. In comparison WhatsApp on Erlang is basically just an example of extremely dramatic real time horizontal scaling. Hosting hundreds of millions of simultaneous chats is relatively trivial in Erlang, given each one is operating under its own separately scalable chat process. Since very few chats share data with one another, horizontal scaling is easy because you don't have the issue of the same resource getting called simultaneously by millions of unique users at the same time, who all need that resource represented back

in “Twitter Expected to Begin Layoffs and Stop Headquarters Expansion” · view on HN
JokeTeMPOraLFeb 2014

“It obviously stands for Outlaw Techno Psychobitch ;).”

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> (which doesn't bother to define what O, T, and P stand for.) It obviously stands for Outlaw Techno Psychobitch ;). this video (Erlang The Movie II)

in “Ask HN: Why isn't Erlang more popular?” · view on HN
Jokerpcope1May 2015

“it can be like Outlaw Techno Psychobitch aka Erlang”

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Sounds like you needs someone like Rex to give Ada an image upgrade: this video ; it can be like Outlaw Techno Psychobitch aka Erlang. Seriously though, I agree with you on the first part, we throw the title engineer around a lot more than we should on this side of the pond.

in “Ada 2012: A New Language for Safe and Secure Software (2012)” · view on HN
JokesupdogJun 2015

“this is a constructive parody of Erlang OTP web tech with some NSFW language”

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You may be looking for Outlaw Techno Psychobitch: this video Edit: this is a constructive parody of Erlang OTP web tech with some NSFW language.

in “Ask HN: What are the coolest new web technologies/frameworks to learn right now?” · view on HN
JokeyellowappleAug 2015
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A lot of Elixir folks try to claim that the syntax doesn't matter. They're lying to themselves: of course the syntax matters. Not only is it much easier and more consistent for the human brain to parse (even more so than Ruby, in my opinion; unlike Ruby, everything that should take a block - like 'def' and 'defmodule' - do (pun intended) take a block), but it also goes above and beyond what Erlang offers with things like its pipe operator ('|>'), macro support, defaulting to binary strings (if you use double-quotes; single quotes are Erlang-style lists of characters, which - while they have their uses (aside from the obvious interoperability with Erlang code) - aren't really as efficient), and (in my observation) greater consistentcy between what you can do in the REPL ('iex') and what you can do in actual source files. They're both great languages, but I think Elixir is a bit more refined, learning from Erlang's advantages and disadvantages and improving on them. It's basically what you get if you watch "Erlang The Movie II: The Sequel" [0] and actually try to write a language for Ruby hipsters with excellent taste in noserings while humming along to Bananarama :) [0]: this video

JokeTeMPOraLOct 2015

“Also known as Outlaw Techno Psychobitch in Erlang community”

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Also known as Outlaw Techno Psychobitch in Erlang community, per [0], as popularized by the creator of the famous "MongoDB is Web Scale". Context [1]. [0] - this video [1] - link

in “Getting started with OTP: creating process families” · view on HN
JokespiralganglionApr 2019

“This video is ripe for remixing.”

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This video is ripe for remixing. Here's the (short) silly cut I made of it last summer: link Here's another (longer) remix: this video

Jokehayley-pattonOct 2024

“Three of the trendiest names we could think of. Open. Telecom. Platform.”

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"We changed the name to OTP." "Three of the trendiest names we could think of. Open. Telecom. Platform." this video

in “Common Lisp implementation of the Forth 2012 Standard” · view on HN
JokebmachoNov 2025

“trying to sell Erlang (called Outlaw Techno Psyhchobitch in the video) with rock and hot chick”

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There is also Erlang the Movie 2 trying to sell Erlang (called Outlaw Techno Psyhchobitch in the video) with rock and hot chick: this video And they were right, rebranding was all Erlang needed 13 years ago

in “How I fell in love with Erlang” · view on HN