Talks to Watch

Monty Python What have the romans ever done for us YouTube

644K views · May 5, 2014 · 2:05 · 0 HN recommenders · 3 mentions · discussed 2020–2022

The Life of Brian scene in which revolutionaries list what the Romans have done for them, from aqueducts to roads, despite their complaints.

Why Hacker News points people here: Used as a joke whenever a discussion has someone grudgingly listing the benefits of something they criticize.

What Hacker News said 3

JokeseerJan 2020

“the hilarious sketch from Monty Python”

Full comment

The romans did envy the Greek culture quite a lot - Pompeii and Herculan are filled with “copies of greek statues”. And they did copy the mythology wholesale. But speaking about this I can’t not mention the hilarious sketch from Monty Python - [what did the romans ever do for us]( this video ) TL;DR; Quite a lot given the relative cultures and civilizations of the time. Have in mind that a lot of the greeks were themselves a bunch of cruel slaving rednecks too - link

in “Health and Wealth in the Roman Empire (2019)” · view on HN
JokenetsharcJan 2021
Full comment

> DNC now has to spend most of the first half of Bidens term trying to rebuild the nations confidence. One hopes, but I'd imagine the people living in the alternate reality will just ask "What have the Romans ever done for us?!"[0] [0] Reference: this video

in “Facebook Indefinitely Suspends Trump” · view on HN
JokesterlindFeb 2022

“I'm reminded of the "what have the Romans ever done for us?" scene from Life of Brian”

Full comment

I'm reminded of the "what have the Romans ever done for us?" scene from Life of Brian: this video I'm not sure the history with workspaces, but Google Docs etc. were very important. Google also gets points in my book just by scaling YouTube, Maps, Gmail etc. To the degree they've published their work it's been revolutionary to the field. Excellent engineering with terrible/conservative corporate strategy, imo.

in “Why does Google still have the “I’m Feeling Lucky” button?” · view on HN