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George Carlin - advertising and bull shit

George Carlin - advertising and bull shit on HackerTube: recommended by 1 Hacker News commenter across 1 month, 2015–2025.

killtheweak

comedy · evergreen

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A clip of George Carlin riffing on advertising and the nonsense around it, taken from a longer piece tied to the Zeitgeist movie.

Why Hacker News recommends it

Brought up as a comic touchstone in discussions of advertising, usually with a joke or a quick reference.

people recommended it
1
separate months
1
strong recommendations
0
discussed on HN
2015–2025
“George Carlin's skit is helpful here”
— numair, Sep 2015, in “Ad Mocking Burning Man Corp. Influence Is So Accurate That Burning Man Might Sue”

What HN commenters said

4 Hacker News comments link this video. Each one links back to its thread.

numairSep 2015Recommends

George Carlin's skit is helpful here: ▶ this video It's just another ad. Advertising is mental cancer. Ignore it.

in “Ad Mocking Burning Man Corp. Influence Is So Accurate That Burning Man Might Sue” · View on HN

delegateOct 2016Cites it

Just because advertising existed before, doesn't mean it has to continue to exist. Advertising is not a law of nature, it is a human invention and should be replaced by a new invention. Advertising is a very bad thing. It's a form of brainwashing in which people are manipulated or provoked to consume way beyond their needs. Its goal is to plant ideas into your head, without you even being aware of it. Curiously, the law of supply and demand in economics doesn't even mention the concept of advertising, yet it plays a huge role in demand creation. This 'inflated' demand provokes inflated supply, which creates even more demand (because everyone wants a popular thing), the feedback loop being limited by the speed of extraction of the natural resources and the capacity of the human body, but that can be augmented by increasing human population. There's too much shit produced in the world, too much waste created, too much useless information on the web and too many shitty websites and ecosystems, which exist solely due to advertising. I don't mind at all if they disappear or reduce in numbers. Good content and good products will find ways to survive. Bill Hicks [link] George Carlin ▶ this video

in “CoinTent: A Sustainable Ad-Free Web” · View on HN

latexrJul 2025Joke

> in the land of the free which is not the land of no cost. Maybe it is exactly what that means, and we’ve just been interpreting it wrong all this time. ▶ this video > Free installation. Free admission, free appraisal, free alterations, free delivery, free estimates, free home trial, and free parking.

in “Let me pay for Firefox” · View on HN

SoftTalkerMay 2025Joke

The whole "price lock" concept is a blatant marketing ploy in the first place. As always, "buyer beware" and read the fine print. "Certain exclusions may apply." ▶ this video

in “Taxes and fees not included: T-Mobile's latest price lock is nearly meaningless” · View on HN

Topics & tags

Stand-up & sketch comedyProduct, marketing & salesgeorge carlinadvertisingstand-upsatire