George Carlin Talks About "Stuff" on HackerTube: recommended by 7 Hacker News commenters across 7 separate months, 2010–2026.
comedy · evergreen
George Carlin's classic stand-up routine about 'stuff' and how much of life is spent accumulating and storing it, from Comic Relief 1986. It satirizes American consumerism and possessions.
HN keeps linking it in threads on clutter, storage units, real estate and consumerism as a perfectly apt comic take.
“George Carlin put it quite eloquently”
14 Hacker News comments link this video. Each one links back to its thread.
What a story! Most people probably would just give up. Dealing with storage units is why I try to eliminate all the extra "stuff" in my life... George Carlin had a great bit on stuff: ▶ this video
in “So thieves broke into your storage unit again” · View on HN
George Carlin did a great routine on 'stuff'. ▶ this video "a house is ... a pile of stuff with a cover on it".
in “Designing a New Old Home: Part 1” · View on HN
For what its worth, you are describing Carlins newer specials. His career spanned over 40 years. And yeah look at the shift in tone just from the names of his HBO specials 1977 On Location: George Carlin at USC 1978 George Carlin: Again! 1982 Carlin at Carnegie 1984 Carlin on Campus 1986 Playin' with Your Head 1988 What Am I Doing in New Jersey? 1990 Doin' It Again 1992 Jammin' in New York 1996 Back in Town ------------------------- 1999 You Are All Diseased 2001 Complaints and Grievances 2005 Life Is Worth Losing 2008 It's Bad for Ya If you are interested, check out his older stuff like Carlin on Campus. "A Place for My Stuff" [1] for example. [1] ▶ this video
in “Microplastics found in 90 percent of table salt” · View on HN
Any source on that theory? I think you have something solid there. George Carlin put it quite eloquently: ▶ this video We're definitely seeing a resurgence to simplicity after advertisers had performed scorched-earth on frontal cortex lobes.
in “Toys ‘R’ Us Didn’t Have to Die” · View on HN
> "you don't own stuff; the stuff owns you" Reminds me of the George Carlin bit on "stuff". Brilliant commentary on the American way, as always: ▶ this video
in “Why I don't want stuff” · View on HN
If you haven't seen it, a link I think worthy of a listen, George Carlin Talks About "Stuff": ▶ this video
in “How to get rid of old stuff, sell it for more, and use Amazon as cheap storage” · View on HN
Have you noticed that their stuff is shit and your shit is stuff? - George Carlin If you have some free time, do watch this. ▶ this video
in “Ask HN: What's the big deal with startups anyways...” · View on HN
>It can be argued that humans actually hate forgetting things I agree with you, I don't even think that needs to be argued, we without a doubt hate forgetting things, but we also hate eating our vegetables. We do hate a lot of things we probably shouldn't. We are perpetual hoarders, as a species we have the bad habit that we're not very grateful for the problems we don't have as a consequence of things we don't keep. We're not very good thinking in terms of absence. That's why Marie Kondo sold a ton of books and got a great Netflix deal simply by teaching people how to throw stuff into the garbage. Civilization is great at record keeping but not doing too well on the social bonding front, or in the words of George Carlin: ▶ this video
in “I Bought Friendster for $30k – Here's What I'm Doing with It” · View on HN
This is an extremely difficult question that I've been grappling with myself. My first strategy is to create writings that can't be summarized. I try to make essays that are dripping with idiosyncrasy. I can't win in an information war, but I can stay competitive for ~10 years in a creative clash: [1] [link] [2] [link] [3] [link] [4] [link] [5] [link] I myself draw lots of my inspiration from my "sages of style", in the same way that AIs will try to replicate my voice. None of these great thinkers can be summarized or replicated in any meaningful way: [6] David Foster Wallace: [link] [7] George Carlin: ▶ this video [8] Derek Sivers: [link] [9] John Green: [link] [10] Roman Mars: [link] [11] Alan Kay: [link] [12] Alan Watts: [link] [13] Richard Feynman: [link] [14] Raymond Smullyan: [link] But style only takes you so far. My second strategy is to socialize IRL. This year, I'm starting a tech conference called "Outland" to foster community in an age where community might be all that matters. [15] [link]
in “Ask HN: How to protect blog from AI search?” · View on HN
Well, people buy diamonds and they're basically useless, other than signalling that the purchaser has a certain amount of money. The price for them is much inflated over what it would be if priced purely for their practical value. Artificial diamonds are identical to the naked eye, yet the diamond industry somehow influences our culture to make people think they need to spend many thousands of dollars on useless "real" diamonds. On a (somewhat) related note, this conversation reminded me of a George Carlin routine: ▶ this video
in “How Children Lost the Right to Roam in Just 4 Generations” · View on HN
Evolve the idea of what a home is. Elio motors is offering a small 84MPG vehicle for $6,800. 30 year old Volkswagen Westfalia Campers maintain a high resale value to this very day. Why are all mobile homes so huge? How much money do people spend on rent, leases, mortgages, and buying homes? I'm sure college students would love a compact mobile home vehicle. Developing countries would likely eat such a thing up. The CEO of Zappos lives in a trailer park of Airstream trailers and Tumbleweed tiny mobile houses with a shared kitchen, living room and other common areas designed to encourage a true neighborhood / community. Or just consider a house as infrastructure. Real estate is assumed to be limited, but that's mostly the result of nimbyism and the gaming of developments sold off on the real estate market as "investments". The whole trend of gentrification will likely play out in less expensive regions of North America and developing countries, and presumably there will be large dense affordable housing somewhere someday and these areas tend to be fertile for creative businesses and cultural experimentation. New York is long stagnate, and it's amazing how much San Fransisco suffers from real estate leaching off of the working population and tech economy. A home isn't limited to being a house. ▶ this video
in “Stop Buying Real Estate in SF” · View on HN
"Have you noticed that their stuff is shit and your shit is stuff?" George Carlin on Stuff: ▶ this video
in “How warehouses for personal junk became a $38B industry” · View on HN
George Carlin on stuff: ▶ this video Dylan Moran on stuff: [link] I now feel obligated to contribute more to the conversation than some YouTube videos. I've been a kind of move-around-a-lot person for about 6 years now. I've lived in 4 cities. I guarantee you, if it's going to cost several thousand dollars to move your stuff, it's much easier to purge. I'm also glad that moving forced me to have a purge occasionally. I think you'd be surprised how many things you hold onto just in case. I've had a rare pang of lost nostalgia, but in general, I haven't missed anything.
in “The hazards of too much stuff” · View on HN
There's a good bit on that: George Carlin: ▶ this video "A house is just a place to keep your stuff while you go out and get more stuff."
in “You Probably Have Too Much Stuff” · View on HN