14 videos · 2 hr 6 minA comedy break for programmers
These are the funny videos Hacker News commenters keep linking when a thread gets a little too true: office sketches, tech-hype parodies, deadpan fake research and one famously funny keynote. Most are under ten minutes. The list starts with workplace humor, moves through hype and programming culture, and ends with absurd talks, closing on the longest one.
Play all on YouTube- 17:35
The Expert (Short Comedy Sketch)
Lauris Beinerts · Picked by 0 · 2014–2025The obvious opener: an engineer asked to draw seven red lines with blue ink, which HN posts whenever a thread turns to impossible requirements.
- 210:24
The Website is Down #1: Sales Guy vs. Web Dude
Josh Weinberg · Picked by 1 · 2019–2024A Webby-winning classic about an outage call where sales and engineering talk straight past each other.
- 33:09
Microservices
KRAZAM · Picked by 0 · 2021–2025KRAZAM's three-minute tour of a hopelessly tangled backend, the go-to joke in any thread about architecture sprawl.
- 42:49
I Have Delivered Value... But At What Cost?
KRAZAM · Picked by 2 · 2021–2024A second KRAZAM sketch, this one about Slack chimes and corporate life, which one commenter called so good it is painful to watch.
- 5
4:22Interview with an Agile Coach - Sprint1
Kai Lentit · Picked by 2 · 2022–2023Kai Lentit's parody of scrum and sprint jargon, recommended because it looks a lot like agile at large companies.
- 6
5:36Episode 1 - Mongo DB Is Web Scale
gar1t · Picked by 0 · 2013–2026The animated NoSQL-hype dialogue that still gets posted whenever someone promises a database will just scale.
- 7
11:32Erlang: The Movie
uncertainyesterday · Picked by 4 · 2013–2026Not meant as comedy, but HN loves this earnest Ericsson film showing hot code reloading, and you need it before the sequel.
- 8
9:55Erlang The Movie II: The Sequel
gar1t · Picked by 6 · 2013–2025The parody follow-up, with the Outlaw Techno Psychobitch take on OTP; one commenter shows both films to classes at Oxford.
- 9
4:08We're Gonna Build a Framework
Dylan Beattie · Picked by 1 · 2018–2024Dylan Beattie sets 'We Didn't Start the Fire' to a list of real framework names, a fair joke about the churn in web development.
- 10
2:46Apple Introduces Revolutionary New Laptop With No Keyboard
The Onion · Picked by 1 · 2012–2025The Onion's MacBook Wheel, still HN's punchline whenever a device drops physical keys.
- 11
1:50"Turbo Encabulator" the Original
Dave Rondot · Picked by 4 · 2016–2026The original late-1970s technobabble parody, a minute of solemn engineering jargon that means nothing.
- 12
5:56How to sound smart in your TEDx Talk | Will Stephen | TEDxNewYork
TEDx Talks · Picked by 6 · 2015–2024Will Stephen does the same thing for TED talks, spending six minutes saying nothing while sounding brilliant.
- 13
5:34On The Turing Completeness of PowerPoint (SIGBOVIK)
Tom Wildenhain · Picked by 8 · 2017–2025A deadpan SIGBOVIK result proving PowerPoint animations are Turing complete, which HN often names as one of the funniest talks it knows.
- 14
51:22USENIX Security '18-Q: Why Do Keynote Speakers Keep Suggesting That Improving Security Is Possible?
USENIX · Picked by 10 · 2018–2026The long one to finish: James Mickens's keynote is both very funny and a serious warning about trusting machine learning, and HN keeps rewatching it.