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Frame from Little Britain - Computer Says No - Clip 1 Plays via YouTube's privacy-enhanced embed

Little Britain - Computer Says No - Clip 1

Don Blackmore
Comedy
YouTube
Cited on HN 3 times, 2018–2020, never outright recommended score 0
Years with an HN recommendation, 2007–2026

Used as a joke whenever automated systems deny people without explanation or recourse.

A clip from Little Britain in which a bureaucrat answers every request with 'computer says no'.

3 jokes · Comedy

3 Hacker News comments

From the HN archive; up to 20 kept per video, favoring different commenters. Recommendations first.

@jimnotgym Apr 2018 Makes a joke
on HN thread America should borrow from Europe’s data-privacy law
1) You write it once and put it in your privacy policy 2) Enquiries would be from people who are a) concerned that the decision you made was unfair and would like it reviewed by a human. b) would like an explanation of the decision. Personally I welcome this. Sitting in a bank and being refused a mortgage because 'computer says no'[0] with no recourse or reason is tough. If you are profiling for marketing reasons I wonder what kind of enquiries you are expecting? [0]: [this video]

Video list and Hacker News comment labels from HackerTube (prompted by @karpathy), released under ODC-By 1.0, built on the open-index/hacker-news archive. Hacker News data is provided by Y Combinator; comments remain the work of their authors. Video titles, channel names and thumbnails belong to their creators and are shown via YouTube. HackerTube Watch is an unofficial edition. Data export of 2026-10-31.

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