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Brain Surgeon - That Mitchell & Webb Look , Series 3 - BBC

BBCCited 14× on HN, 2009–2026
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comedy · general · evergreen · 2009–2026 on HN

A short That Mitchell and Webb Look sketch in which a rocket scientist and a brain surgeon trade jibes over whose job is harder. It is a BBC comedy clip from 2009.

Mostly posted as a joke or reference when threads touch on status, difficulty or jobs.

12 comments from Hacker News

@netsharc2026-06 · in “Nvidia is proposing a beast of a CPU system for Windows PCs”

I found his website, link , and the "2%" brag is the very first sentence, geez. Being the top x% is what OnlyFans girls brag about, professor... And it's not exactly brain surgery, is it? ▶ this video

@pcthrowaway2025-07 · in “New sphere-packing record stems from an unexpected source”

There is no problem with it, but I assume there are many people who will look upon you favourably if they think you do a highly skilled job. While many of us may not care to impress those people, there are certainly those who do (possibly people with similar attitudes who care more about validation from people who think like them) A somewhat ungenerous characterization of the attitude may be something like the Rocket Scientist vs Brain Surgeon sketch - ▶ this video But we should also acknowledge that there's an entire culture built around valuing people and their time relative to one's perception of their "importance", that this culture can influence one's earning potential and acquisition of material possessions, and that many people do care about things like "seeming important" or moving upwards in this hierarchy as a result.

@kowlo2023-08 · in “Ask HN: What's the coolest physical thing you've made?”

I made a VESA mount for my iPad [1]. It wasn't exactly brain surgery [2], but I thought it was cool! [1] link [2] ▶ this video

@batterylow2023-08 · in “Ask HN: What's the coolest physical thing you've made?”

I made a VESA mount for my iPad [1]. It wasn't exactly brain surgery [2], but I thought it was cool! [1] link [2] ▶ this video

@hotpotamus2023-04 · in “Stop Telling Everyone What You Do for a Living”

It's a reference to a Mitchell and Webb sketch about the status games that people play around employment. ▶ this video