What have the Romans ever done for us

BrianTheMan · 1.5M views · 2007-11-29 · 1:23

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Overview

The classic 'What have the Romans ever done for us?' scene from Monty Python's Life of Brian, in which revolutionaries grudgingly list the benefits of Roman rule. It is a short comedy clip.

On Hacker News

HN commenters mostly drop it as a joke when someone downplays the upsides of something, such as a platform, a company or industrialization.

Discussed on HN; no positive recommendation is recorded in this export · HN mentions 2011–2016

Topics

Film & TV clips Stand-up & sketch comedy

What people said

sbuttgereit · 2016-05 · Reference
You know when I hear a people speaking like this, I can't help but think about that scene from "The Life of Brian" where the rhetorical question of "What have the Romans ever done for us?!" ( [VIDEO] ) It's terribly simplistic to look only at industrialization problems and completely neglect to acknowledge the upsides. Is there pollution and would I like there to be less, sure. Having said that would I want to give up the safety, food security, medical advances, conveniences, etc. that make life worthwhile so that I could live in pristine, untouched nature? Not a chance. I've life is substantially better because I live in an industrialized society and I'll take the pollution so long as it comes with all the good in my life.
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dankohn1 · 2016-03 · Joke / meme
But other than Linux and git (and a diving app [0]), what has Linus ever done for us? [1] [0] [LINK] [1] [VIDEO]
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acqq · 2014-03 · Joke / meme
[VIDEO] "Apart from the sanitation, medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, the fresh water system and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us?"
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Sources

Video by BrianTheMan, played through YouTube.

HN Library · Source license

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