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Penn and Teller's Lab Scam

catvorg · 46.3K views · 2009-08-25 · 8:18

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Overview

Penn and Teller help Rob Pike and Dennis Ritchie of Bell Labs play a prank on Nobel-winning physicist Arno Penzias. The clip shows the gag and its setup.

On Hacker News

It is passed around as a favorite bit of computing folklore, and resurfaces in threads about Penzias, Ritchie and Pike.

Discussed on HN; no positive recommendation is recorded in this export · HN mentions 2017–2024

Topics

Magic, puzzles & curiositiesHacker culture & free softwareHistory of computing
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bell labsdennis ritchierob pikepenn and tellerarno penzias

What people said

vijayr02 · 2024-01 · Reference

RIP Arno. Here's the video and write up of the gag Dennis Ritchie and Rob Pike pulled on him: [VIDEO] [LINK] Edit: just wanted to say the hum of the universe dulled a little bit with his passing

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EvanAnderson · 2020-03 · Reference

I was around 3 y/o when Abscam went down. Now, however, I have a pretty good idea why Penn and Teller called their Bell Labs prank "lab scam". Thanks for that. [LINK] [VIDEO]

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js2 · 2017-04 · Reference

Perhaps not known by the younger audience, but Penn & Teller helped Dennis Ritchie and Rob Pike perform a practical joke at Bell Labs: [LINK] [VIDEO]

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Sources

Video by catvorg, played through YouTube.

Data and selection notes

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HN Library: HackerTube export (2026-10-31) and open-index/hacker-news. Upstream summaries and classifications may contain AI errors.

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