Welcome to the Private Police | A Bit of Fry and Laurie | BBC

BBC Studios · 2.9M views · 2008-12-20 · 3:02

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Overview

A short Fry and Laurie sketch in which a man returns from vacation to find his local police station has been privatized, with paid tiers of service. It satirizes privatization of public services.

On Hacker News

HN commenters use it as a joking reference when discussing privatization, outsourcing and absurd bureaucracy.

Discussed on HN; no positive recommendation is recorded in this export · HN mentions 2010–2025

Topics

Stand-up & sketch comedy Satire & parody

What people said

KingOfCoders · 2025-03 · Joke / meme
The plan is to have no government agencies at all, but to have private companies run everything, like jokingly in this Fry and Laurie sketch [VIDEO]
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heurisko · 2022-07 · Joke / meme
They qualify their usage of business-speak: > Our growth strategy is obviously not about making profit, but we are a small team at the centre of government and we need to make sure our people and our money are focused on services that have the biggest reach and the most impact. It's not quite Fry and Laurie yet. "Oh, you have shares in the Royal Family?" [VIDEO]
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roywiggins · 2016-06 · Joke / meme
You can't sell yourself into chattel slavery even if you are an "expert." For good reason. Either you allow those sorts of contracts or you acknowledge that some contracts are unconscionable. Being able to opt out of the legal system would result in private "security" forces with the legal right to hold you upside down by the ankles and shake until you pay up (but, hey, the interest rate was better than the payday loan company that didn't make you sign away your rights, so you took the one with the opt-out). The result would be something out of "Snow Crash." Or a TV sketch: [VIDEO]
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Sources

Video by BBC Studios, played through YouTube.

HN Library · Source license

Data and selection notes

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