THE VIDEO SHELF · bureaucratic bloat
How To Run A Hospital | Yes Minister | BBC Comedy Greats
A short Yes Minister clip in which Sir Humphrey explains why a hospital with no patients still needs a large administrative staff. It is a satirical look at bureaucratic bloat in the public sector.
Why HN readers recommended it
HN commenters cite it as the canonical joke about administrators multiplying regardless of the work, whenever threads turn to institutional or corporate bloat.
This is a summary from the source dataset, not an endorsement by Hacker News or the video creator.
Video & recommendation details
- Creator / channel
- BBC Comedy Greats
- Topic
- bureaucratic bloat
- Format
- comedy
- Level
- general
- HN recommenders in dataset
- 2
- HN mentions in dataset
- 5
- Recommendation years in dataset
- 2021–2025
These counts and years describe the included Hacker News records; they are not YouTube views or the video’s publication date.
From the original HN conversations
Excerpts from the recorded comments. Follow each source for the full comment and surrounding discussion.
“Once the Picture Collection is relocated, its space in Room 100 will house administrators who were hired for educational outreach.” - inflation of administrative apparatus is a scourge of modern society. It is partially responsible for growing costs of education and healthcare. One of my …
YeBanKo on Hacker News · 2021-08
In New York Public Library’s Picture Collection Will Be ArchivedThis reminds me of a great scene[1] from the British show "Yes, Minister". It's from an episode called The Compassionate Society where a minister for Department of Administrative Affairs learns about a newly built hospital which has some 500 employees but no doctors & patients. …
maxwelldone on Hacker News · 2022-04
In Employees are returning to the office to sit on zoom calls
Summaries, classifications and recommendation records are from the HackerTube source dataset. Read about this library and its limitations.