George Carlin - The big club
Why Hacker News recommends it
Quoted whenever commenters want to express that wealth and power are rigged against ordinary people, as in Robinhood or big-tech threads.
What it is
A short George Carlin routine in which he says the owners of the country run a big club and ordinary people are not in it.
Recommended by 0 HN commenters across 0 different months, 2017 to 2025.
What Hacker News said
Cites tomjakubowski · 2017-06 · on “Amazon has a patent to keep people from comparison shopping in stores”
Not to be confused with Groucho Marx's joke about belonging to clubs. :-) Carlin's bit, for reference. [this video]
Cites jsm386 · 2018-01 · on “What it’s like to be on the board of a Fortune 500 company”
> To put it in Bill Burr's words,"It's a big CLUB. And YOU AIN'T IN IT." Pretty sure that's actually a George Carlin line, from a relatively famous routine of his. Many, many clips, but here's a random one: [this video]
Cites fireeyed · 2021-01 · on “Robinhood Play Store listing went from 329K reviews to 180K in few hours”
"Its a big club and you ain't in it" - George Carlin Politicians + Government Lackeys, Media Hacks + Corrupt Wall Street + Think Tanks + 'not for profits' [this video]
Cites wnevets · 2025-05 · on “OpenAI to buy AI startup from Jony Ive”
> It’s mind boggling how much money is floating around once you are part of the insider circle. it's a big club and you ain't in it [1] [1] [this video]