Mike Judge Skewers Silicon Valley With the Satire of Our Dreams

http://www.wired.com/2014/04/mike-judge-silicon-valley/

by kareemm • 12 years ago

69 51 12 years ago

phusion• 12 years ago

No comments!? I really enjoyed this show, I don't think there has really been anything like it-- but then again I never saw "Betas". Mike Judge brings some interesting things to the table, I had no idea he was a math major and had geeky leanings.

This show has lots of promise, and not just for IT industry folks. It's a great ribbing of the mentality of the giant tech companies who promise to make the world a better place--

"Hooli is making the world a better place through minimal messaging transport layers." -- laughed my ass off.

What did HN think of this show? Did you watch it? Will you keep watching every week?

1qaz2wsx3edc• 12 years ago

I love Mike Judge. And as entertaining as Silicon Valley is. I find Betas to be more genuine and well rounded as a show, give it a try! Both are good.

joshbert• 12 years ago

I saw SV's first episode and found it overly boring.

I got the jokes and even got a couple of chuckles here and there, but the show as a whole is not worth the hype it currently has behind it. I'll keep watching, however, hoping to be pleasantly surprised.

jacoblyles• 12 years ago

I thought it was "meh" until the doctor started pitching the main character on his startup during an appointment - then I lost it

ojbyrne2• 12 years ago

I find a lot of HBO (and other cable) shows start slow and improve once they find a rhythm. Perhaps because they don't need to immediately grab an audience.

The show did seem a little slow, but looks promising.

quanpod• 12 years ago

I liked it, I'll keep watching - it's funny to see the tech memes played back and interpreted and I love the way they exaggerate the silly things about our industry (like the comment you mentioned).

Betas just... got weird at certain points and some of the jokes were a bit out of bounds.

booruguru2• 12 years ago

It's funny. Much funnier than most of the crap that passes for comedy on TV these days. I think the show is in danger of being a bit too cartoonish, thenagain silicon valley itself is danger of becoming too cartoonish.

I understand that a lot of stereotypes about geeks and silicon valley are true. But someday I'd like to see a show or movie about reasonably attractive, successful, well-adjusted people who happen to work with computers. I see these kind of people all the time in my social circle and it saddens me we/they aren't reflected in pop culture.

cjf4• 12 years ago

Well adjusted people? Sounds boring.

Dirlewanger• 12 years ago

Absolutely hilarious. From the Hooli founder or whatever contemptuously observing programmers traveling "in packs of 5" to the self-righteous incubator runner still high off his selling his start-up who-knows-how-long ago...just great stereotypes to poke fun at. And it wasn't too technical either, so as to alienate the general public. I think the most technical thing was "compression algorithm".

monksy• 12 years ago

I found it to be the IT Crowd taken to an absurd level.

One question, does the main character work at the social networking company? If so why does the found want to buy him out?

pswilson14• 12 years ago

The company he works at is supposed to be a satire of Google, I believe.

rjd• 12 years ago

I loved it, but I'm bias as I love all of Mike Judges work. I don't really find most his his work boisterous comedy, more a charming satire that I can watch over and over and still enjoy.

I do find however when I try to retell scenes from his work I often choke up with laughter more in the retelling than the watching. I can't retell a scene from office space ending up gasping for air LOL I think thats the genius of his work, and I definitely got that feeling watching it.

His other strength is always the depth of his characters, their nuances, and subtly... so they get funnier the more you understand them. The characters from King of the Hill are some of the best thought out characters I've seen on television, the mannerism, reactions, interactions, just brilliant.

From what I saw of the characters there definitely was a lot of that to come, so hopefully as it develops it'll become something truly amazing.

I can't wait to see more of this show for that reason, everything looked promising, and everything looked balanced for great satire.

spo81rty• 12 years ago

I loved it. It's like big bang theory meets start ups and IT.

LukeWalsh• 12 years ago

I think it's odd that tech people are comparing this to the Big Bang theory. Big Bang theory dumbs down all of the jokes at the expense of not conveying a genuine culture. This is why it is massively successful in the general population and regected by geeks.

Silicon Valley seems to be the opposite at least based on the first episode. There are at least 4x as many subtle tech memes as there are jokes.

andrewhillman2• 12 years ago

I feel it's a lot like Entourage. Has all the same elements. Entourage is about the Entertainment industry in LA whereas Silicon Valley is about the Tech scene in SV.

crisnoble• 12 years ago

Well the article states that his team calls it "Entourage with Aspergers"

cstavish• 12 years ago

It's 1000 times funnier than the Big Bang Theory if only because there's no laugh track.

ntkachov• 12 years ago

Actually, the overuse of the laugh track is probably the only funny part of BBT.

tsax2• 12 years ago

Agreed. I absolutely loathe Big Bang Theory and don't understand why people like it. It consists of cardboard cutout characters with unfunny dialogue. I watched the Silicon Valley pilot and was on the floor laughing. This is genuine stuff. No comparison.

jonnathanson2• 12 years ago

Big Bang Theory isn't made for geeks; it's made for people who want to laugh at geeks. Mostly, it's made to sitcom conventions and happens to use geekery as the punchline to conventional setups, situations, and timing. It's a show on rails, with ostensible 'nerds' as set dressing. Provided you watch it as a formulaic, mildly entertaining sitcom, it serves that purpose. Occasionally you can nod knowingly at catching Sheldon's obscure-to-the-general-public science references. But if you're the kind of person who catches Sheldon's references, the show's not for you. (In the aggregate, at least. Personally speaking, I enjoy Sheldon, even though I recognize him as a caricature.)

There have been some great commentaries over the last few years about shows for nerds vs. shows about nerds. Compare, for example, Big Bang Theory and Community. The former has more putatively 'nerdy' characters, but it's by no means a nerdy show. The latter revels in its obscurity, geekery, and absurdity, even though only one of the characters is supposed to be a 'nerd' in the vein of BBT's Sheldon. General Population watches BBT for entertainment, but also for a sort of paradoxical validation: to feel 'in' on the nerdery, but mostly to place a safe distance between itself and nerdery. Nerds, meanwhile, watch shows like Community, which make no bones about their nerdery.

Traditionally, the gulf between content 'for nerds' and 'about nerds' has been pretty wide. That's because the non-nerdy public finds the genuine article to be unfamiliar and vaguely threatening. If Judge's take on Silicon Valley succeeds, it will be the first time in years that someone's bridged this gap.

aantix• 12 years ago

Disagree. The jokes are fairly accurate (accuracy checked by professor David Saltzberg of UCLA).

Throughout my life I've drown in conversation of minutia and have adhered to a sense logistical consistency that probably impeded my daily living.

Much of it's silly looking back. BBT theory gets this behavior spot on with Sheldon. I think I enjoy it more because it's self-deprecating.

LandoCalrissian• 12 years ago

Big Bang Theory is just nerd black face, it's a really hard to watch.

brvs2• 12 years ago

You're really comparing mocking one of the most privileged groups you could possibly mock... with blackface. Seriously?

You are exactly the kind of person that motivated Mike Judge to create this show.

izzydata• 12 years ago

Thanks for the feedback. I was on the fence about whether or not I wanted to check out this series because of problems like this, but I guess if it is well received by the tech community here I will probably enjoy it.

bowlofpetunias2• 12 years ago

Big Bang Theory is a mainstream sitcom, and it has all the "qualities" of a mainstream sitcom set in any situation.

The vitriolic hatred of a certain subsection of geeks merely because of the setting, or god forbid, attempts at serious criticism of not "not conveying a genuine culture" only serves to confirm all geek stereotypes being exploited by that show.

valarauca1• 12 years ago

I like the show a lot. I think it does a good job at mocking stereotypes that are all too prevalent in the industry and playing it off for laughs. Most the jokes are very pointed and I feel easy to miss. The world changing CEO who only a 15 minute conversation with can change your outlook on life. Its great.

kqr2• 12 years ago

HBO put the first full episode on youtube for at least US viewers:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VvkmsI54ss4

bowlofpetunias2• 12 years ago

"Not available in your country."

Nothing encourages piracy like geotarded content on youtube. What other industry thinks "na na na, you can't have this" is good marketing?

dfc2• 12 years ago

Answer: Every high end luxury good ever marketed.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veblen_good

waterlesscloud• 12 years ago

If all the show ever does is make saying your startup is "making the world a better place" instantly mock-worthy, then it was worth it.

aaronem• 12 years ago

Oh? I've never been all that close to the SV startup scene, and as far as I've been able to tell, that was mock-worthy already. Many good things have come from startups, but maintaining a sense of perspective is a good thing, too.

gdubs• 12 years ago

I thought the satire was well-aimed, and my wife and I laughed out loud a few times. My nit is that I was hoping for it to feel less "sitcom-y" for an HBO production. Looking forward to AMC's Silicon Valley drama that's coming -- I believe that one is set in the early 90's, and more of a drama.

daphneokeefe• 12 years ago

I'm confused. So many comments here but the link returns "Not Found. The requested URL /2014/04/mike-judge-silicon-valley/ was not found on this server."

Mike Judge Skewers Silicon Valley With the Satire of Our Dreams

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