6 ms·

There was an article a while back on The Verge noting the irony in the show being "comedy". It's supposed to be a caracature of startup culture, stories, and th

There was an article a while back on The Verge noting the irony in the show being "comedy". It's supposed to be a caracature of startup culture, stories, and the insane numbers that are casually thrown around. But as most people on HN know, Pied Piper would have had a similar path if it was a startup in real life. What I'm getting at is that even in it's attempt to be more insane than what startup life is like, it's strangely... more accurate. And I can't really tell if that's a good or bad thing.

seizethecheese 10y ago
This is also true for another current HBO comedy Veep. While it may not be as close to reality as Silicon Valley, many political insiders note that it is much closer than dramatic shows like House of Cards. Maybe similarity to reality is a hallmark of excellent comedy. This is certainly true of one of my favorite comedy shows Louie, which is almost hyperrealistic.
- khc 10y ago
  "Jokes? There are no jokes. The truth is the funniest joke of all." - Muhammad Ali
- kirrent 10y ago
  Good comedy can be a mirror. It reflects reality, makes you laugh, and then makes you think. I think all of those shows you mentioned would lose something if they weren't uncomfortably close to what they're making fun of.
  - pilsetnieks 10y ago
    Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; Truth isn't. -- Mark Twain
    - surreal 10y ago
      See also "You couldn't make it up."[0] [0] http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/you-couldn't-make-it-up http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/you-cou...
- sliverstorm 10y ago
  Surely you've heard, "it's funny because it's true"
- tjakab 10y ago
  "Many police officers maintain that the most realistic police show in the history of television was the sitcom 'Barney Miller,' far more so than that father of reality TV, 'Cops.' The action was mostly off screen, the squad room the only set, and the guys were a motley bunch of character actors who were in no danger of being picked for the N.Y.P.D. pin-up calendar. But they worked hard, made jokes, got hurt and answered to their straight-man commander." http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/01/opinion/watching-the-detectives.html http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/01/opinion/watching-the-detec...
  - imgabe 10y ago
    Likewise, all the doctors I know say Scrubs is the most realistic show about being a doctor.
    - semi-extrinsic 10y ago
      How can it not be? Every other program about being a doctor has so much personal drama and sex going on, they barely have time to look at patients. (Except House MD, but he's obviously unrealistic, even in the show itself.)
      - golergka 10y ago
        Episode about how unrealistic House is was one of the high points of the later Scrubs seasons.
  - rglovejoy 10y ago
    In a similar vein, I believe that "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" is the most realistic portrayal of the dark ages that I know of.
    - ihaveajob 10y ago
      Funny, I had the same feeling about Christianity watching The Life of Brian.
- sjs7007 10y ago
  > Maybe similarity to reality is a hallmark of excellent comedy. This is certainly true of one of my favorite comedy shows Louie, which is almost hyperrealistic. Similarly medical professionals seem to agree Scrubs is much more closer to reality than the "dramatic" Grey's Anatomy. Another show that comes to mind is Malcolm in the Middle.
- digi_owl 10y ago
  Supposedly a court jester could state the facts with impunity...
fernandotakai 10y ago
i think it's one of the reason it's so hard for me to watch it -- the comedy/cringe parts hit too close to home.
bertiewhykovich 10y ago
By far the most unrealistic thing about "Silicon Valley" is the complete lack of technical obstacles and setbacks faced by any team in the show. But that's eminently forgivable -- no one (certainly not I) wants to watch three weeks of harried debugging. Everything else is so on-point that it can be uncomfortable to watch as a denizen of Silicon Valley.
- nathanvanfleet 10y ago
  Yeah that would be an artificial cliff hanger for sure. It's about the human interaction and politics.
- jonwachob91 10y ago
  Lets not forget we got the Mean Jerk Time because of a technical obstacle. Obviously not a 3 week debugging issue, but still at least some notion of a technical obstacle...
- andyjdavis 10y ago
  >no one (certainly not I) wants to watch three weeks of harried debugging Although they could potentially throw in a sequence designed to show that aspect. 2-3 minutes of silence with a stationary camera showing a motionless programmer at their computer, frowning slightly. Eventually they break the silence by swearing. Mind you, you could probably only do that once in the entire run of the show. As you alluded to, the reality of working through difficult problems would not make for good TV.
  - sbierwagen 10y ago
    Mind you, you could probably only do that once in the entire run of the show. HBO is the same network that aired this skit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TyrM7GxyzGg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TyrM7GxyzGg
  - kbenson 10y ago
    > 2-3 minutes of silence with a stationary camera showing a motionless programmer at their computer, frowning slightly. Eventually they break the silence by swearing. Then you see them slowly click. Press backspace once. press the 3 key. Click again, and their eyes widen as then they exclaim "Finally!"
the_watcher 10y ago
Maybe it's just that I've only ever worked for YC companies since my first job (which was owned entirely by one person), but it seems to me that they've given them the world's dumbest board - trying to force them to do things, installing a veteran CEO, and hiring a shitload of salespeople without building the product. Those are all things that I know happen in startups, but a company founded entirely by engineers doesn't seem like it would ever entirely give up on the product. That said, 90% of what I see on Silicon Valley is remarkably accurate.
- kbenson 10y ago
  > it seems to me that they've given them the world's dumbest board ... hiring a shitload of salespeople without building the product. That wasn't the board, that was the CEO. > a company founded entirely by engineers doesn't seem like it would ever entirely give up on the product. When did they? They fought, they whined, they tried to form a conspiracy, and finally they bargained and compromised. I don't recall them ever giving up.
bitwize 10y ago
What I've seen and heard of SV reminds me of when I posted an article by "Fake Lennart Poettering" (me), about getting around lkml hostility to systemd kernel suggestions by building systemd as a unikernel that chain-loads Linux and intercepts some of its system calls and replaces them with more systemd-friendly versions. Someone replied: "This is like the movie Idiocracy: so close to reality that it isn't funny." A dubious vindication of Mike Judge's satirical skills: reality catches up so quickly with his satire that it fails at comedy.
jghn 10y ago
That's Mike Judge satire. It's always absurd but yet quite accurate
- baddox 10y ago
  Isn't this just normal satire? I thought satire generally refers to works which exaggerate with the intention of highlighting the true absurdities of some person or group of people.
  - jghn 10y ago
    Agreed, but for me his satire is always somehow even more perfect.
kgtm 10y ago
You should also check out Betas (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3012184/ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3012184/), a light-hearted SF startup culture comedy show by Amazon. Sadly, it never got a second season.
- xsmasher 10y ago
  In SV, one of the characters asks a call girl if she takes bitcoin. She says "I hate this fucking town." It's funny. In an episode of Betas, on character slaps a bitcoin down on a table to place a bet. It showed how well they they did their research.
auganov 10y ago
Absolutely. I don't like movies or TV 99% of the time. Especially comedy shows with vulgarity and goofy humor, not my thing at all. But the accuracy and relatability of Silicon Valley make it very enjoyable and funny for me. Every episode has a couple things that hit home.
- icebraining 10y ago
  Have you looked into British shows? They have a lot of realistic comedy, like The Royle Family, the original The Office, The Thick of It and, in a way, Yes Minister.
  - u02sgb 10y ago
    Related - Veep is based on The Thick of It (Armando Iannucci writing and producing both)
amelius 10y ago
At least Pied Piper has some real technology to bring to the table (a compression algorithm). Most real SV startups are, it seems, unfortunately just building a business around a CRUD application (see AirBnB, Uber, to name a few, but there are many many more).
- function_seven 10y ago
  How is AirBnB or Uber just CRUD applications? Seems to me there's a lot more than that involved in launching a nationwide rental or taxi service with a two-sided market. You have to solve regulatory issues (or ignore them strategically), routing and pricing algorithms, user trust issues, etc. These two businesses in particular highlight that it's a lot harder than you think, otherwise the market would be saturated with clones.
  - bobsil1 10y ago
    That's after it's huge. Uber 0.1 was probably just WhatsApp to a couple of drivers.
    - obmelvin 10y ago
      And early Google was 'just' a search engine, something that already existed in some forms, that looked totally unlike the Google of today. You are correct, but what are you trying to say? All companies are going to be 'lame' early on by definition.
      - bobsil1 10y ago
        No, Google 0.1 did something technically nontrivial. These other co's only got technically interesting after scale, which is generically true. Since you don't know whether the startup will succeed, you'd better enjoy the work, eg scraper (FB 0.1) and forum software (0.5). There are any # of co's not lame early on: Google, Adobe, Zee Aero, Joby, Viv/Siri, Cruise, Magic Leap, DeepMind, Vicarious…
qq66 10y ago
I think it feels like a "more accurate satire" because it mixes things that are overexaggerated and underexaggerated, and only by a small amount in either direction. So some of the strange realities (an executive Rollerblading into a meeting) are mixed with dialogue and behavior that is only slightly more absurd than reality.
hbosch 10y ago
I've often heard the same about Scrubs. In a sea of medical dramas in TV, the light and warm-hearted show Scrubs is considered to be the most true-to-life... Apparently.

seizethecheese 10y ago

This is also true for another current HBO comedy Veep. While it may not be as close to reality as Silicon Valley, many political insiders note that it is much closer than dramatic shows like House of Cards. Maybe similarity to reality is a hallmark of excellent comedy. This is certainly true of one of my favorite comedy shows Louie, which is almost hyperrealistic.

khc 10y ago
"Jokes? There are no jokes. The truth is the funniest joke of all." - Muhammad Ali
kirrent 10y ago
Good comedy can be a mirror. It reflects reality, makes you laugh, and then makes you think. I think all of those shows you mentioned would lose something if they weren't uncomfortably close to what they're making fun of.
- pilsetnieks 10y ago
  Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; Truth isn't. -- Mark Twain
  - surreal 10y ago
    See also "You couldn't make it up."[0] [0] http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/you-couldn't-make-it-up http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/you-cou...
sliverstorm 10y ago
Surely you've heard, "it's funny because it's true"
tjakab 10y ago
"Many police officers maintain that the most realistic police show in the history of television was the sitcom 'Barney Miller,' far more so than that father of reality TV, 'Cops.' The action was mostly off screen, the squad room the only set, and the guys were a motley bunch of character actors who were in no danger of being picked for the N.Y.P.D. pin-up calendar. But they worked hard, made jokes, got hurt and answered to their straight-man commander." http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/01/opinion/watching-the-detectives.html http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/01/opinion/watching-the-detec...
- imgabe 10y ago
  Likewise, all the doctors I know say Scrubs is the most realistic show about being a doctor.
  - semi-extrinsic 10y ago
    How can it not be? Every other program about being a doctor has so much personal drama and sex going on, they barely have time to look at patients. (Except House MD, but he's obviously unrealistic, even in the show itself.)
    - golergka 10y ago
      Episode about how unrealistic House is was one of the high points of the later Scrubs seasons.
- rglovejoy 10y ago
  In a similar vein, I believe that "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" is the most realistic portrayal of the dark ages that I know of.
  - ihaveajob 10y ago
    Funny, I had the same feeling about Christianity watching The Life of Brian.
sjs7007 10y ago
> Maybe similarity to reality is a hallmark of excellent comedy. This is certainly true of one of my favorite comedy shows Louie, which is almost hyperrealistic. Similarly medical professionals seem to agree Scrubs is much more closer to reality than the "dramatic" Grey's Anatomy. Another show that comes to mind is Malcolm in the Middle.
digi_owl 10y ago
Supposedly a court jester could state the facts with impunity...

fernandotakai 10y ago

i think it's one of the reason it's so hard for me to watch it -- the comedy/cringe parts hit too close to home.

bertiewhykovich 10y ago

By far the most unrealistic thing about "Silicon Valley" is the complete lack of technical obstacles and setbacks faced by any team in the show. But that's eminently forgivable -- no one (certainly not I) wants to watch three weeks of harried debugging. Everything else is so on-point that it can be uncomfortable to watch as a denizen of Silicon Valley.

nathanvanfleet 10y ago
Yeah that would be an artificial cliff hanger for sure. It's about the human interaction and politics.
jonwachob91 10y ago
Lets not forget we got the Mean Jerk Time because of a technical obstacle. Obviously not a 3 week debugging issue, but still at least some notion of a technical obstacle...
andyjdavis 10y ago
>no one (certainly not I) wants to watch three weeks of harried debugging Although they could potentially throw in a sequence designed to show that aspect. 2-3 minutes of silence with a stationary camera showing a motionless programmer at their computer, frowning slightly. Eventually they break the silence by swearing. Mind you, you could probably only do that once in the entire run of the show. As you alluded to, the reality of working through difficult problems would not make for good TV.
- sbierwagen 10y ago
  Mind you, you could probably only do that once in the entire run of the show. HBO is the same network that aired this skit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TyrM7GxyzGg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TyrM7GxyzGg
- kbenson 10y ago
  > 2-3 minutes of silence with a stationary camera showing a motionless programmer at their computer, frowning slightly. Eventually they break the silence by swearing. Then you see them slowly click. Press backspace once. press the 3 key. Click again, and their eyes widen as then they exclaim "Finally!"

the_watcher 10y ago

Maybe it's just that I've only ever worked for YC companies since my first job (which was owned entirely by one person), but it seems to me that they've given them the world's dumbest board - trying to force them to do things, installing a veteran CEO, and hiring a shitload of salespeople without building the product. Those are all things that I know happen in startups, but a company founded entirely by engineers doesn't seem like it would ever entirely give up on the product. That said, 90% of what I see on Silicon Valley is remarkably accurate.

kbenson 10y ago
> it seems to me that they've given them the world's dumbest board ... hiring a shitload of salespeople without building the product. That wasn't the board, that was the CEO. > a company founded entirely by engineers doesn't seem like it would ever entirely give up on the product. When did they? They fought, they whined, they tried to form a conspiracy, and finally they bargained and compromised. I don't recall them ever giving up.

bitwize 10y ago

What I've seen and heard of SV reminds me of when I posted an article by "Fake Lennart Poettering" (me), about getting around lkml hostility to systemd kernel suggestions by building systemd as a unikernel that chain-loads Linux and intercepts some of its system calls and replaces them with more systemd-friendly versions. Someone replied: "This is like the movie Idiocracy: so close to reality that it isn't funny." A dubious vindication of Mike Judge's satirical skills: reality catches up so quickly with his satire that it fails at comedy.

jghn 10y ago

That's Mike Judge satire. It's always absurd but yet quite accurate

baddox 10y ago
Isn't this just normal satire? I thought satire generally refers to works which exaggerate with the intention of highlighting the true absurdities of some person or group of people.
- jghn 10y ago
  Agreed, but for me his satire is always somehow even more perfect.

kgtm 10y ago

You should also check out Betas (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3012184/ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3012184/), a light-hearted SF startup culture comedy show by Amazon. Sadly, it never got a second season.

xsmasher 10y ago
In SV, one of the characters asks a call girl if she takes bitcoin. She says "I hate this fucking town." It's funny. In an episode of Betas, on character slaps a bitcoin down on a table to place a bet. It showed how well they they did their research.

auganov 10y ago

Absolutely. I don't like movies or TV 99% of the time. Especially comedy shows with vulgarity and goofy humor, not my thing at all. But the accuracy and relatability of Silicon Valley make it very enjoyable and funny for me. Every episode has a couple things that hit home.

icebraining 10y ago
Have you looked into British shows? They have a lot of realistic comedy, like The Royle Family, the original The Office, The Thick of It and, in a way, Yes Minister.
- u02sgb 10y ago
  Related - Veep is based on The Thick of It (Armando Iannucci writing and producing both)

amelius 10y ago

At least Pied Piper has some real technology to bring to the table (a compression algorithm). Most real SV startups are, it seems, unfortunately just building a business around a CRUD application (see AirBnB, Uber, to name a few, but there are many many more).

function_seven 10y ago
How is AirBnB or Uber just CRUD applications? Seems to me there's a lot more than that involved in launching a nationwide rental or taxi service with a two-sided market. You have to solve regulatory issues (or ignore them strategically), routing and pricing algorithms, user trust issues, etc. These two businesses in particular highlight that it's a lot harder than you think, otherwise the market would be saturated with clones.
- bobsil1 10y ago
  That's after it's huge. Uber 0.1 was probably just WhatsApp to a couple of drivers.
  - obmelvin 10y ago
    And early Google was 'just' a search engine, something that already existed in some forms, that looked totally unlike the Google of today. You are correct, but what are you trying to say? All companies are going to be 'lame' early on by definition.
    - bobsil1 10y ago
      No, Google 0.1 did something technically nontrivial. These other co's only got technically interesting after scale, which is generically true. Since you don't know whether the startup will succeed, you'd better enjoy the work, eg scraper (FB 0.1) and forum software (0.5). There are any # of co's not lame early on: Google, Adobe, Zee Aero, Joby, Viv/Siri, Cruise, Magic Leap, DeepMind, Vicarious…

qq66 10y ago

I think it feels like a "more accurate satire" because it mixes things that are overexaggerated and underexaggerated, and only by a small amount in either direction. So some of the strange realities (an executive Rollerblading into a meeting) are mixed with dialogue and behavior that is only slightly more absurd than reality.

hbosch 10y ago

I've often heard the same about Scrubs. In a sea of medical dramas in TV, the light and warm-hearted show Scrubs is considered to be the most true-to-life... Apparently.