4 ms·

Love the show partly for how deeply researched its identity and culturally driven jokes are. Here are a few: Erlich passing Dinesh off as Latino to get a deal

by danans 8y ago

Love the show partly for how deeply researched its identity and culturally driven jokes are. Here are a few: Erlich passing Dinesh off as Latino to get a deal on a graffiti logo design: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSzmVFF58Mo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSzmVFF58Mo Dinesh recounting to a puzzled Gilfolye about how he was a "cool" kid back in Pakistan, and why: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKz0M6SmQ8c https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKz0M6SmQ8c The latter one, in particular, implies that the writers had a deeper than average understanding of the different youth cultures of the US and South Asian cultures at a particular time in history.

toyg 8y ago
That’s Kumail Nanjani’s actual experience being used. If you listen to his early material, on podcasts like Harmontown or standup, there are a lot of similar jokes about his youth.
- danans 8y ago
  Makes sense. As someone who experienced both the Gilfoyle and Dinesh cultural perspectives, the joke really made me laugh.
screye 8y ago
They ring true. Some moments don't even have to exaggerated to be funny. That is exactly how being "cool" works in parts of India, and just the fact is enough to make a person from the west crack up. Dinesh is one of the few nerdy Indian stereotypes that I do not mind. All the others seem like caricatures and generalizations of South Asians. Dinesh on the other hand, could be sitting right across my table, coding.... If The Big Short is considered a great "documentary" for the 2008 crisis, then SV does even better for the Valley.
- danans 8y ago
  > That is exactly how being "cool" works in parts of India, and just the fact is enough to make a person from the west crack up. Indeed. In the context of the show, and American culture, it was Dinesh's perspective that stood out as seeming odd or unique. But I wonder if the post-1950s American/Hollywood understanding of "cool" - the glorification of rebel/outcaste that Gilfoyle's personality represents - is itself really the anomaly on the global scale. I'd imagine many/most parts of the world don't develop a romantic cultural trope around the underdog, or the person who doesn't fit in with the mainstream. But I'd be interested to learn otherwise.
chaostheory 8y ago
In rare instances, the show just misses stuff and it annoys me since they get a lot of things right, especially the characters. The season 1 adderall episode annoys me because it felt like the writers on that episode didnt do their homework. Someone who is good at breaking into stuff is not the same as someone who is good at building stuff. Also the plot where Hendrix couldn't figure out how to explain the benefit of their compression technology to normal people also drove me insane. In real life, there's a very small chance that everyone on the team from the other devs, QA, to support, or even the VC's themselves couldn't borrow / miss the "unlimited storage space" marketing trick from the telecoms and ISPs? Other than those two things so far, I really love the show.

by danans 8y ago

toyg 8y ago

That’s Kumail Nanjani’s actual experience being used. If you listen to his early material, on podcasts like Harmontown or standup, there are a lot of similar jokes about his youth.

danans 8y ago
Makes sense. As someone who experienced both the Gilfoyle and Dinesh cultural perspectives, the joke really made me laugh.

screye 8y ago

They ring true. Some moments don't even have to exaggerated to be funny. That is exactly how being "cool" works in parts of India, and just the fact is enough to make a person from the west crack up. Dinesh is one of the few nerdy Indian stereotypes that I do not mind. All the others seem like caricatures and generalizations of South Asians. Dinesh on the other hand, could be sitting right across my table, coding.... If The Big Short is considered a great "documentary" for the 2008 crisis, then SV does even better for the Valley.

danans 8y ago
> That is exactly how being "cool" works in parts of India, and just the fact is enough to make a person from the west crack up. Indeed. In the context of the show, and American culture, it was Dinesh's perspective that stood out as seeming odd or unique. But I wonder if the post-1950s American/Hollywood understanding of "cool" - the glorification of rebel/outcaste that Gilfoyle's personality represents - is itself really the anomaly on the global scale. I'd imagine many/most parts of the world don't develop a romantic cultural trope around the underdog, or the person who doesn't fit in with the mainstream. But I'd be interested to learn otherwise.

chaostheory 8y ago

In rare instances, the show just misses stuff and it annoys me since they get a lot of things right, especially the characters. The season 1 adderall episode annoys me because it felt like the writers on that episode didnt do their homework. Someone who is good at breaking into stuff is not the same as someone who is good at building stuff. Also the plot where Hendrix couldn't figure out how to explain the benefit of their compression technology to normal people also drove me insane. In real life, there's a very small chance that everyone on the team from the other devs, QA, to support, or even the VC's themselves couldn't borrow / miss the "unlimited storage space" marketing trick from the telecoms and ISPs? Other than those two things so far, I really love the show.