While we still wish that Silicon Valley has some female characters to speak of, we’ll admit that it’s a pretty hilarious look at the inner workings of the tech industry. And of course, what would a show about people working in tech be if it didn’t have at least one fake website to show off?
As far as parodies of tech start-up landing pages go, the Pied Piper site is pretty dang spot-on, complete with a totally made up mission statement (that namedrops the Weissman Score, of course), bios for each of the Pied Piper crew members, and an explanation of what the software does, which was based on “user feedback that was suboptimal and on occasion downright mean.”
My favorite part? The bio for Zach Woods’ character, Jared. Um, Donald. Whatever Erlich wants to call him.
In case you can’t read the graphic, the full text is below:
Jared’s early life is best passed over, but he managed to rise above it thanks to a series of largely well-meaning foster parents, and went on to receive a B.A. from Vassar College in Economics. During those too-soon-over happiest of years, he was proud to sing second alto with the “Joyce Carol Notes A Capella Confrontation.“ At Vassar he was also coxswain for Women’s Heavyweight Crew, writer and assistant stage manager of the opera “American HerStory XX,” and co-founder of Take Back “Take Back the Night.” After graduation, he worked for Google and Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi before becoming a a director of special projects at Hooli, working closely with CEO Gavin Belson, before moving to Pied Piper in 2014.
I feel like I should be upset that the main narrative here consists of Jared engaging in very stereotypically feminine activities and this may indicate that he’s going to be the butt of a lot of male feminist jokes later on in the show. But honestly? The idea of the self-described “Andrea Dworkin of Building Long-Term Value” singing Alto 2 in an a cappella group named after Joyce Carol Oates is just too funny to me. Let’s just hope they don’t slip into something gross if this narrative ever crops up in the show itself.
(via TechCrunch)
- You can watch the full pilot for Silicon Valley here
- Our own Glen Tickle reviewed the first two episodes after SXSW
- We were admittedly pretty underwhelmed by the first trailer
