As tensions between San Francisco natives and tech grow, HBO’s new comedy, Silicon Valley, premiering on April 6, 2014 may be exactly the kind of levity this “cradle of innovation” needs.
Champion of the everyman, Mike Judge, known for his work on Office Space, Beavis & Butthead and King of the Hill, paired with Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm writer, Alec Berg, to create Silicon Valley.
Judge says, “I was interested in doing a show about Silicon Valley because I lived there. I got my degree in physics; I did some programming; I worked as an engineer for close to two years,” which, he is not afraid to say, left him less than enchanted with the industry.
Yet, it’s one thing to be disenchanted and another to be displaced. As the tech boom raises rent prices and changes the landscape of San Francisco at the cultural level, locals struggle to find humor in the situation.
This timely satire targets “rampant dueling billionaires” while humanizing “socially awkward types” (e.g. anyone who would wear a shirt reading: “I know H.T.M.L. How To Meet Ladies”), which may allow natives to see techies in a more light-hearted light.