
"Office Space" creator Mike Judge shooting new HBO parody of Silicon Valley - sweis
http://www.deadline.com/2012/12/hbo-greenlights-live-action-comedy-pilot-from-mike-judge-king-of-the-hill-writers/
======
minimaxir
> " _Silicon Valley_ is set in the high tech gold rush of modern Silicon
> Valley, where the people most qualified to succeed are the least capable of
> handling success."

This could work.

~~~
pbiggar
However, it seems pretty unfair. I've met maybe 30 people who have gotten rich
from startups. None have really changed all that much.

There's plenty to parody (pivoting, easy money, demographics, ivy league
obsession, VCs, new angel investors, the term "disrupt") but how people handle
success is really not one of them.

~~~
chiph
Pivoting could easily become the show's running gag.

Just before closing credits: "Well, that space looks like it's going nowhere.
We've decided to pivot and focus on coupons for pet owners, and it'll have a
really big social aspect to it too."

Next week: "Well, it turns out that cat owners don't get out much, so we're
pivoting. We think that what they really want is to stream music over their
pet's collar"

Third episode: "Well, who knew that Cocker Spaniels are frightened by Ke$ha?
So we're pivoting, and what we're going to focus on now is overnight
construction materials delivery. Concrete mix, FedEx'd to your door!"

~~~
wyclif
That, and hoodies.

------
tomhallett
Mike Judge and the other writers stopped by our offices at Tout.com (startup
in SF) and were asking us about startups and being a developer. We told them
about meetups and open source stuff. Probably won't affect the show, but it
was fun talking to them and seeing they were really into it.

Here's him asking about ruby: <http://www.tout.com/m/t0x6dh>

judge drawing on one of our desks: <http://www.tout.com/m/q8ppc1>

here's the full stream: <http://www.tout.com/hashtags/MikeJudgeToutHQ>

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rpm4321
If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend Judge's 2009 movie 'Extract' with
Jason Bateman of Arrested Development.

It sort of inverts the Office Space formula and shows the sometimes taxing,
even soul-crushing nature of entrepreneurship.

It seems to follow the pattern of Office Space and Idiocracy in being panned
by critics and ignored by audiences at first, and then quickly developing a
cult following and being recognized as pretty brilliant.

~~~
TechNewb
I consider Idiocracy to be the greatest satirical film post WWII.

~~~
tossacct
That's an opinion(so of course it can't be wrong) that I have heard, it is
being debated fairly intelligently downthread along with a debate about the
fantastic King of the Hill and Office Space.

Here is a list of movies that critics and non-critics consider to be much
better post WWII satires than Idiocracy, according to internet ratings of
these movies. Note: many of these are more humorous and brutal while being
less crude and light-hearted than Idiocracy. Also many have plot, emotion, and
deep characterization.

Films: American Psycho, A Clockwork Orange, Fahrenheit 451, Nineteen Eighty-
Four, Dr. Strangelove, Office Space(also Mike Judge)

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satire>

My main problem with Idiocracy as a satire is that the message it sends is
flatly incorrect, because the rules of their world are not the same as ours.
It is a satire of some alternate universe in which we are not living, it has
no applicability for the world we live in.

Film's message: "If our societies ever end up giving a competitive advantage
to low IQ people, time travel will be necessary to correct society's decline."

The truth:"If our societies ever end up giving a competitive advantage to low
IQ people, natural selection will take care of it, since intelligence seems to
be a competitive advantage for apes."

I think the true message is also a better call to arms for both intelligent
people and unintelligent people. The movie Idiocracy seemed like it was made
to be consumed by the citizens of the low-IQ world, in both plot and acting. I
do enjoy its light-heartedness.

Much more realistic are the famous dystopian texts, especially Harrison
Bergeron: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harrison_Bergeron>

~~~
maxerickson
The time travel is a plot device. It exists only to set the stage for the
story.

The satire is the stuff like politics being an obvious (blatant?) popularity
contest and people not having any notion of where their food comes from. You
know, like today.

I think even the fall of society depicted in the movie is mostly a plot
device. For instance, in much of the developed world, trash is simply thrown
on a big pile (generally a special, well managed pile, but nonetheless a big
pile).

The movie isn't a warning where we are headed, it is a withering criticism of
where we are.

~~~
tossacct
I mostly agree with what you are saying, and I don't feel like it is in
conflict with anything that I said in my comment. One point about our trash -
is it "simply thrown on a big pile", or is it "strategically centralized so
that future people can effectively recycle it when it becomes economically
feasible"? In a post apocalyptic wasteland, you will find me making runs to
the "grocery store" that is the trash dump.

I think it appealed too much to "the masses" to be enjoyed by "sophisticated"
people. And I think that the satire bits were much too sparing to really be
absorbed by "unsophisticated" watchers. No one under the age of 18 that I
talked with has any idea that this movie is a "withering criticism of where we
are". Here's why:

I do agree with you that the movie had satiric elements, and I agree that it
pointed out the specific issues that you say it pointed out. But if you watch
the movie, these issues are only briefly mentioned, they are not explored or
analyzed. If the film was pared down to the satire bits, it would be about 7
minutes long. The plot of the film was Luke Wilson the time traveler saving
the world, the serious satire elements were the setting. Well if the plot
doesn't get the message through, we can use the characters, right?
Unfortunately, the low IQ people in the film were incapable of talking about
their problems in a sympathetic way that most people can understand. Few
people recognized that the characters were actually caricatures, because they
were so dumb and happy about their lot in life. When you watch Schindler's
List, do you relate to the characters that are unsympathetic oppressors or to
the characters that are sympathetic and oppressed?

My friends and family were effected much more by the satire in Planet of the
Apes, which is very similar movie to Idiocracy. The main thrust of both plots
is "a hero saves the day," and the satire elements are mostly setting. PotA
works as satire because some of the ape and human characters had problems that
they were struggling with, just like you and I! None of the lower IQ people in
Idiocracy was struggling with anything; the "dystopia" was NOT a nightmare for
them, because they had IQs too low to express any anguish and garner any
sympathy.

I think the movie would have made an excellent short film, and I think Luke
Wilson would have been brilliant in it. It would have made a fantastic Family
Guy episode for those that enjoy Family Guy. It failed as a feature length
film which is disappointing from such an effective artist as Mike Judge.

~~~
tossacct
My friends and family were _effected_ much more by the satire

should be

My friends and family were _affected_ much more by the satire

There were many effects of the movie - one was to make the watchers cry, the
other was to make dinosaurs explode onscreen. They were affected by the movie.
I have affected the deal - pray that I do not affect it further.

Affect is always a verb. Effect is always a noun, except when it's a verb. In
that case you rely on a subject/object agreement thing, and English should
really drop both words and use ffect instead.

------
cochese
Athough Mike Judge's projects haven't always been a commercial success,
everything he's been involved in has been damn entertaining. I'm really
excited to see how this turns out.

------
jakerocheleau
He also made Beavis and Butt-head, which is just as classic compared to Office
Space IMO.

~~~
danso
And Idiocracy, which was vastly underrated even though marred by what seems to
be studio-meddling (the annoying narrator, for instance). Idicoracy is
especially amusing because as the years go on, it only seems _more_ prescient.

I'd also point out that King of the Hill was a great show, if a little too dry
for most tastes.

~~~
hristov
King of the Hill is a terrible show. It looks like a 12 year apology for
making office space. Where-ever office space attacks and mocks the traditional
power structure, king of the hill carefully reinforces it. King of the Hill is
not a little too dry it is a lot too stupid.

In fact if I were prone to more paranoia, I would suggest that some Hollywood
honcho sat Mike down in some dark office and explained to him that he has done
a terrible thing by making office space, and he has to suffer, and only if he
suffers willingly and eagerly for more than ten years by continuously making
this awful trash called King of the Hill, only then he will be back in the
good graces of the powers that be. But of course that is just my imagination.
I am sure nobody actually had to explain this to Mike Judge. He likely figured
it out on his own.

~~~
tptacek
KOTH is one of the best animated comedy series of the last 30 years, with a
writing staff that included the co-writer of Idiocracy (and Tropic Thunder,
which was also excellent), Wyatt Cenac, and writers from Mr. Show, Kids in the
Hall, The Late Show, Parks And Rec, and the Simpsons (and during their good
years). The voice talent is probably the best assembled ever for any animated
show, including The Simpsons, anchored by Stephen Root, also one of the best
character actors of the last 40 years.

I don't think Mike Judge has much to apologize for; also, if you really think
KOTH "carefully reinforces the traditional power structure", your irony
sensors are so irreparably broken that you should have all of modern culture
explained to you via a translator.

~~~
polyfractal
Wait wait...surely Adventure Time, Frisky Dingo or The Venture Brothers are of
equal excellence.

I'm not sure if I'm being serious or not. I do love those shows though.

~~~
tptacek
Adventure Time is surprisingly excellent (I don't watch a lot of TV, but my
kids watch AT).

------
flxmglrb
He has to track down the person who originally came up with the status code
"PC LOAD LETTER" and give them a cameo.

He _has_ to.

~~~
Raphael
What the fuck does that mean?

~~~
mhartl
It's an _Office Space_ reference.

------
jblock
This sounds amazing and 80% of the comments in this thread just sound bitter.

------
fruchtose
This reminded me of the Vooza webseries [1]. Some of their skits are corny,
but I think they show that there is potential for a good startup oriented
series.

[1] <http://vooza.com/>

~~~
wamatt
For sure, their Radimparency spoof is pure comedy gold, and rather scarily
close to portraying a large portion of the startup scene here.

<http://watch.vooza.com/post/27284828649/radimparency>

------
mrslx
I expect it would be more realistic than Randy Zuckerberg's show.

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pdufour
I hope this gets past a pilot episode.

~~~
ibejoeb
Who makes pilots anymore? What they really need is a Minimum Viable
Production.

~~~
angstrom
With a 30 second elevator pitch.

~~~
indiecore
and a node.js backend!

Man they don't even need writers, just read HN all day.

~~~
jQueryIsAwesome
The script is just an adaptation of this twitter account:
<https://twitter.com/shit_hn_says>

------
firefoxman1
This reminds me of the "Office" episode where "Wuphf" is a Silicon Valley
startup spoof. In Ryan's "profit" projections[1] he's asked about his plan for
revenue, and he replies:

 _"First rule of Silicon Valley, you think about the user, the experience. You
don't think about the money, ever."_

[1]
[http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-wmzwXd31Rw8/UI6hLHjRvnI/AAAAAAAACK...](http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-wmzwXd31Rw8/UI6hLHjRvnI/AAAAAAAACKY/ko9368dGnx0/s1600/wuphf-
profit-projections-edit.jpg)

------
Jitle
I would be beyond content if this was nothing more than 30 minutes of the
Start-up Guys [1] with Mike Judge creating buzzword fusion words for company
names. [1] [http://www.collegehumor.com/video/6507690/hardly-working-
sta...](http://www.collegehumor.com/video/6507690/hardly-working-start-up-
guys)

------
Apocryphon
He made the Goode Family, which was short-lived but from most accounts,
terrible. Hopefully he'd be able to grasp SV culture as much as he did in
Office Space, and not miss it by going after typical caricatures of San
Francisco.

------
j45
Wow. That's great. There is a Santa. :) Can't wait.

------
joonix
It's all over now. SV can only become a parody of itself.

------
iambrakes
I'm confused, isn't Bravo already airing a parody of Silicon Valley?

------
kintamanimatt
Any idea when this might air?

------
anmol
oh my. this has the potential to be soo great.

------
xfernandox
"fuckin' a"

------
w1ntermute
They should get Ashton Kutcher involved in this, he's one of the few actors
who has actual real-life involvement in Silicon Valley (he's already doing the
SJ biopic).

~~~
freshhawk
This comment is part of your tryout for a writing position on the show I
assume?

Well done. This is exactly the kind of idea that the show is probably going to
be ruthlessly mocking.

~~~
eropple
There are a lot of things to mock about it (and boy do I), but Kutcher is a
pretty bright guy.

~~~
freshhawk
Really? Everything he has ever said or done in public has lead me to the
opposite conclusion.

His financial advisers and PR people seem exceptionally talented, he has, so
far, hidden any ounce of talent from the public.

