:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/63707918/silicon-valley-hbo.0.1462601901.0.png)
In its first season last year, HBO’s sitcom “Silicon Valley” painted a sharp caricature of tech culture and business. In San Francisco yesterday, some of the show’s stars came face to face with their targets.
Taking part in the annual comedy festival SF Sketchfest, the “Pied Piper Panel” featured four of “Silicon Valley’s” main actors: Thomas Middleditch, who stars as Pied Piper founder Richard Hendriks; T.J. Miller, who plays the eccentric incubator head Erlich Bachman; and Kumail Nanjiani and Zach Woods, who play Pied Piper employees Dinesh and Jared.
Miller, in particular, took an aggressive tone with the Bay Area crowd, calling it out for its “artisan cheeses” and “useless technology.”
“I love being in the Bay Area,” Miller said after a rant about messaging apps. “It feels like you guys have got a real handle on reality. Fairly representational of the United States as a whole.”
The audience was all too happy to be verbally abused. During a Q&A session, fan after fan was mocked for his quirks; one questioner lapsed into a tangent about Tesla’s APIs, while another eagerly asked if there would be more genitalia-based math jokes in the show’s second season.
“You are who we’re making fun of,” Miller said several times to the people at the microphone.
The panel turned political (sort of) when the final questioner asked about the “economic colonialism” of tech giants like Google, which has bought up countless buildings in his hometown of Mountain View.
“So, is that near Silicon Valley?” Miller asked. He appeared to be serious.
When the audience laughed, Nanjiani came to his defense: “You don’t know where Mountain View is?” he asked in mock offense.
“Wait, so do the big companies, do they buy actual houses, too?” Middleditch chimed in. “Like, do they buy residential real estate?”
“Google actually bought the elementary school where I went growing up,” the questioner said. “It’s a private charter school for, like, kids of Google employees.”
“Oh that’s awesome,” Miller said. “Finally, some white kids get an opportunity.”
This article originally appeared on Recode.net.
