DOES NOT COMPUTE矽谷笑傳

In its fourth season, Silicon Valley is still too real for the tech world. By KEVIN MA

《Silicon Valley》進入第四季，對科技界的描寫依然入木三分。撰文：馬樂民

IN 1999, MIKE Judge – best known for animated series Beavis and Butt-Head and King of the Hill – made his live-action film debut with Office Space. A low-budget satire of cubicle office culture, the comedy was initially a commercial failure. But the film had its fan base, people who recognised the genius of its eminently quotable script and observations about the inanity of white-collar life. As its popularity grew, it became a cult classic.

In 2014, Judge announced that he was tackling the startup culture of Silicon Valley with a new comedy series. He worked in a small tech startup for three months in the late 1980s and used the experience as inspiration for the show, which is still going strong after four seasons.

At the beginning of season four – spoiler alert for those who haven’t seen the previous episodes – Richard has been forced out of Pied Piper, the tech startup he founded, and sets about devising a new, ambitious plan for his algorithm, putting him in the path of nemesis and tech mogul Gavin Belson.

While the show is fuelled by crude humour, Silicon Valley’s writing team pride themselves on being accurate in their brutal takedown of the tech hub’s brand of hipster capitalism and cringeworthy opportunistic culture. Judge’s writers consulted a group of 200 that included academics, entrepreneurs, tech firm employees and even former Twitter chief executive Dick Costolo. The show’s razor-sharp satire of the startup world is so spot-on that some entrepreneurs find it too real for them to watch, even though it counts tech giants such as Bill Gates among its fans.

Like Office Space, many of the jokes are as much about work culture as the tech world. You don’t need to know how to code to appreciate Silicon Valley – you just need to have had a bad day at the office. 以動畫劇集《Beavis and Butt-Head》及《King of the Hill》而為人熟悉的 Mike Judge，於1999 年首次自編自導由真人演出的電影《上班一條蟲》。這部以低成本製作的喜劇對辦公室文化大加嘲諷，可是上映時票房卻慘敗。雖然如此，電影對白領生涯的荒誕觀察入微，加上一針見血的精警對白，亦吸引了一群知音人，對編導的才華深表欣賞，多年來受歡迎程度有增無減，令它成為一部經典的小眾cult 片。

到了2014 年， Judge 宣佈推出全新的喜劇劇集，以矽谷的初創企業文化為主題。1980年代末，他曾在一家小型的科技初創公司工作三個月，從工作經驗獲得靈感，變成劇集的題材，而且這份靈感仍未見枯竭；劇集至今已來到第四季，依然充滿令人爆笑的劇情。

第四季開始時（以前未看過劇集的讀者注意，下文內含劇透），創辦人 Richard被逼離開一手建立的公司Pied Piper 後，決定為自己的運算式訂下了野心勃勃的全新計劃，但此舉卻招惹了他的死對頭兼科技大亨 Gavin Belson。

雖然《Silicon Valley》裡面的幽默頗為粗鄙，但劇中對矽谷這個科技重鎮催生的文化，例如潮人滿口造福人群、骨子裡卻不外想賺一大筆的虛偽；以及對見風使舵到令人汗顏的機會主義等大加撻伐，可謂正中要害。劇集除了由 Judge 統率的編劇團隊之外，還有一個由200人組成的顧問團在背後作支援。顧問團的成員括學者、企業家、科技公司員工甚至 Twitter 前任行政總裁 Dick Costolo。由於劇集對初創企業界內的光怪陸離現象有準確的描寫，加上諷刺尖銳，不少著名企業家亦是本劇的粉絲，其中一位是Bill Gates。

跟《上班一條蟲》一樣，裡面許多笑料其實是普遍針對整個上班族的文化，並非科技界獨有的現象。因此，即使你不懂得如何編寫程式，只要你在辦公室度過充滿辛酸的一天，《Silicon Valley》定能令你會心微笑和開懷大笑。