Elon Musk was ‘upset’ over the depiction of tech parties in HBO comedy series

Elon Musk wasn’t a big fan of HBO’s satire of tech bros. The actor Kumail Nanjiani recently opened up about his time making “Silicon Valley,” the hit comedy series that parodied the people who worked in the world’s richest tech companies. Nanjiani revealed that he met Musk, who had some sharp words for the show’s depiction of Silicon Valley parties.

Nanjiani was featured on the Mike Birbiglia podcast “Working it Out,” sharing some of the details of his work in the series, including his encounters with some of the richest men in the world. 

He shared that when he first met Musk, Musk had some issues with the show’s opening scene, which shows Kid Rock performing at a tech party with “seven nerdy dudes standing there, and nobody’s paying attention.” 

“Elon was upset,” Nanjiani said. “He was like, ‘Well, the parties I go to are much cooler than these parties.’” 

“It was like, ‘Yeah, man. You’re one of the richest people in the world. We’re like losers on the show. Of course, your parties are better than my parties. What are you talking about?’,” said Nanjiani.

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“He didn’t like the show.” 

In a 2014 article published by Vox, the outlet reported that Musk attended the series’ premiere, sharing how upset he was by the show’s depiction of Silicon Valley. He had some criticism for Mike Judge, the creator of the series. 

“I really feel like Mike Judge has never been to Burning Man, which is Silicon Valley,” said Musk. “If you haven’t been, you just don’t get it. You could take the craziest L.A. party and multiply it by a thousand, and it doesn’t even get f**king close to what’s in Silicon Valley. The show didn’t have any of that.”

Meeting Mark Zuckerberg was also pretty awkward

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Back in the podcast, Nanjiani revealed that he also met Mark Zuckerberg, which resulted in another awkward experience. Nanjiani and his co-star Martin Starr presented an award at the Breakthrough Awards, founded by Zuckerberg, and decided to change their presentation speech late in the process, recalling a sex joke from the first season of the series. 

The pair adapted the joke for their audience and shared it, completely bombing it and making Zuckerberg unhappy. “He was like, ‘What the f— was that?’ ” said Nanjiani. “And truly in that moment he was right.”  

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