The empty suits in San Francisco got what they deserved at a corporate event Sept. 19 when comedian John Mulaney went guns blazing on the very people who invited him to be there.
The Dreamforce 2024 conference, hosted by Salesforce, is apparently the place to be if you have convinced yourself that the world revolves around Silicon Valley and Artificial Intelligence, which, in my humble opinion, is a giant bubble on the verge of bursting. During his set, Mulaney spared no sacred goats, poking fun at A.I., consultant-esque buzzwords and tech utopians who think the future will be better off with their “products,” according to The San Francisco Standard. (RELATED: John Mulaney Confirms He Married Olivia Munn Amid Her Battle Against Cancer)
“You know in your goddamn bones that a bunch of you are working on products that are just OK, but you have to vamp and make up terms to make it sound more awesome than it is,” Mulaney reportedly told an audience member.
The comedian also went after all the fake corporate jobs that sprang up out of nowhere post-COVID-19, such as “VP of customer success.”
HOLLYWOOD, CALIFORNIA – MARCH 10: John Mulaney and Olivia Munn attend the 96th Annual Academy Awards on March 10, 2024 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by JC Olivera/Getty Images)
“You’re a VP of customer success?” he asked another attendee. “Congratulations on your position that did not exist five years ago!”
“You look like a group who looked at the self-checkout counters at CVS and thought, ‘This is the future,’” Mulaney quipped at one point.
“If AI is truly smarter than us and tells us that [humans] should die, then I think we should die,” he said. “So many of you feel imminently replaceable.”
“Can AI sit there in a fleece vest? Can AI not go to events and spend all day at a bar?” he added.
I salute John Mulaney for having the moxie to take a shot at the drones who were hosting him. He could’ve taken his set in so many directions. He could’ve spent half of the time mocking Trump. He simply could have regurgitated liberal platitudes while dishing up room temperature jokes about the crazy election year. Instead, he went for Silicon Valley’s jugular in the heart of Silicon Valley itself.
Electric stuff.
