美劇《硅谷》第三季爆笑回歸

Silicon Valley, the heart of the American techindustry, has provided Hollywood with endlessinspiration for movies and TV shows. Most of theseofferings delve into the pathos of its most famousentrepreneurs. In the past three years alone, Applevisionary Steve Jobs has been the subject of twomovies and one feature-length documentary, andFacebook founder Mark Zuckerberg was likewiseprofiled in the 2010 biopic The Social Network.

美國(guó)科技產(chǎn)業(yè)的心臟——硅谷為好萊塢電影和電視劇提供了源源不絕的靈感。此類題材的作品大多描述的是著名企業(yè)家的艱辛的創(chuàng)業(yè)故事。僅在過去三年中，蘋果公司的夢(mèng)想家斯蒂夫•喬布斯就兩次被搬上電影銀幕，此外還有一部關(guān)于他的長(zhǎng)篇紀(jì)錄片問世，臉書創(chuàng)始人馬克•扎克伯格的故事也被拍成傳記電影《社交網(wǎng)絡(luò)》。

Yet few shows have been willing to embrace the Valley’s quirky side. The HBO comedyseries Silicon Valley happens to take this unusual approach. The show is about a geekyprogrammer named Richard Hendricks (Thomas Middleditch), who rockets to superstardomafter he creates a revolutionary data compression algorithm.

不過鮮少有劇愿意觸碰硅谷奇葩的一面。美國(guó)有線電視網(wǎng)絡(luò)公司HBO的喜劇劇集《硅谷》碰巧走上了這條不尋常的路。該劇講述了極客程序員理查德•亨德里克斯 (托馬斯•米德迪奇飾)在發(fā)明了一套革命性的文件壓縮算法后名聲大噪的故事。

Ever since the show debuted two years ago, Silicon Valley has been known for lampooning techculture in US. However, its third season, which was kicked off on April 24, takes the series’comic absurdity to a new level.

自兩年前首播后，《硅谷》就因?yàn)橹S刺了硅谷的科技文化而聞名。現(xiàn)在該劇的第三季已于4月24日開播，這一季荒謬爆笑的程度比之前更上一層樓。

The new season starts with a dramatic scene: Hendricks, founder of the startup Pied Piper,gets fired as a CEO. “You have created a company that is too valuable for you to run: Youshould feel good about that,” his investor, Laurie Bream, tells him.

第三季開篇就是這樣一個(gè)戲劇性的場(chǎng)面：亨德里克斯是初創(chuàng)公司Pied Piper的創(chuàng)始人，但作為首席執(zhí)行官的他卻被解雇了。投資人勞瑞•布里姆告訴他：“你創(chuàng)造了一個(gè)很有價(jià)值的公司，它珍貴到容不得被你糟蹋：你應(yīng)該為此感到欣慰。”

Ludicrous as it seems, this scenario rings true in the tech industry. Celebrated techentrepreneurs like Jobs, PayPal’s Elon Musk and Twitter’s Jack Dorsey have all experiencedbeing pushed out of their own company.

這聽起來(lái)很可笑，但在科技行業(yè)這種情節(jié)可是真實(shí)發(fā)生過的。著名的科技界企業(yè)家，比如喬布斯、貝寶公司的伊隆•馬克斯和推特的杰克•多西都曾被自己的公司趕出去過。

The show’s creator, Mike Judge, was himself a former programmer in Silicon Valley. He revealedwhat inspires the whip-smart satire from the show in an interview with The Guardian. “Ifyou’re in Wall Street, you’re kind of unashamed about how much money you’re making,” Judgesaid. “But in the tech world, it’s not enough to be making money – you’ve also got to be savingthe world.” That mentality inspires a running joke in season three. The series’ fictionalentrepreneurs start using the catchphrase “Making the world a better place” to justify all theirideas, however bad.

該劇制片人邁克•詹郅之前也在硅谷當(dāng)過碼農(nóng)。他在《衛(wèi)報(bào)》的采訪中透露了劇中機(jī)智吐槽的靈感來(lái)源。他說：“如果你在華爾街工作，你會(huì)覺得賺再多錢都問心無(wú)愧。但是在科技界，賺錢是遠(yuǎn)遠(yuǎn)不夠的，你肩負(fù)著拯救世界的使命。”第三季中的一個(gè)段子就來(lái)源于此想法。劇中虛構(gòu)的企業(yè)家開始使用“讓世界變得更美好”的口號(hào)為自己所有的想法辯護(hù)，哪怕是壞的想法。

The stinging satire of Silicon Valley is the perfect medium to capture today’s tech culture. Arising number of college students are choosing to major in computer science. Around graduationseason, many of them flock to California to launch their startups so that they won’t miss thenew high-tech gold rush.

《硅谷》中的辛辣諷刺是了解當(dāng)下科技文化的絕佳途徑。越來(lái)越多的大學(xué)生選擇主修計(jì)算機(jī)專業(yè)。畢業(yè)季時(shí)，很多計(jì)算機(jī)專業(yè)的學(xué)生涌入加州創(chuàng)業(yè)，似乎只有這樣他們才不會(huì)錯(cuò)過新一波高科技淘金熱。

“If you’re making a show about twenty-somethings, someone’s got to work at a startup becausethat’s what’s going on in the culture,” US writer and TV producer Evan Endicott told TheAtlantic.

美國(guó)作家、電視制片人埃文•恩迪科特告訴《大西洋月刊》：“如果你拍一部講訴20多歲年輕人的電視劇，那就必須加入創(chuàng)業(yè)元素，因?yàn)檫@才符合當(dāng)下的最新潮流。”