This Year It’s Chelsea Peretti’s Turn To Upset Silicon Valley
Chelsea Peretti RAM’s Silicon Valley Crunchies
The annual TechCrunch Crunchie awards happened in Silicon Valley. Last year’s host, T.J. Miller’s overall disdain and gregarious use of the word Bitch might have played into the decision to bring in female comedian Chelsea Peretti. Or maybe because her brother founded BuzzFeed, they expected a tad more sympathy from her. Peretti may be related to a rich web industry guy, but she is also engaged to Jordan Peele, a not totally white comedian. The jabs were relentless from “my buddy T.J. MIller told me you bitches couldn’t take a joke. I’m kidding. I hate all white men… Sorry, everybody here” and “I was asked to speak about diversity at the event tonight, here’s a kooky idea, hire a non-white host” (via The Verge).
Anytime a room full of socially awkward techies get together it might be uncomfortable. Corporate gigs are always weird. Forced niceties at the tables, egos trying to figure out the pecking order. Peretti helped establish pecking order by asking “so who has the biggest net worth” and because rich white guys never disappoint, someone declared that HE was the richest white guy in the room by pointing at himself, with both hands. God I hope that was the janitor being funny, otherwise the richest guy in Silicon Valley has no idea how to behave in a crowd.
Hiring comedians to host awards shows for companies is old. It has been happening for decades. The new trend of recording the events and then releasing them to the public is fairly new, and completely egotistical on the part of the company. Peretti hit this sentiment perfectly when she said “The crunchies are like the Oscars, all the glitz and glamour without the added pressure of public opinion”
Peretti did her job, got a big check and went about her day. Exactly the way a comedian should. Now who do we talk to about corporate gigs suddenly becoming internet fodder. Seriously. What happens at corporate gigs, should stay at corporate gigs, for everyone’s sake.
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