Apparently The Guys From "Silicon Valley" Told The Hand Job Algorithm Joke To A Crowd Of NASA Scientists And It Bombed

Vulture- Remember the infamous Silicon Valley joke about hand-job math from the first season? So do Silicon Valley stars Kumail Nanjiani and Martin Starr! They stepped onstage at the Breakthrough Prize awards ceremony Sunday night at the NASA Ames Research Center, where they were presenting one of the awards for scientific breakthroughs in front of an esteemed group of physicists, scientists, mathematicians, and Mark Zuckerberg. “You guys are mapping the world around us and the world inside us, solving mysteries that have plagued us since the dawn of consciousness,” said Nanjiani. “Our biggest accomplishment is a joke about how fast we could masturbate every guy in an auditorium.” “And we didn’t even write that,” Starr continued. “They didn’t even use our improvs when we edited it. So we thought maybe we could join the ranks of accomplished people and maybe bring that joke to life here tonight. A complete two seconds of hesitant silence later, the audience — full of Nobel laureates, Emmy and Grammy award-winners, and NASA scientists — evidently unfamiliar with the complexities of jerking someone off, Nanjiani and Starr ended the bit. 

Classic mistake of, “You gotta know your audience. Know the room.” I wish there was video of the joke falling completely flat in front of some of the world’s smartest people. It takes balls (pun) to tell that joke to that room.  The tip-to-tip scene from season 1 of Silicon Valley is one of the hardest times I’ve ever laughed. Easily the best joke of 2014. It came outta nowhere and was perfect. It was like a joke with your buddies that you take way way way too far and by the end everybody is in tears laughing because of the ridiculousness of it.  It was awesome. I’d venture to call it the greatest dick joke of all time. But here’s why you don’t tell it to a bunch of NASA scientists: I’m a normal guy with a normal sense of humor who can appreciate a good masturbation joke. Of course I’m gonna find it hilarious.  Dick jokes are hilarious to me and always will be.  Part of the comedy of that scene comes from wondering if what they’re saying is true and if Erlich possibly could jerk off every single dude in that room. NASA scientists? A bunch of stuffy nerds in lab coats? They probably instantly did the math in their heads, were like, “Nope, not possible. Not funny” and moved on. Leaving Kumail Nanjiani and Martin Starr to squirm on stage and high tail it outta there. Tough crowd to please. Middle out.