John Mulaney slams San Francisco and taunts tech 'trailblazers' during Dreamforce closing night comedy set
Kevin Mazur
- John Mulaney roasted tech bros and AI-obsessives at Dreamforce in San Francisco.
- Dreamforce is an annual Salesforce event, and last year Seth Meyers pilloried the crowd.
- San Francisco, struggling post-pandemic, secured Dreamforce for three more years.
Comedian John Mulaney laid into tech bros and AI-obsessives during his closing night set at the annual Dreamforce conference in San Francisco this week.
The stand-up pulled no punches as he skewered the roughly 45,000 attendees. The three-day Salesforce event is an annual conference that markets itself as the "largest AI event in the world." This year's programming featured several industry icons as speakers, including Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and Salesforce cofounder Marc Benioff.
Last year, Seth Meyers roasted attendees, and this year Mulaney took the baton.
The comedian delivered a 45-minute set in which he mocked everything from the city of San Francisco to the conference attendees themselves, The San Francisco Standard reported.
The comedian pondered why a city that had "failed humanity so miserably" was chosen to host a conference focused on the future of AI, according to the outlet.
The city has struggled to bounce back following the pandemic. Office vacancies in San Francisco last year were among the highest of any major US urban center following a wave of tech downsizing.
On Thursday, Dreamforce committed to keeping the conference in San Francisco for at least three more years — a major win for the city.
Mulaney's razzing went beyond the city; he saved plenty of material for the techie crowd, poking fun at their convoluted job titles, professional dress norms, and replaceability, according to The Standard.
"Can AI sit there in a fleece vest?" Mulaney asked the crowd. "Can AI not go to events and spend all day at a bar?"
The comedian continuously worked the crowd throughout the set, suggesting that several audience members are working on projects at work that are "just OK" but spend their days trying to make them sound "more awesome" than they are," The Standard reported.
"You're a VP of customer success?" he asked one person, according to the outlet. "Congratulations on your position that did not exist five years ago!"
Mulaney also highlighted the stereotypically vague language commonly heard in conversations between top-level techies.
"The fact that there are 45,000 'trailblazers' here couldn't devalue the title anymore," he said, per the outlet.
Following his Dreamforce appearance, Mulaney also played a one-night-only performance at San Francisco's Golden Gate Theatre, where he had some additional teasing for the city by the bay.
"San Francisco, you've always been bad at being a city, and you're fine with it," Mulaney said, according to SFGate.
The comedian has been back onstage in recent years following a stint in rehab in 2020.