Were Those 'Silicon Valley' Snapchat Jokes Real?

It had to happen sooner or later — at the end of a tech star-studded Season 2 premiere, Silicon Valley played up some real world inspiration at Peter Gregory's memorial. The HBO comedy's references to real life tech companies are few, far between, and always carefully placed. And Sunday night's Silicon Valleypremiere that featured Evan Spiegal, Snapchat CEO, along with fellow guest stars the Winklevoss twins was no exception. In the final moments of the premiere, which featured Spiegal as himself, the series poked fun at Snapchat's 2013 photo hack. So, yes, Peter Gregory and his somewhat real-life counterpart, Peter Thiel, were very disappointed in Snapchat.

The running joke during Gregory's memorial service during Sunday night's Season 2 premiere was that, if there were one thing the investing genius would say if he were still around, it'd be about Snapchat. And it would definitely be about how he was "disappointed" in the company. (Even though Spiegal assured everyone that Gregory was very pleased with company.) But, considering the fact that Gregory is a character and Snapchat is a real company, is there really a link between them? I mean, it's not like the series ever mentioned Gregory and Snapchat together before. Well, before Silicon Valley star Christopher Evan Welch passed away from lung cancer midway through filming Season 1, Peter Gregory was determined to be loosely based on Peter Thiel, PayPal co-founder and Facebook investor. But what does that have to do with Spiegal's Snapchat jokes in the Season 2 premiere?

Thiel commented on Snapchat's photo hack back in 2013, saying that, "It’s especially problematic for a company like Snapchat, where the brand is privacy. People are worried about privacy, and its one of the reasons people are using a service like Snapchat. So, when something like this happens, it is especially bad.” That sounds a little bit like disappointment to me, which would make Sunday's jokes accurate if Welch had really taken inspiration from soft-spoken Thiel to create Gregory.

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