Patti Harrison Had Dreams of a Tech Utopia. Silicon Valley Smashed Them
Comedian Patti Harrison discusses her experience being featured on the cover of Wired magazine as a 'Wired Woman.' The interview explores her absurdist approach to comedy and her perspective on the male-dominated culture of Silicon Valley.
Why it matters
It highlights the intersection of pop culture, gender identity, and the critique of tech industry leadership.
It’s that quality in Harrison’s work that WIRED borrowed for our own rather unhinged cover concept. Harrison plays five (well, actually six) of the current masters of the universe—Elon Musk, Sam Altman, Dario Amodei, Mark Zuckerberg, and Jeff Bezos (with Lauren Sánchez Bezos by his side). Combining her farcical sensibilities with our commentary on the man-heavy leadership of Silicon Valley worked perfectly—and she was happy to lampoon the people behind the platforms she used to enjoy. (RIP Harrison’s Twitter account.) We caught up with Harrison in London, where she had just finished a sold-out run of her show, Just Ironing Some Things Out!, and a week of performances at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
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