They say that impersonation is the highest form of flattery. And while Mark Zuckerberg may be having a hard time dealing with the "sins of his past" exposed in the widely-popular film "The Social Network" – he should take solace in the fact that you know you’ve made it in life when you are satirized on Saturday Night Live. Zuckerberg has successfully gone from geek to pop-culture iconoclast.
In not one, but two sketches, Zuckerberg is taken to task. The first is a fake commercial regarding finding a way to filter out private data from the eyes of one’s Mom. And the second is a "Weekend Update" segment where Andy Samberg impersonates Zuckerberg and is interviewed by Seth Meyers.
Perhaps looking more like Zuckerberg than Jesse Eisenberg’s portrayal in the movie, Samberg does an excellent job in skewering the CEO regarding his recent $100 million dollar donation to the Newark School district in New Jersey, and admitting that "poking" is the one feature of his network he regrets because it’s "creepy and lame."
Samberg’s Zuckerberg analogy of equating Facebook to the invention of the wheel is also satirized in the soon-to-be-released graphic novel, "Facebucks & Dumb F*cks," which also lampoons the theme of betrayal that is associated with the founder’s early years at Harvard.
Page from “Facebucks & Dumb F*cks”
While Zuckerberg is probably not aware of the book because its release date isn’t until early November, he did share the SNL video sketch on Facebook- showing that he can take a joke. With SNL added to his TV resume, the Facebook founder was also included in a guest spot on "The Simpsons" – which is also satirized in the graphic novel.
Page from “Facebucks & D*mb Fucks”
The episode called "Loan-A-Lisa" tells the story of grampa deciding to give the family their inheritance early which allows Lisa to invest her $50 in Nelson’s bike shop with a micro loan. Lisa then takes Nelson to an entrepreneur expo to meet super successful folks like Mark Zuckerberg.
Zuckerberg now officially a billionaire and ranking #35 on the Forbes 400 list of most wealthy in the world admits that he dropped out of Harvard to focus on Facebook. His repartee with Nelson underscores this point.
"Better earnin’ than learnin’," Nelson exclaims.
"Hell yeah!" Zuckerberg says. "I’ll get the best kind of degree: honorary, baby!"
When Lisa objects, saying Zuckerberg must be an exception, Zuckerberg compares himself to fellow dropouts Bill Gates and Richard Branson.
So with two parodies under his belt on two of TV’s most popular shows, Zuckerberg’s persona has been firmly planted in the world’s pop-culture zeitgeist. Perhaps in the very foreseeable future, in another effort to counter some of Zuckerberg’s negative baggage, Lorne Michaels will ask him to appear on SNL so he can show the world if he has any "acting chops." He wouldn’t have to pay him much – perhaps a hover-board or two would do it!
Facebucks & Dumb F*cks is currently available at Apple iBookstore for $4.99 for iPads and iPhones and at Barnes and Noble online store for Nooks. Fans are also following the book on Twitter and Facebook.
Facebucks & Dumb F*cks graphic novel
