Zuck’s tour of the Red Menace just became zanier: after meeting with Russia’s Prime Minister and giving him a T-shirt emblazoned with his Facebook URL, the IPO baller sat down with Russia’s Jimmy Fallon. It’s kind of hard to watch!
Seeing Mark Zuckerberg strut out onstage to a late night talk show band intro song is just as strange as it sounds. He is bewildered. Wait a minute, this isn’t TechCrunch Disrupt. But at least he brought a Facebook t-shirt as a gift! International fraternity at its best. Talking with the show’s voluble host, Ivan Urgant, via earpiece interpreter doesn’t make things any more smooth, although having a loud Russian woman speak over him every time he delivers an answer makes this mostly incoherent Zuck interview somehow the most interesting and worthwhile we’ve ever seen.
Some tidbits?
- He ate at McDonalds.
- He likes Russia.
- He’s building technology.
- Watch until 7:03, when Putin storms the stage in a Soviet mecha-suit to seize control of Facebook
- Mark had to wear a jacket and tie every day at boarding school!
- The broadcast carried a 16+ viewer rating (???)
Everything Zuck says is followed by polite Russian applause. Everything the host says is followed by raucous Russian laughter and cheering. Mark then joins Ivan at his desk and the two proceed to fill out the host’s Facebook profile together, while the crowd continues to hoot.
In the US, the show would have been cancelled by now. The producers might have been better off Googling “mark zuckerberg interview” before booking him, or perhaps noting the fact that Russia’s number one social network is a complete and total ripoff of Facebook, but overall the dude is a great sport, and I promise you’ve never seen him in a stranger context. They finish by looking at picture of Zuck’s dog, he smiles farewell, and the host gives an “A-OK” hand symbol. Allllright. [via TechCrunch]