Portlandia (new comedy series on IFC)

Featuring Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein

Friday nights at 10:30e on IFC, starting Jan. 21

http://www.ifc.com/portlandia/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BIyI94acJv4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVmq9dq6Nsg&feature=channel

they have been advertising the fuck out of this. was sorta not interested but the bit about "I don't like it to be taken for granted that a man doesn't menstruate" lol. mostly cuz northwest gender politics are very lol

i lol'd: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7VgNQbZdaw

http://www.istockphoto.com/file_thumbview_approve/3261629/2/istockphoto_3261629_fish_in_a_barrel.jpg

i enjoyed it and i live here

ep 1 is up:

http://www.hulu.com/watch/206160/portlandia-farm

wait how is "i feel it all around" the theme song

because of indie

buscemi!

laugh count: 3

seems to be at it funniest when it's not straining to mock hipsterism and veers into absurdity. sudeikis was the best. kind of dire overall! buscemi was good too but that was the worst segment, ugh.

I read "Portlandia" and like usual, I'm pretty bummed out that it's Oregon, not Maine. MAINE NEEDS A TV SHOW!

Fred armisen lookin mad old

I get a Hyundai hipster couple vibe from the previews. Feel like I would hate this despite liking both actors

I was born in Portland and have lived here (with minimal interruptions) for 56 years. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't recognize my home town in this show. But, I'm old, you know, so it's probably not improtant.

aw aimless I wasnt tryina make an old guy dig, more like ae Fred armisen thinks he can be 25 forever joek

no umbrage taken

I thought this was surprisingly funny.

agreed!

I haven't watched the ep yet, but i did watch the "Have Ya Read" sketch, which I thought was great once it hit its absurdist climax.

cant tell if i should hate this b/c its about 'hipsters' or like it cuase its making fun of 'hipsters' or maybe hate it b/c it assumes that there is an audience large enuf to support a show devoted to making fun of 'hipsters'?????

r u serious i cant tell

max stop thinking and just laff, way better approach imho

kinda hope carrie brownstein has second career as SNL cast member tbh

r u serious i cant tell

― David Warner (Princess TamTam), Friday, January 21, 2011 1:57 PM (41 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

i cant either

something just rubs me the wrong way--the jokes are spot-on and i do laff but theres something that rankles me about the whole like... "were all in the joke"

i guess what im saying is that for someone to be effectively comedy-owned they need to not get the joke

max u are making up fake comedy rules

don't tell lex

I think the real problem is brownstein + armisen are gently ribbing instead of savagely satirizing because they actually have deep seated fondness for hipsters

like "it's okay to laugh at ourselves!" gee thanks

yeah edward otm - this is affectionate self-parody

(not that ive seen it or anything)

i think this sort of self-clowning is totallu viable as comedy, not everything needs to be a takedown. i think it works here. i also have never seen it.

otm, i get a lot more mileage out of self-clowning than vicious "beatdowns"

you might be on the wrong message board then

http://campusprogress.org/articles/portlandia_edges_into_stuff_white_people_like_territory/

Works best before it gets to the over the top climax of each skit.

^^^ SNL, in a nutshell

but i did watch the "Have Ya Read" sketch, which I thought was great once it hit its absurdist climax.

opposite for me, i was dying and it gets all wacky and punchline-y, whatever.

I think the real problem is brownstein + armisen are gently ribbing instead of savagely satirizing because they actually have deep seated fondness for hipsters

the best satire is often insidery and affectionate to some degree. like repo man works because cox was familiar with and fond of punk(s). people making fun of supposed "hipsters" = automatically boring. self-admitted hipsters mocking themselves = at least potentially funny.

tbh I wasn't really passing judgment on portlandia, just trying to help max work through his issues

hipsterism is overdue for some OTM savagery tho

the best satire is often insidery and affectionate to some degree. like repo man works because cox was familiar with and fond of punk(s). people making fun of supposed "hipsters" = automatically boring. self-admitted hipsters mocking themselves = at least potentially funny.

― normal_fantasy-unicorns (contenderizer), Friday, January 21, 2011 3:29 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark

not true, mocking ppl who are different from u is actually the funniest thing

doesn't have to be either/or

fey as sarah palin / poehler as clinton SNL skit is a good case study

this looks hilar

its not tho

Yeah, I don't like it.

the hulu full ep is expired so i cant tell either way, i like the clip where he comes back to l.a. all excited abt portland tho

all i've seen is the "did you read" thing but that was way better than i thought it'd be. i also live here.

the oregonian had a front-page story about this btw, complete w/ quotes from people worried it would "draw more unemployed young people" to the city.

haha

i just saw a banner ad for this on pitchfork and physically recoiled

As a lifelong portlander I am pretty icked out by this whole thing. I dunno, maybe if I can summon the nerve to actually watch it I might have something to say other than "eww, really?"

Also a ton of ppl I know are very, like, proud (?) of this show representing the city/them and that sorta grosses me out too, maybe. Though they prob just like the "attention".

portland in liking attention shocker

yeah I've never quite got what that's all about. burg has a Napoleon-complex.

i mean i'm really happy here, but once i was walking down burnside and there were all these flyers taped to the side of the crystal ballroom that said in block letters PORTLAND IS COOLER THAN BROOKLYN and like, if you have to say it...

lol so perfect

heard npr feature on this and immediately don't want to watch it because i can't stand carrie b and her annoying affected voice (she drives me insane every time she's on all songs considered)... but the concept seems really funny to me and i feel like watching it because i miss the pnw. totally torn.

i think every city in this country has a weird napoleon complex about something except for, well, new york city.

i thought the bit about the chicken in the first ep was funny

xp -- does carrie b have an affected voice? i can't stand her on all songs considered either but that's just because she has The Most Boring Opinions Ever. (much <3 2 s-k and my girl corin though)

(n.b. have only heard carrie brownstein on all songs considered twice)

i think every city in this country has a weird napoleon complex about something except for, well, new york city.

don't discount canadian cities, they also have this complex! maybe even WORSE! i feel by even typing that i'm ughhhhhh

thought that 1st episode was funny enough, but this LOL HIPSTER shit is wearing very thin. guess this could be slightly more interesting as a "insiders' perspective" or whatever. at least that puts them in a position to make something more than LOL FIXED GEAR BIKES, OBSCURE MUSIC.

I don't have IFC, but they shd def have a scene in the Portland Eagle, both the funniest and 'nicest' Eagle of the ones in which I've actually seen leather and flogging.

guess the first episode was funny enough, but I'm having a hard time imagining that this premise is sustainable.

someone upthread said the worst sketch was the buscemi one but that was the one that made me really laugh (not so much for buscemi) and think about watching this for more than one episode. sleater-kinney girl is not really any good at comedy, though.

ilx search: hipster > this show could run for 20 seasons

white effete counterculture liberals making fun of themselves without turning it into a hilaaaaarious ironic rap song for once is okay by me, at least on a conceptual level. Bored To Death is doing it well, The Goode Family did it poorly, this is probably somewhere in between.

most otm Portland-based contemporary food culture humor since Achewood

don't discount canadian cities, they also have this complex! maybe even WORSE! i feel by even typing that i'm ughhhhhh

― Postmodern Bourbon Development (Will M.), Saturday, January 22, 2011 5:40 AM (5 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

haha canada just i dont even know

most otm Portland-based contemporary food culture humor since Achewood

― smang the DJ (I DIED), Saturday, January 22, 2011 10:39 AM (59 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

lol

put a bird on it is cute but damned if i could actually watch 30 straight mins of this

yeah i watched this and it was pretty funny, shipley otm when he says "at least theres no rapping." theyre def shooting fish in a barrel but theyve got pretty good aim. laughed the hardest at the old woman in the hide and seek sketch

Watching this primarily for Carrie but the rest is good too

is the full episode up anywhere else? seems like it was pulled from hulu. the 'I read it' sketch is pretty funny.

if you google around you can find it on megavideo

i thought it was pretty funny!

this sorta seems like what stuffwhitepeoplelike should have attempted to do

it made me really nostalgic!
i miss seattle. some of the portland funny, but a lot cleaner/less hipster?

the idea of portland alt culture as a 1990s legacy counterfactual is p lol

loved the nod to clowning in the opening btw

i thought the hide and seek league was funny.

are portland hipsters more socially/enviromentally conscious than brooklyn hipsters? serious question.

theyve just got to be

ime new yorkers who think they are green are at like 33% of pnw-er environmental consciousness, but i'm not sure how that breaks down with hipsters specifically.

honestly i think the platonic portland stereotype is really more a hippie thing. i mean there are keffiyehs and coke but that's not really what you make fun of when you make fun of portland.

http://grab.by/8wGV

you can just see brows furrowing and tension rising on the way east.

Yet another solid indicator of Oregon's high unemployment rate.

any explaination for the ohio/michigan price dip?

dorm room plants

I've already met a few Portlanders that were actually offended by this show. Of course, these guys are living, breathing Miranda July characters who spend their weekends creating hand-made board games and won't eat anything that comes out of a plastic bag. So mission accomplished, I guess.

I mean they acted like Sarah Palin wrote that first episode or something.

beatniks

humorless people not liking being made fun of shocker

the piece i heard yesterday on npr in which carrie b describes a pet shop who will sell her animal carcasses for her dog to chew on, but is outraged at the thought of carrying leather leashes.

thanks for that link

Watching this primarily for Carrie but the rest is good too so much whatevers

― calstars, Saturday, January 22, 2011 9:25 AM Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

the dream of the 90s is alive in portland been stuck in my head, dece song

mine too!

hah

It is a fucking catchy song.

the piece i heard yesterday on npr in which carrie b describes a pet shop who will sell her animal carcasses for her dog to chew on, but is outraged at the thought of carrying leather leashes.

― tehresa, Saturday, January 22, 2011 11:39 AM (Yesterday)

I think I know the place she is talking about. It's in the Buckman neighborhood. I've never been there but that sounds like what I've read about the place.

When those 20 year olds retire and have kids, they all wind up going to Buckman Elementary.

I guess episode 2 isn't online anywhere?

Waiting for the skit on juggalo drama on MAX

really enjoyed this! the whole chicken farmer thing went on a bit too long and the payoff was v predictable but it had good things in it too.

from the opening lol

http://grab.by/8xKS

haha i immediately thought of the ilx thread when i saw that!

Watched the first episode of this last night...my word it was terrible.

this was meh - not bad but not great either.

also Fred Armisen is like the ugliest motherfucker in the world. shudder to think of his hideous couplings with Peggy Olsen

trenchmouth was such a great band, fred rules as a drummer

anyway the skit about how local the chicken was was pretty funny IMO, i've gotten a pretty similar jive talk from waitresses at places in mpls

The aggressive marketing and co-promotions on Facebook are pretty gross.

the "put on a bird on it" thing kinda cracked me up

i watched my first ever ep of parks and recreation last night and didn't laugh once

immediately watched this and was in STITCHES.

agreed that buscemi sketch was the worst part but my god. the rest was just brilliant. so many of the lols weren't "in the script" so to speak - it wasn't all about clever-clever quips (like p&r) it was about armisen and brownstein just nailing certain attitudes and ways of speaking

the gadget overload scene was PERFECT.

aubrey plaza! kyle machlachlan!

2nd episode not as good as the first, i thought. but i still cracked up at a lot of stuff. i will never not love kyle maclachlan

cacao

I never want to see Carrie with a mustache again.

that voice was so creepy!

skit was next level imho

Dog sketch slayed me. Really feels like we're just listening in on the private jokes of a couple. I wish they didn't push so hard for the punchline and just let the characters play out.

"We're not like hippies at all, we like to think of ourselves as being more alternative."

haha, the sketch with buscemi and the hide and seek league one totally won me over

when you point your finger all i see is a penis

i love that character

put that down, please

put a bird on it hilarious, although punchline was kind of lame
fixed gear messenger dude was hilarious
dog sketch was good, but again the punchline was lame and totally unnecessary
bookstore sketch was better than the first ep
and Kyle M was of course amazing

saw episode one today. it taught me two things i never would have thought possible: first, former sleater-kinney guitarist Carrie Brownstein can be funny; second, current snl cast member fred armisen can be funny.

when you point your finger all i see is a penis

^^^best line of the show so far. "cacao" close second.

fixed gear messenger dude was hilarious

yeah I did lol at this. "Cars, WHY?"

thought the fixed gear messenger gag was pretty boring and predictable, but maybe i'm just ~sensitive~

youre too close man, too close to the epicenter

eh i tried

Fixed gear guy not as OTM as Tyres in Spaced

mayors assistant in the machlachlan bit was the irl pdx mayor btw

ha!

fr real

im starting to really love fred armisten

'whole foods is corporate!' still has me lolling.

yeah, shakey mentioned above, but "cars, why?" was laughs

i liked him squeezing past the dumpster 'isn't there somewhere better you could be?' (or something)

crack up so hard & armistens parts of the song ideas back and forth ~ like where hes clipping his toenails

finally saw this show, it's p. great. it helps that i live in eugene where we have a complex about how great everyone thinks portland is. my close friend ran a feminist bookstore in her youth, so i find those skits extra hilarious.

aubrey: "who's 'they'?"
carrie: "goddesses."

haha that line was especially funny cause obvs she was just pulling goddesses out of her ass as a default in defending her partner

I like the feminist bookstore 1&2 and "dream of the 90's" skits the best. There's lots of individual parts of skits that I like as well. I thought "cacao" was the worst skit - mostly because the appearance of the characters made me uncomfortable. My favorite mocking of hipsters was the couple ordering chicken, the feminists (obv), animal rights couple going crazy, technology overload (I've been victim to that), how unphased the girl was about the guy who buys her a car (reminds me of certain people and summer isle residents), and all the folks in the "dream of the 90's" skit.

10 FEET RULE

still believe that the show would be funnier if they dialed back the punchlines

It probably would be funnier to edit out some of the less funny absurdist punchlines but a lot of these skits are leading to no ending because they are largely just characterization and dialog.

I would be fine with editing off the baby tied to the pole but the ending with Buscemi trapped in bookstore and the ending with the bird getting smashed were pretty good ways to close those skits.

feminist bookstore person: "That's the thing, book 13 you find out if she is a lady and it pains me to imagine you not knowing her journey."

like how else do you end the technology overload skit? the absurdist ending was as good as any other at that point but obviously the most funny part was everything else

Best part of the "PUT. A. BIRD. ON. IT." skit is all the breaking stuff.

the dream of the 90s is alive in portland been stuck in my head, dece song

― ice cr?m, Sunday, January 23, 2011 1:59 PM (1 week ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

mine too!

― tehresa, Sunday, January 23, 2011 1:59 PM (1 week ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

hah

― ice cr?m, Sunday, January 23, 2011 2:02 PM (1 week ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

It is a fucking catchy song.

― righteousmaelstrom, Sunday, January 23, 2011 4:23 PM (1 week ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

I've just now decided after a few youtube clips that I'm going to start watching this, but I came here to reiterate this FACT. That song is all kinds of rad.

AM I BLEEDING? MAAM AM I BLEEDING?

i liked the encore song going on in the background while they were waiting for Aimee Mann.

I didn't like much of that episode at all. I think I'll be calling the show quits but I'll give the 4th episode a chance. Every episode has been a less and less funny but I guess even the first episdoe wasn't completely all that great anyways.

The aimee mann bit was the first long-running episode gag that I thought really stood on its own and paid off. The "over" sketch was almost snl-quality lame, and the packaging sketch was pretty weak too.

Aimee Mann was great, so was the loljapanese one.

SARAH MCLACHLAN, SIT!

Carrie's also looking a lot more comfortable too now.

I am a fan of Aimee Mann

you are a poet and don't even know it

oh those japanese, they're so funny. looking forward to lol mexicans r lazy next week.

That sketch was lame except for the "impression" which just killed me.

Actually this was a weak episode overall.

Maybe it's just being from Seattle, but when I lived in Portland it felt like there were no Asians there.

In my neighborhood, about 70% of the local businesses appear to be Asian.

I hate the Japanese, so I was fine with it.

Actually, I think the reason that I liked this episode was because it came close to this.

yeah this was p. weak except for the aimee mann stuff, but i have to admire how consistent carrie was in making that exact same "aww!!" sound like 800 times in the dumpster diving sketch.

You can sell cds in portland for money!

Bored To Death is doing it well, The Goode Family did it poorly, this is probably somewhere in between.

OTM. I immediately thought of both of these shows - Bored To Death's secret WTF weapon is Ted Danson's character and Portlandia feels like it needs something similar to kick it sideways out of the same gentle satire + special guests. Maybe Philip Knight will show up...

Brownstein is funnier than you would think in equal proportion to how Armisen is less funny than you remember.

this ^^^

the more i think about it, the more weird it seems that a board where Hipster Runoff and Das Racist are hot topics would kind of reflexively recoil at a TV show satirizing alt culture.

Who's recoiling?

i just saw a banner ad for this on pitchfork and physically recoiled

― HOOS the master?? STEEN NUFF (BIG HOOS aka the steendriver), Friday, January 21, 2011 6:49 PM (2 weeks ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

i mean there are other negative posts upthread (which aren't without merit, i'm just saying), but the word 'recoil' actually did appear itt

housesitter sketch is killing it.

Edie McClurg had a face lift!

"it revels in a kind of surrealism that could best be described as "Tim & Eric: Produced By NPR," that is to say it's just weird enough to be boring as hell and have no punchlines, but it's nowhere near weird enough to be avant-garde
it's not even bad; that's the worst part. it's just *there*"

^^is this true? I haven't seen the show but that very accurately sums up my fears of what it'd be like.

no. it's kind of your typical skit show so it's all tied together in a goofy way as these things usually are, but i'm not seeing a lot of NPR or Tim & Eric in this at all.

yeah, pretty sure whoever wrote that hasn't seen the 5,000 skit shows made in the past 35 years.

mad lolz @ ad agency skit, felt like 'did u read' was most relevant yet to my lifestyle, funny ep

God, Carrie is pale.

she's cute! i didn't realize this about her when she was a rock star.

Hahahah it was the first thing that got me into Sleater-Kinney. (Not really, but it helped.)

this last episode was the best one yet. it's slowly going from satire to totally insane stella-level comedy

Mayor presser was great!

I think I liked ep 1 best but this was def an improvement over last week.

Mayor Openly Reggae

Mayor presser was great!

was dying at this, not surprised you loved it too lol

strictly roots

renewed

“I can’t believe his wife’s so supportive.”

Not a good episode sadly.

Is that Corin?!

Since when was she in Echo Echo?

Only good part of that was the actual Selma Blair short film, which might have been the best thing the show's done.

I want more of Carrie as an 80s metal head walking on park benches and kicking shit

Is that Corin?!

Yeah. I also noticed the drummer from Team Dresch as an extra a few episodes back.

Sorry - I meant guitarist from Team Dresch - Kaia Wilson was sitting at the restaurant during the dog sketch.

I really like the sparklepony bit but I think they fucked the punchline (again), either they should have finished with her getting on the bus to alaska or had her sing a super twee song about ponies in the hotel in alaska, her being crap just didn't really work for me.

I've liked the series but they are way too hung up on punchlines.

I think the lack of punchlines stems from an overall lack of writing. I get the feeling that Fred and Carrie just put on funny wigs and turn on the cameras.

But then again I think that's how SNL people have been "writing" for the last 12 years or so.

Not a good episode sadly.

yeah this episode was terrible! wtf.

no more Decembrists plz thx

i stayed at the ace hotel in pdx so the deuce hotel kinda made me lol (for the first few min)

i actually saw carrie brownstein hanging out in the lobby of the ace hotel the one time i stayed there

viral

this show is making me feel weird because i actually really liked the ace hotel (and getting stumptown coffee room service).

the first few weeks that the ace in NY was open, it was great - huge sitting space with no one in it. Now it must be on some tourist maps however, the place is always packed. Saw questlove the last time I was there.

did you tell him 'stop following tourist maps, you live here'

wau, Ace NY description of "budget and upscale rooms" is pretty LOL - starts at $220/night for a shared bathroom in early summer

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/30/fashion/30ACE.html?ref=style&pagewanted=all

Lightbulb sketch. Why do they keep forcing their concepts until they snap?

oh i forgot to watch this today but i was probably having a better time drinking scotch and talking music with my pops

thanks for the update dude

i think this show is pretty amusing, I managed four of them last night and only then got sick of them. i think the more it expands into just weird territory and focuses less on 'LOL West Coast Vegans" the better it is, although the opening song for portland and 'put a bird on it' are going to remain all time classic high points. I think Carrie is really good at this kind of comedy. I'd be interested to know what she's written on it since she's one of the credited writers as well.

'i do a lot of canning' was a v hilarious pick up line - also i like their relationship w/the mayor

theres that old saying honesty is not always the greatest thing to do. it should be painted more as Chad what is his problem i just dont get that guy

DL'ed the first season. Way awesome, I especially liked the episode about the epic hide and seek game. The Mayor playing in the reggae band was killing me too. I used to live with an ex Portland-ite and this show seems way more accurate and smart than just poking broad fun at hipsters. The biking stuff and health food jokes and a million tiny other details are OTM.

Fred & Carrie are wonderful and I love the spots by Aubrey and Kyle. Selma Blair has never really done anything for me but in her spot on this show she breaks my heart.

Why do they keep forcing their concepts until they snap?

― s.clover, Friday, February 25, 2011 11:16 PM Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

This. Working my way through S1 now. Has some great moments, but so many initially funny sketches follow the same endless steady build to final haha orgasm.

I think the show maybe has potential? Could maybe use a few more regulars since Arimsen and Brownstein are kind of more limited in their acting/characterization than they seem to think they are (e.g. Armisen reuses the "I'm not being anal but actually I am" schtick a lot).

eh that's just kind of a sketch comedy show thing isnt it, the "sketches go on for way too long" thing

i like this show by the way, no idea what i was going on about upthread

really want whiney's opinion on this show

isn't the "repeating something that's funny until it's actively annoying" thing a SNL staple for a few decades now?

Really enjoyed the Kyle MacLachlan reggae scandal

favorite moment of S1 was Armisen frantically plugging and syncing his devices

SNL is so bad

Really enjoyed the Kyle MacLachlan reggae scandal

this and the bike guy were the standouts imho

favorite moment of S1 was Armisen frantically plugging and syncing his devices

yeah, this was amazing

(as i, uh, appear to have said already)

it always bugs me that the man in this appears to be approaching his 70s

why is he so old and still trying to be funny, i ask myself

paid, sorta famous and old

The "did you read" bit was actually great except it just didn't need to be carried to its final extreme imo.

I also loved the extended sudekis farm bit -- someone said above that the show is better when it veers into surreality a bit.

Laughed hardest at the dumpster diving bit -- mostly for the sweater and the koala in the stew, but again, did not need to go all the way to having the dumpster-dived "friend".

also loved "Shell art is over!"

koala in the stew

straight riffing off koala tacos, obv. what's next? cat gazebos? geezer's kiosk?

new episode is good, they've been in the writing room

So wait, is the whole first season only 6 episodes or is that just all they have on Netflix?

I think the first season was only 6 episodes.

Giggled the other day when I read that Armisen was working on a bike valet sketch.

Watched this just for the BSG show.

incidentally, watching old clips of Sleater Kinney after this show is weird. Hard to see her the same way.

Wow, precious New Yorker profile followed by precious New York Times profile followed by "Fresh Air" interview: the trifecta!

That gender-reversed "Cacao" sketch was funny. Fred Armisen as a woman looks a bit like Mindy Kaling.

incidentally, watching old clips of Sleater Kinney after this show is weird. Hard to see her the same way.

I had a troubling thought not too long ago about what % of Wild Flag's live audience is there simply just to see "What that lady from "Portlandia"'s music is like?".

eleven years after Time Magazine called them the best band in the world i think starting to worry about the audience is way past expiration date

Brownstein addresses that conflict in the New Yorker piece, I think. Trying to keep the band and comedy stuff totally separate.

really want whiney's opinion on this show

― buzza, Monday, January 2, 2012 11:16 PM (5 days ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

I'm just catching up! I think this is a pretty fun show.

i liked the old guy who played the ac repairman & there were some laffs in the chain restaurant but this s2ep1 was kinda weak imo

Like Fred/Carrie are obviously very invested in h*****r culture so the jokes really nail the funny minituae in a way that like most jocky Tumblrs and 4chan plastic-frame-glasses memes really don't. The only reason the show isn't an A+ with me is because it relies too heavily on YouTube-era fast-paced editing to carry the joke instead of, like, actually writing a sketch, which is leagues harder. But mad props to both Fred and Carrie for being maybe the best/smartest mainstream ambassadors that 00s h*****r culture has to date.

^^^was honestly not expecting this at all, tbh, but whiney otm

I thought the funniest sketch in this ep was the one w/Kumail.

I decided I'd finally give this a shot this week and... found it utterly laugh-free.

h*****r

hamster?

Like Fred/Carrie are obviously very invested in h*****r culture so the jokes really nail the funny minituae in a way that like most jocky Tumblrs and 4chan plastic-frame-glasses memes really don't.

This. E.g. in the reggae scandal episode the way Fred talks about the whole thing with Carrie is pitch-perfect. Like it nails the complicated, sometimes strained relationship hipsters have with reggae with incredible specificity.

The buzz about the show is strong enough that I've come across one or two Portland trend pieces - that is, Portland as the trend. But none seem to mention that the schools suck, the city's got the usual financial problems, it's surrounded by reactionary gun-toting militia folk, etc. Nice city, though.

I happen to live in the fortified outer bunker of Portland and let me tell you those gun-toting militias are pure hell to keep at bay every night, especially with nothing more than white gloves and a whistle.

tbh they're one of my favorite things abt the city

can you even be a hipster in portland?

note: only accepting answers from max or lamp

The Washington Post Style in/out list for 2012 had Portland out, Pittsburgh in.

Signifying nothing of course but there you go.

haha

Did the first episode of the new season air yet?

there are about a hundred different self-effacing ways id like to preface this post but i think theres something really interesting abt the way 'portlandia' both overlaps and significantly diverges from 00s h*****r culture. fwiw i think 'portlandia' is really about people who constitute the 'american urban creative class' that predates the rise of the h*****r thats rooted in a v 90s idea of a counterculture.

i general i think the posturing and the narcissism and the insularity that make the shows characters funny and true are p universal to both cultures but theres a certain... framework? aesthetic? idea of politics? that the shows operating w/in thats p divergent. some of this is demographic, i think, the shows creators are wealthier and older and more established than h*****rs but some of it is just different, a different way of thinking about the world.

Oh looks like it did. So I can say now that i got called in to audition for an episode probably later in the season. The character was waaaaay out of my physical range but it was still interesting to go over what script I could and see how their development process works. What I read was v v raw and so I'm guessing most of the laughs come from on-set improv or they must do more drafting after the casting is done because this was really no more than a 3 minute long vague idea with a joke maybe buried somewhere in it. Which is fine! I'm guessing armisen particularly doesn't want to be restrained by dialogue written months ahead of time, but it did make the audition somewhat awkward I guess?

Anyways, I met some lovely older ladies auditioning for a maid or something or other. I hope Janette got the role!

Oops xp to myself.

is this asterisk hipster thing an auto-replace?

i guess not...

ya but it only works if you're a hipster

there are about a hundred different self-effacing ways id like to preface this post but i think theres something really interesting abt the way 'portlandia' both overlaps and significantly diverges from 00s h*****r culture. fwiw i think 'portlandia' is really about people who constitute the 'american urban creative class' that predates the rise of the h*****r thats rooted in a v 90s idea of a counterculture.

yeah I think some of this is geographic - the urban west/northwest was pretty culturally influential in the 90s and its spirit lives on in brooklyn coffeeshops in 2012, but its not steering the ship anymore.

lamp otm

but to answer iatees question, yes, it is possible to be a hipster in portland

my personal beef w/ portland is that everyone talks about it like it's this european public transit utopia but the streetcar has a pretty low modeshare, it's a pretty drive-y place

yeah when i was there this summer i found it a huge pain to get around

also powells kinda sucks

its big, but so what

yeah I think some of this is geographic

i can see this, although my xp of i guess h*****r portland is that its not allll that much different from wburg or east oakland or where ever and its not really what 'portlandia' is about?

like i think in general theres a shift from drawing influence from the 60s and in particular the 60s counterculture in the mid to late 90s to drawing influence from the late 70s/early 80s in the early to late 00s which corresponds to a shift in the idea of what the 'urban bohemian' represents? like theres a shift from an emphasis on the community to the individual and i think its interesting in the way that politics maps with the sort of aesthetic concerns and preoccupations which in turn plays a big part in the cultural conception of the h*****r and on and on.

haha maybe its about the ascendancy of the vice mag wing of the urban creative class. anyway my point is the 'portlandia' is abt the like feminist reading group/public radio conception of the ucc instead

haha posts you immediately regret

tbh I wish the show hadn't been picked up for another season or that Carrie wasn't involved in it, so that I could stop watching this 98% laugh-free show.

my personal beef w/ portland is that everyone talks about it like it's this european public transit utopia but the streetcar has a pretty low modeshare, it's a pretty drive-y place

― iatee, Saturday, January 7, 2012 9:27 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

yeah when i was there this summer i found it a huge pain to get around

also powells kinda sucks

its big, but so what

― max, Saturday, January 7, 2012 9:29 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Good lord you guys. There are special bike lanes everywhere. They're making a special pedestrian bridge across the river which (due to a local gvmt fuck up) will totally mess up a bunch of boat distribution channels. The deal w/this place is that it's a small fucking town that is trying to come to terms with a bunch of needless national attn and it can't accommodate the needs of the ppl at this point.

Also, Powells being big is sort of the point. You know. More books? What did you expect beyond that?

yeah these opinions of Portland aren't exactly anything I've ever heard from anyone who actually lives or has lived here.

~25% of the people I know who live here have cars and I'm 30 so it's not like it's a bunch of kids. yeah the streetcar isn't too useful -- unless you go to PSU (largest campus in Oregon) or work at OHSU (I believe the largest healthcare employer in the region, but I could be wrong). It's allowed development of a south waterfront area that had been stalled for decades. And it's being expanded to areas which will allow me to get around town much easier in the next few years.

Portland's not NY and it's not even Seattle. It's a fifth the size of Brooklyn! There's not a ton to do here for a tourist unless you like hiking or you want to see some local shows or something. And I've never understood why people expect powell's to be more than a really big bookstore. Portland's a big college town without being centered around a college, is how I've always thought about it.

Massive travel around North America over the last year has actually increased my provincialism for living in this city, oddly enough.

bikes are not public transpo

i liked a lot of stuff about portland, like pok pok

went hiking in the columbia river gorge, guess thats not portland, but its close so

went dancing at valentines

i dont hate powells tbh, you know what portland icon i actually do hate: voodoo donuts

my donut sucked and the cashier had a shitty attitude. fuck you voodo donuts

I've never even been to voodoo donuts! but I think I'm a total outlier there.

I love Portland, but I think a lot of the vibe is endemic to the west coast in general. My theory is that since the east coast still runs this shit, the west coast gets an extra couple of hours of peace and quiet after the nightly news runs and the markets close.

Anyway, obv. the show is an exaggerated take on Portland as a bohemian utopia. Which, like anywhere else, it can be, if you can afford it.

My fave misconception about Portland, btw, is that you can get green lawns without having to water the hell out of them, like everywhere else. The weather's great for cars, though. And rose gardens.

voodoo donuts sucks, never go

portlandia is obv not even really about Portland but really a kind of self-regarding liberalism that is somewhat uncomfortable with other facets of self-regarding liberalism. Lamp was saying it better upthread. The west coast happens to be rife with it.

Telling you, it's the illusion of idleness. By the time everyone on the west coast wakes up and gets going, the work day has hit lunch hour back east. Then things out east shut down just five hours later, which gives the west coast an afternoon significantly free of distracting drama.

As someone who has lived in Williamsburg for all of six months but frequented there for far longer, I really don't buy that it or any part of Brooklyn is much like an east coast Portland. Superficially you'll find overlaps, but Brooklyn will always have the syndrome of being part of New York City, so even the creative class is going to have an intensity and ambition that I don't think you find in Portland as much. I mean every morning the L train is PACKED with people who superficially look maybe sort of like Portlandia characters but are obviously commuting to high pressure manhattan jobs in I don't know television production or fashion marketing or something.

There's no bookstore like Women and Women First here because it could never pay brooklyn rents. There aren't as many PEOPLE like the characters on the show because THEY couldn't pay the rents. Even people who *just wanna play in bands* here are often like paralegals for some big law firm or something like that, IME. Most people who live otherwise have mom and dad money.

"also powells kinda sucks

its big, but so what"

Okay so I haven't been there in nearly decade so maybe it's changed, but I found like two dozen books there which I hadn't seen at any other bookstore and for prices that far beat what I would have paid on any other shop or even webshop (esp. once you added shipping). So I'm not sure what else you'd want from a bookstore.

Unless it's more humorless feminists (jk) and coffee, which from watching Portlandia it sounds like Portland has covered as well.

Probably worth pointing out that portland's transit issues are probably largely because it is tremendously sprawly. Like lower population density that LA (by a long shot) but also, say, San Jose.
Also Portland is great to visit: food, records, and friends to drive you around.

Yeah, great food in Portland.

Also I think it's a long term goal to reduce the sprawl. And since I forgot: good bars!

voodoo donuts is a consolidation of everything Bad about pdx but i still go like twice a year. they make a pretty good standard-issue donut (i don't fuck with the Wacky!!!! ones) even if donuts really only get so good. the cashier having a shitty attitude is of course part of the point, i know, it's dumb.

powell's needs to price more books under $8.50 but it's a giant building full of books and i'm from a town that had one tiny used place and a borders (and now has literally nothing, you can no longer purchase a book in my hometown) so i'm pretty happy. they have a pretty good selection of russian pulp, too. plus there is space to move in it which i do not remember the strand having, not that anyone brought up the strand.

yeah fuck voodoo donuts

bookwise i actually really like that place Cameron's on like SW 3rd or wherever it is. near stumptown coffee. i got this gorgeous gilt-edged pebble-covered complete shakespeare with norton-thin pages and dictionary-style indentations marking each play for $5 there the other day.

unfortunately every time i've touched it more of it has fallen off.

Voodoo Donuts is something you take out-of-towners to, not someplace you go yourself. It's one of those places that pops up on the food/travel shows your parents back east watch and then randomly text you about if you've gone or not.

Yeah, Voodoo was a disappointment when I visited last year. But Powell's and Pok Pok and difficult listening hour were great.

My fave misconception about Portland, btw, is that you can get green lawns without having to water the hell out of them, like everywhere else.

waaht, 9 months out of the year there's no need to water a lawn and then the other three we just let them go brown and then they come back in september, it's magical.

i dunno, i thought powell's was pretty amazing but i'm in l.a. where the legendary giant bookstore (acres of books, rip) actually really did have quantity over quality imo and was a dusty, depressing place. i found a whole shitload of books at powell's that i'd been seeking out, and at reasonable prices. food was great, people were friendly, seemed more car-centric than i'd have thought BUT it seemed like if you lived there and commuted via bike it would be fun and considerably less dangerous than most other cities. i like the style of the city overall. probably can't live there, despite considering it.

Brown lawns are not green.

Portland is just an ave in mpls

as they say

Tbh me and all my friends basically read this show as Phillylandia bcz like 85% of it is totally otm re: Philly (as much as an east coast city could). Powell's is lovely and so is pdx (very walkable, very well-designed, nice charm) but is perhaps a bit too clean/polished for my taste.

had considered portland as a place to end my wanderings one day but the opening song convinced me otherwise. too much like ithaca.

As someone who has lived in Williamsburg for all of six months but frequented there for far longer, I really don't buy that it or any part of Brooklyn is much like an east coast Portland. Superficially you'll find overlaps, but Brooklyn will always have the syndrome of being part of New York City, so even the creative class is going to have an intensity and ambition that I don't think you find in Portland as much. I mean every morning the L train is PACKED with people who superficially look maybe sort of like Portlandia characters but are obviously commuting to high pressure manhattan jobs in I don't know television production or fashion marketing or something.

so my pov, as someone who lived in williamsburg 2.5-6 years ago and who has been to portland/lived on the west coast, the brooklyn comparison is more about what williamsburg was (the same way ppl romance the east village before it was a yuppy haven). sure there's no women and women first in wburg now, but there was a comic book store on metropolitan ave that probably had similar revenue and many other specialty shops that somehow managed to squeak by (or at least used to). rents (business and residential) now are way higher than what they were a few years ago. and wasn't the whole reason the comparison exists because people from brooklyn/wburg moved to portland when bk/wburg got popular and pricey? i'm not sure about providence because i've never spent any time there but i can't think of any other cities besides brooklyn that you could call an east coast portland... and while there's also sf, i think portland is probably the best candidate for a west coast brooklyn.

all that aside, i enjoyed moments of the premiere but overall thought it was much weaker than last season, and far less about pdx and way more just sketch comedy. but still better than watching snl!

i can't think of any other cities besides brooklyn that you could call an east coast portland

philly

haven't seen the show, would revisit Portland even tho they've since lost the Beavers baseball team.

But gained a much, much more popular prof soccer team!

I was born in Portland . So I have a valid excuse for living here and not being a "creative young person".

i can't think of any other cities besides brooklyn that you could call an east coast portland

philly

this funny because when i was reading hurting's post i was thinking of the line in 'the corrections' where franzen calls brooklyn ca. 2000 'a philadelphia with the advantage of having manhattan next door'

i can't think of any other cities besides brooklyn that you could call an east coast portland

Northampton, MA

portland, maine is an east coast portland fyi

i hate to be a chauvinist but the actual closest portland analogue is mpls

Northampton's like 1/10th the size of PDX though isn't it?

Goldblum!

i don't even remember the circumstance but i have been yelled at by lesbians on the street in northampton

Loled at the looney tunes vedder sketch ending

goldblum was legit amazing

This show is not very funny, which is disappointing because I genuinely like these two.

the first episode of the first season was pretty funny imo, haven't watched past that tho

Pickle sketch was a great concept, but too broad... Loving the "around the world" food bit. Also though the original mixologist sketch was pretty appropriately low-key. The pronunciation of s/he was a good touch too.

Northampton's like 1/10th the size of PDX though isn't it?

It is, but there really isn't any other city on the east coast in which shell art is so over in the same way it is in Portland, OR.

(And while I found that sketch, and others, to be funny, it's hard for me to watch Portlandia after the racism of the "Coffee Land" sketch)

I discovered yesterday that there is such a thing as people who love Portlandia but have never heard of Sleater-Kinney. Which, huh.

sometimes i feel like this thread is a portlandia sketch

feel that way about ~lyfe~

Second episode was amusing but no lols.

OTM on Coffee Land. Not only is it racist, but it's pretty damn lazy. There's nothing more I hate than skits where they come up with a clumsy name and make fun of how zany Japanese TV shows are. Worst bit in the series.

Pickle sketch was a great concept, but too broad

Yeah. Loved it at first, but the obvious pickling-unpicklable-stuff gag was much less funny than the simple behavior observation they started with. That's the problem with the show, IMO. The writers can't resist beefing up subtle, character-based humor with broad, generic "sketch comedy".

And everybody OTM on Coffee Land. Worst bit in the series.

I live in Northampton MA right now, it probably shouldn't be compared to anyplace that has reasonably priced places to eat dinner.

My fave misconception about Portland, btw, is that you can get green lawns without having to water the hell out of them, like everywhere else.

waaht, 9 months out of the year there's no need to water a lawn and then the other three we just let them go brown and then they come back in september, it's magical.

This is OTM. People in Lake Oswego hire people to water their lawns in the summer time. The rest of us treat it like a science experiment that hasn't failed in recorded memory.

Also, if you don't blink, you'll spot me in the DJ episode from season 2. They let me wear my own band's t-shirt. Thanks F&C.

made it about halfway through the first ep of this & was deathly bored

its really not an anti-hipster thing, i mean, i think this is way lol ... and its not like i don't think 'peep show' is funny, and that's more about the recognition of hitns of onesself in embarrassing characters, but this just felt like a collection of cultural touchpoints w/out humor or punchlines

i really like this show. i was surprised. thought it would be one-note lolhipsters, but its really kinda surreal. and sleaterkinney is funny! who knew? and kyle mclackalack always makes things better. great stunt casting. and i love northampton. and philly.

and silby i don't really know you but if you ever find yourself in greenfield don't be a stranger. i'm at 269 main street 6 days a week.

i can't think of any other cities besides brooklyn that you could call an east coast portland

Montreal, QC

Richmond, VA

POLL

put a bird on it imo http://i.imgur.com/zi7hd.gif

DJ Night Of The Living Dead/Body Snatchers sketch was A+

worst show

like it. love carrie b.

this season has be markedly worse than the 1st imo

East coast portland: maybe providence? Gentrified parts of Baltimore? Gotta be a smaller cheaper city right? Essential distinction from Brooklyn.

madison comes pretty close in the midwest

too fratty

Asheville NC? Maybe too hippy.

i hate to be a chauvinist but the actual closest portland analogue is mpls

― i love pinfold cricket (gbx), Thursday, January 12, 2012 11:53 PM (2 weeks ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

was austin mentioned?

if only Athens was larger.

Shit, how did I only just now realize that this show is just a remake of:

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_qJCSBsm9UZA/TPq7YofIByI/AAAAAAAAEI0/7HHatucZMJ4/s320/austin%2Bstories.jpg

the battlestar ep was p good i thought

Watching the show I get excited about where I think a joke is about to go and then it sadly fizzles out, like the everyone is a dj skit. I still enjoy the show and have hope.

"Just get a best of."
"I feel guilty though."

That was like the only funny thing all episode though.

Watching the show I get excited about where I think a joke is about to go and then it sadly fizzles out, like the everyone is a dj skit.

yeah. though it's already gone way overboard, if the DJ skit had ended with dude saying he was just checking his email, it would have been a 1000% better.

it's = it'd

New levels of irony showing the front of Buckman Elementary as Shooting Star Preschool.

this show could use the pacing of, like, monty python, where skits just fall into each other quickly

yeah - this show has serious pacing/editing problems. averages one or two genuine lolz per episode and then the rest is stuff that's just padded out way too long

they do get great guest stars tho - Vedder, Goldblum, and Maclachlan were all A+

dream of the 1890s shouldve led off the season

Coffee Shop Bad Art sketch was otm imo

Dream of the 1890's had me wanting to move there, teehee...

did i see drew from toothpaste for dinner in this?

I forgot also last week the little Nation of Ulysses bit in the "do you know" sketch was pretty awesome.

portlandia vs 2 broke girls poll

theres categories anyway so...yeah political cartoons - lady artists, softball 1980-1989("the best years"), queer horror...if that ends up in here all these teenagers are gonna come in for their queer horror and it wont be there for them

Pitchfork jokes

I did lol at "Whisker Patrol" though

I like the "two shirts" type sketches even though there's no huge laffs to be had. It's just sort of quiet, observational, and it'll probably stick with me and I'll reference it whenever I run into one of those sorts of bare-shelved short-lived boutiques.

Not to start any more fires like upthread but I think the humor is more observational and general in nature rather than specific to Portland itself, especially this season. Except for that fucking "you go" driving skit because seriously Portland drivers are just like that.

http://www.mlssoccer.com/blog/mls-insider/2012/02/20/ifcs-portlandia-tackles-issue-noobs-help-timbers-army

was wondering how long this would take

Olympics sketch was pretty great. Not sure what to make of the Sacagawea one, but it had something going at least.

we have the exact same bouncer that they showed in the opening sketch

hey guys, brunch.

i liked this ep.

Last episode kind of bonkers...

This should really be on in the summer when nothing else is on. The Brunch Special is worth watching or downloading or whatever....

i wanted to like this show - in general glad to see comedy with a sense of time and place - but i just burned out on sketches that seemed to be written without an ending. So many where it was just a pair of clueless idiots milking a wacky conceit to death.

"In this one Fred and Carrie will play a married couple really into boots. They'll talk about boots and then yell about boots, and then, I dunno, turn into boots."

John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur

I'm finally watching season 2. It seems like it's way better than the first season. The anti-wedding is killing me right now.

"I don't want anybody sitting next to anybody!"

i wanted to like this show - in general glad to see comedy with a sense of time and place - but i just burned out on sketches that seemed to be written without an ending. So many where it was just a pair of clueless idiots milking a wacky conceit to death.

― da croupier, Friday, August 10, 2012 10:40 PM (4 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

"In this one Fred and Carrie will play a married couple really into boots. They'll talk about boots and then yell about boots, and then, I dunno, turn into boots."

― da croupier, Friday, August 10, 2012 10:41 PM (4 months ago) Bookmark

As ever this is hit and miss, but I had a pretty good lol at the youths trying to write a protest song and it always ending up "changing the world one party at a time."

and I think the bad coffee shop art sketch from Season 2 is unheralded.

the satire is pretty weak but I still end up laughing, usually at fred armisen ad-libs

"I am getting very stressed out that the head of our school does NOT know about Neu!"

people used to just really rock the shit out of the vote

Fjohürs Lykkewe

Picked this up randomly on Netflix in Britain and love what I've seen so far - maybe I'm exactly the right age but this hits all the buttons for me in terms of the targets it aims for, mainly because they're things I hate too. It might also help that a lot of people in this part of Bristol are also hipsters.

I spotted Nate before I read this thread.

Also, the sketch with the four way junction - they confuse all of us in the rest of the world who have roundabouts instead with actual rules about who enters it in which order. I'm amazed that every single one isn't paralysed like the one there as every time I've driven one I've never worked out when to go so I let other people go first.

I liked when the two sets of parents decided to form a band in the parking lot. The band names were pretty funny. Plus the prog-rock kids band halfway through was pretty rad.

Carrie has a very nice smile!

"I am getting very stressed out that the head of our school does NOT know about Neu!"

― Emperor Cos Dashit (Adam Bruneau), Saturday, January 5, 2013 6:56 PM (2 weeks ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

^^i lol'd at this

I've never worked out when to go so I let other people go first.

The rules are pretty simple at a 4-way stop intersection. Right of way is granted in the order of one's arrival, as indicated by who first came to a full stop. If you arrived before the other guy, you can go ahead before the other guy. Otherwise, you wait until your turn arrives.

If two vehicles arrive simultaneously (or so near to this as to be indistinguishable), then it depends on where the other vehicle is located.

If the other guy is on the opposite side of the intersection and you're both going straight through, it doesn't matter if you go or wait, because you won't collide anyway. If the other guy is opposite you and one of you is turning left, the one not turning goes first. If the other guy is not opposite, but to one side, then the one to the right of the other goes first.

This would all go swimmingly if people paid attention, signalled their turns and generally followed all the rules. Because large numbers of drivers habitually disregard the rules, it's more like a casino.

Sorry. This is a hobby-horse of mine. When I spot it, I must mount it and ride it like the wind.

god I hate roundabouts

successfully navigated fourway stops are civilization at its breathtaking finest

Ah cool, so exactly like roundabouts except with less considerate motorists. Cool. xpost

roundabouts are clearly superior fuiud

in our self-driving car future this will all be moot

i wanted to like this show - in general glad to see comedy with a sense of time and place - but i just burned out on sketches that seemed to be written without an ending. So many where it was just a pair of clueless idiots milking a wacky conceit to death. "In this one Fred and Carrie will play a married couple really into boots. They'll talk about boots and then yell about boots, and then, I dunno, turn into boots."

― da croupier, Friday, August 10, 2012 10:41 PM (4 months ago) Bookmark

This was my problem with the show too and, real talk, I think they fixed it in the third season

god I hate roundabouts

― Welcome to my world of proses (Shakey Mo Collier), Tuesday, January 22, 2013 2:40 PM (7 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

wait ... so you guys in California have roundabouts?!? i thought that that was just a northeastern USA thing!

they're few and far between out here. I have driven in other parts of the country/world tho

I went to chicago just before christmas walked into a bar and sat down next to Fred Armisen, He finished his dinner and left, The End.

Berkeley has a bunch of roundabouts, especially in the middle of highly residential areas. I think the idea is to dissuade people from running through intersections? And they often have little parks in them?

i wanted to like this show - in general glad to see comedy with a sense of time and place - but i just burned out on sketches that seemed to be written without an ending. So many where it was just a pair of clueless idiots milking a wacky conceit to death.

― da croupier, Friday, August 10, 2012 10:40 PM (4 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

"In this one Fred and Carrie will play a married couple really into boots. They'll talk about boots and then yell about boots, and then, I dunno, turn into boots."

― da croupier, Friday, August 10, 2012 10:41 PM (4 months ago) Bookmark

I've noticed some of them have an even worse problem where the funny conceit is like ALL the sketch has. Like the Good Walls Bad Art sketch was a very funny idea but it died after like 10 seconds when you realize the whole rest of the sketch is just going to be more and examples of bad art. They are witty observers but it feels like they don't have much of an idea how to write a sketch at all.

A friend of mine used to wait tables with Armisen in the late 90's. I guess he was always doing shit like claiming to be the owner of the restaurant when customers asked to see the manager.

and then, I dunno, turn into boots.

This keeps making me laugh so maybe they should do this?

charlize theron nsfw

bemused-looking girl w striped shirt in front row at staff meeting in that sketch a good friend, an arizonan transplant but now officially canonized as Someone Who Looks Like She Lives In Portland

Matt Berry as Squiggleman!

I was effing BORN in Portland, and taking all things into account I've never really left it in the nearly six decades my life has spanned thus far, but no one would ever characterize me as Someone Who Looks Like He Lives In Portland. I am fitfully amused.

I like this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbo-FBLdMH8

well sure to look like you live in portland you have to move there when you're 22

I didn't want to like this show and I didn't

how about that.

so wow this last episode was dull.

the targets of the jokes just feel like they've branched out, which would be good, except they've branched out to things i really don't even have a basis to think about, like so much b&b.

http://www.guernicamag.com/daily/kiran-herbert-portland-and-portlandia-two-worlds-of-whiteness/

that's a hellova weight to put on a show

Brunch Village episode was fantastic

Tim Robbins as the dungeonmaster character, just amazing. "I want you to tell me in a silent voice, using words."

"Silence!"
"Explain yourself!"
"Do you want me to be silent, or explain myself?"
"Explain yourself, in a silent voice, using words,"

also
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJLQfOQbtyE

xp oops double-posted the last line

ok the celery episode was really solid straight through.

i loved the bacon guy

garage sale

How much would a car even cost? Seventy THOUSAND dollars?!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2wyUiwCEl4

lol

opening sketch of going to a concert hit pretty close to home

Taped to my door this weekend:

https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xap1/v/t1.0-9/10645194_10152291367796596_6382859478097610209_n.jpg?oh=a574da15bcba0789f5c65ffbd489cb69&oe=54711E43&__gda__=1416117014_98c6b64590136d25c25d3e29dbd289c6

https://fbcdn-sphotos-d-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xap1/v/t1.0-9/10686844_10153120431724056_2268476487472643577_n.jpg?oh=7c24db306446dc209b5a075848f6c86e&oe=548FAF19&__gda__=1418311756_7bb78080f50be5a60dc1211745fbd6f8

Pee-Wee Herman posted this today

Watched a couple of the new series. This show is so smug about itself it's hard to watch. It's got no jokes, punchlines or new ideas. Brownstein is still charming but Armisen is really vulgar and not funny at all as a woman which is pretty much all he did in the episodes I saw. Couldn't they just get a funny woman to play those characters? What a shitty show.

I liked the history of the women's bookstore episode

this show is hit or miss tho (and v repetitive)

Bookstore episode was like a slow victory lap of a previously amusing sketch.

it is quite painful at times. the bookstore for me has always been a bit of a one-note, mildly funny at best scenario. did not benefit from them fleshing out their backstory in a full-length episode.

smugness is def a feeling you get from the show, or complacency at least. they seem very pleased by the characters and situations they've made and will just persist with them interminably and aimlessly. also i increasingly find armisen just detestable, and while brownstein is much less obnoxious, i just don't find her a very compelling comedic performer.

I liked the episode where Spike proposed marriage too

may have been entirely due to remarkable similarity between Justin Long and Carrie Brownstein in a mustache tho

Armisen in a wig is not as funny as they think it is.

Are you having a laugh?
http://www.filmmisery.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Screen-shot-2013-10-21-at-2.06.20-PM.png

Is he having a laugh?
https://nyoobserver.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/011511_portlandia_episode_1_t.jpg

its still reasonably funny imo but so much of it is just structure and editing

rapid-fire, back and forth cut conversations, i mean

i think that means the joeks don't have to be as good and it still sorta works

ok the feminism episode had some good lulz

I liked the Tiny House episode. Some well done physical comedy and that escrow VHS was great.

Documentary Now! is pretty funny.

Get that Old Navy money. Do what you have to do in this world.

Carrie did an American Express commercial a little while back too iirc.

Teenage me would've been bummed, but 30 something me would probably do the same thing.

Would 30 something you already have, like, enough money from their entertainment career?

Rolling in all those Wild Flag airplay royalties.

Carrie & Mary Timony did some Price line ads w/Shatner back in the day: http://www.mtv.com/news/620299/helium-sleater-kinney-members-do-commercials/

this has worked the best as a broad city substitute

Season 7 premiere tonight, any watching?

*anyone

So good to see Abbi Jacobson on this while waiting for Broad City.

Steve Buscemi's mannerisms are very Alan Alda in his apperances.

Is there a thread for Documentary Now?

I just started watching this after years of going "eh I think I will hate this"; I'm in season 3 now and I think it's overall one of the funniest shows I've ever watched

curious what yr favorites are, mine is definitely they're gender-switched couple (Carrie in a mustache and muscle-t etc)

their

I am listening to the cacao sketch right now actually, lol

I love Nance and Peter the most, oddly

Brunch Village is a masterwork

Dave and Kath are pretty great too

the milk council bits are also amazing

Oh yeah. I think I dropped it after season 2 and then picked it back up after it was completed and on netflix. It's really great. That one song "The Best Part is Going Home" (after seeing a band) has been a huge help in making me feel better about not going to shows anymore.

otm about Nance and Peter. Oddly I skip all the gender switch couple bits. I think Carrie's voice freaks me out too much.

Watched part of the 30 ROCK infomercial for NBCUniversal. More of their Dig Our Privileged World cut-rate comedy. I want to see a PORTLANDIA reunion deal with that city's police state a la Haskell Wexler's MEDIUM COOL. How funny is a pepper-sprayed Fred Armisen? pic.twitter.com/AlE2lBAWyg

— Dennis Perrin (@DennisThePerrin) July 18, 2020

Morbz on some midsummer night's dream shit with this Dennis Perrin infatuation

you guys can stick with Tom Cruise i guess

My assumption is that Dr Morbius follows exactly three people on Twitter: 1) Dennis Perrin, 2) Doug Henwood, and 3) Alex Pareene.

i'm tempted to say even the worst episodes of 30 rock are funnier than dennis perrin but in all fairness the weather app on my phone is also funnier than dennis perrin

i'm not on Twitter

I also look at many film crix and sportswriters on it however

also the rock in the backyard is funnier than ilx

Portlandia already did a "let's take over the police department" skit and it was ridiculous and sort of bad, mostly because it existed in the extremely White sphere of "cops just answer our noise complaints, right" and ended up taking the cops' side. (On the plus side, the uniforms Fred and Carrie created to make the police more relatable to the community were pretty funny, as was the fashion show where they presented them to an increasingly incredulous chief of police.)

Most of the times that the show involves police officers, they're seen as largely benign government agents patiently dealing with increasingly ridiculous White/White-passing people, which glosses over the problems endemic to the modern police force. It's still usually funny, thought; the skit I reference above was an outlier.