If you are reading this, chances are you are well aware of Portlandia, the comedic series created by Fred Armisen (SNL, ex-Trenchmouth) and Carrie Brownstein (Wild Flag, ex-Sleater-Kinney) that focuses on the dear city that we call home. The show won’t hit the IFC airwaves until January 21, but a few clips have already made their way to the web, so let’s watch one together, shall we?

Wait, that wasn’t funny. As much as I respect the track record of the show’s creators, and the fact that Portlandia filmed at our offices, when I think comedy, Carrie Brownstein isn’t exactly the first name that comes to mind (sorry). Especially when the running theme of Portlandia seems to be one long joke about “Keep Portland Weird” bumper stickers. You know, because the women here wear glasses and such.

I’m all for the show making fun of us, I just might have inflated my expectations a bit.

Ezra Ace Caraeff is the former Music Editor for the Mercury, and spent nearly a third of his life working at the paper. More importantly, he is the owner of Olive, the Mercury’s unofficial office dog....

51 replies on “Watch a Clip From <i>Portlandia</i>”

  4. Yeah I definitely loved some of the lines, like the one marteeee already quoted. I also loved “in Portland you can put a bird on something and call it art”. I think this might come off as funnier if you have lived most of your life in other cities. And yes, it’s true that a couple of the lines were yawn worthy, like you said, the bit about the glasses.

  6. Ezra successfully lowered my expectations to the point where I enjoyed this. (I do the same thing every week right before I watch Glee.)

    p.s. Confidential to Fred & Carrie: The bird on the clothes joke was old, and no one from anywhere else will get it. Cut it.

  9. Did anyone expect it to be funny? I didn’t, and my reaction to this was appropriately ho-hum.

    I give it half a season.

  10. That clip nailed it. And when I say “it,” I mean my expectations for the show. Kinda cute, kinda funny, kinda stupid, and utterly meaningless to anyone who’s never been to Portland.

  11. Oregometry: That would put it at around 6 episodes, which, conveniently, is the exact number of episodes that were produced.

  13. One more vote in favor of the great “Portland is a city where young people go to retire” line. I definitely enjoyed this more than ol’ grumpums Ezra, but I want it to be meaner.

  14. Not entirely unfunny is the best way to describe this. Unless the funny’s peaked like in a movie trailer, in which case the rest will be awful. Nevertheless, a few good lines. I’ll mostly watch to go “oh, I recognize that chick/dude.”

    I’m with Erik: screw gentle ribbings. Be nasty or GTFO.

  15. I think for me to find the show funny as a parody of Portland, because I’ve lived here for a while, it would have to be a lot more pointed and insightful than this is. BUT if I let go of the idea that Portlandia’s going to offer humor that reflects my actual experience as a Portlander and just let it kinda be a silly comedy show… then I liked this clip more than I thought I would, and definitely more than the Thunder Ant stuff I’ve seen.

  20. The best comedy is both funny and insightful. With the exception of the line “where young people go to retire,” this clip is neither.

    Also Todd nailed it re: clowns and homeless.

  21. I agree with several of these comments that amount to this show needing to really get into the heart of stuff you actually see here, but it’s mostly just a shallow interpretation of retread stereotypes. It’s like a mashup of all the NYT style and living section articles about Portland from the last ten years.

    But what do I know? I rode my fixie from my nonprofit job to get a drink at Central yesterday.

  23. The song is uninspired. The joke is an excruciatingly drawn-out misfire. This poorly-written article bringing our attention to it was a waste of everyone’s time. This hateful comment on that article also displeases me. My day is ruined.

  27. One more thing: you just know that for every ten people that watch an episode of this, there’s one (probably between the ages of 21-26, living in California, New Mexico, New Jersey or North Carolina, probably with a bachelor’s degree in photography or ceramics) thinks to him/herself, “wow, is Portland really like that? I should really move there to start my career in photography/ceramics/graphic design/starvation.”

  28. Yes, the “Where young people go to retire” line was pretty good, but the rest was… I don’t wanna say awful, but six episodes sounds about right. I’m not really all that wild about Fred and Carrie’s comedy formula, but more power to ’em for getting out there and doing something, I suppose.

  29. I liked it because I didn’t feel like I had just watched the trailer for Police Academy LXVI. It was a bit different than all those tired articles/tumblr blogs/youtube videos complaining about the dreaded h-word.

  30. Ecchh… Now I’ve got that song stuck in my head. And Oregometry is probably right. I can see this fueling further migration. Not that I’m a “last one in close the door” sort, you can’t really blame folks for leaving less interesting places, but we need more out of work graphic designers like we need peritonitis.

  33. @Oregometry: That’s exactly what I was getting at.

    A similar situation occured in Olympia, Wa in the 1990s. People who bought K records and the early KRS comps would move there thinking it was this magical twee wonderland as represented in zines and on the back of screenprinted 12″ sleeves.

  34. My expectations for the show were low, and now they’ve gone through the floor. I imagine that it will be suffering from satire’s worst friend: obligatory laughter at the familiar, and tone-deaf takes on what’s actually being discussed.

  35. @C&B Exactly. It was also the response to Gov. McCall’s famous “come visit but then get the hell out” attitude in the 70s. Everyone thought, “what’s he protecting? That must be something awesome!” and then they hopped in their patchouli-soaked minibuses and crashed the border.

  36. The dismissive comments here are very similar in spirit to those made by self-described Juggalos to that SNL ICP Miracles skit on Youtube, just with less impassioned pleas for people to choke on their own dicks.

  39. Awww, I enjoyed it.

    But I have low expectations for most everything, which typically works out well for me (need to work on this before I go watch Tron).

  40. I enjoyed it, but mostly it made me want to move back to LA where people have to have jobs and goals to survive. And I never thought anything would make me want to move back to LA.

  47. Um, I’m not a target of the satire, and I still find it unfunny. Does that fuck with your assessment at all? And…”come on, it’s television”? In what way is that a fucking argument?

    Let’s be clear: poorly-observed satire is stupid, and just because something is brought to me by a medium that generally sucks doesn’t mean that my own standards for what I like have to go down any. Try reasoning better.

  48. Hmm, why do so many people dislike this video? You should all be proud to live here! The comedy isn’t entirely amusing, but the sightseeing definitely makes up for it!

  49. It looks dumb and I hate Sleater-Kinney but at least I got some money out of being an extra. The show needed more interesting/crazy homeless people.

  50. shallow..pretentious…spoiled…snarky…self assured posers… pick the clip or the whiners? Just using the name calling method so popularized by the dismissive crowd with too much time on their hands. How is retirement?

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