Pomp and Quirkumstance: Portlandia Season Two Airs Tonight, Air Your Thoughts

I live near Asheville. I picture the self-proclaimed cool people of Asheville watching the show, taking notes, going back to various scenes, and nailing cold everything in the scene. I watch the show wondering how some people in Asheville wish that they could imitate the entire thing.

Even though I have never been to Portland (yet!), and while I agree with many things Kelsey said about <i>Portlandia</i>, I find this show to be much funnier and more enjoyable to watch than sitting through Fred Armisen’s <i>Saturday Night Live</i> every week (Ouch!). Yes, <i>Portlandia</i> is imperfect, but it seems that every show being produced under the system that is the “television industrial-complex” has persistent problems when it comes to producers/writers/show staff/cast/character diversity and portrayals of characters as tired old negative stereotypes. That said, we need to laugh at ourselves every so often, and <i>Portlandia</i> is one of those rare programs that is giving many of the “hipsters,” “white bearded men,” “aging hippies," and yes, feminists being skewered in this show permission to.

Honestly, I'm always up for a good laugh. I found Porlandia and thought, "why not". Yet by the end of the first episode I was disgusted. I mean I enjoyed the part about the couple who went out of their way to check out the chicken they were going to eat. But what was up with the polygamist? Wasn't that creepy? I didn't think it was very funny. I shut it off.

Um. For whatever it's worth Fred Armisen is actually mixed.

I moved to Portland a year ago and found I fit in quite well, so a lot of the things Portlandia pokes fun at is pretty relevant to me. But it's a comedy show, not a reality show, so you just have to take it for what it is. I thought it was funny and weird, not necessarily representative of Portland. As a feminist myself, when they have poked fun at feminists, I found it mildly offensive but you have to admit some feminists (along with anyone in any counterculture group) are kind of ridiculous. I think it's good to laugh at yourself once in a while, because then it doesn't matter so much when other people do. That's just my thoughts on being a vegetarian feminist animal rights activist who hates corporations.

On the other hand, I can see how it might seem backstabbing or hypocritical, especially when they are representing the place you live and love. I have found though that people who are from here, a lot of them don't take it lightly. And I totally get that. But comedians do love to push people's buttons, and that's just what they're doing.

By the way - that's awesome you met Agent Cooper!!! I would have fainted.

I wonder what they would have made the show about if it had been during that time. I guess looking in on the before-and-after during the nearly 2 decades I've lived in this town, I don't know what the huffing in all these comments is all about.

It cracks me up that there are people who are completely lost on the points in the article and seem impatient with the criticism that the town is depicted as a fairy tale town with no communities of color, no conflict, and no other demographic than the counterculture.

I understand that it's not a reality show, but then why is it a show about Portlandia? Why not just make up a town name even if Portland inspired the concept?

As a woman of color I feel invisible enough in this town, without having to think of the friends of mine who have been scattered by gentrification to the outlying areas or across the river to Washington state, and this show is a reflection of the town that it became after major gentrification transformations of the early 2000's.

I couldn't disagree more. I think Portlandia is highly aware of itself and manages to generate a really witty and often hilarious critique of white privilege within the framework of dominant liberal culture. The Harajuku skit was meant to make fun of American stereotypes of foreigners. It really had very little to do with Japanese people in my opinion, and more to do with the Americanized notions of Japanese culture. In other words, it was making fun of Americans. It is also important to note that Fred Armisen's mother is Venezuelan and his father is half Japanese, so I wouldn't necessarily call him "white." Also, Carrie Brownstein is bisexual and from a Jewish family, so... there's that.

The "Battlestar Galactica" scene that you refer to actually does tackle a racial divide in it's mockery of the character's trivial preoccupation when the two characters find themselves in the home of "Ronald D. Moore" who they mistake as one of the producers of the show by the same name. In the episode, "Ronald D. Moore" is actually a middle-aged black man who has no idea what they are talking about but agrees to help them write a new episode of Battlestar Galactica. So in that case, he does in fact participate in their quirky world, in spite of his wife's disapproval of their presence.

In any case, I think Portlandia is really meant for people liberal-minded people who can laugh at eachother and at themselves, applying humor to a culture that they may observe or may actually be a part of. There's a lot of self-critique happening and I think the evaluation of the show here is a little hyper-critical. One person claims that it "hits too close to home," and the next claims that it's a culture that "hasn't existed since the 90's." Everyone is of course entitled to their opinion but I think Portlandia is on point.