You won’t find many Portland residents who own up to watching “Portlandia,” Carrie Brownstein and Fred Armisen’s IFC sketch show that since 2011, has warmly derided the city’s coolness factor. That apparent indifference could be tied into the fact that the show’s reign has coincided with a notable increase in attention on their hometown, with an accompanying influx of new residents that have helped increase development and housing prices. But generally, the common excuse around town for ignoring “Portlandia” is some variation on the idea that Portlanders are ridiculous enough on their own—why watch a show that highlights that?
The facts tell a different story. In January, the website High Speed Internet found that “Portlandia” was currently the most watched Netflix series across Oregon. Sure, that could be the folks in the very Republican eastern part of the state enjoying the mockery of liberal Portlanders, or people in the city hate-watching the show. But my suspicion is that us locals don’t want to admit how much of ourselves we see in these episodes. The show’s writers often nail the details surrounding the independently-minded liberals driving the culture of Portland (and other “cool” cities across the country) because, as Armisen once said, “the characters we do are very much like ourselves. A lot of the characters are pretty much the way I am and we are.”
Of course, it doesn’t hurt that Carrie and Fred have been able to observe and absorb the culture up close during their pre-comedy careers. Both are lifelong musicians who got swept up in the underground and indie rock scenes of the ’90s: Armisen logged time drumming with Chicago dub-punkers Trenchmouth, while few fans of the show need reminding that Brownstein helped seed the Pacific Northwest’s grrrl-style revolution in Excuse 17 and Sleater-Kinney. They reserve some of their funniest parodies on “Portlandia” for skewering the indie music world, and love populating guest spots with folks like St. Vincent, Glenn Danzig, Josh Homme, the Decemberists, Isaac Brock, and… Sarah McLachlan (hey, it worked!).
Whatever camp you ally with, there’s no disagreement that when Carrie and Fred nail their targets, their performances are sharp and amusing, often with a touch of social commentary propelled by a warranted frustration that even the least self-aware locals sometimes feel. With the show’s seventh season coming to a close tonight, let’s look at ten moments when “Portlandia” perfectly eviscerated the hipster mindset.
Adult Hide-and-Go-Seek (Season 1, Episode 1)
From the very first episode, Armisen and Brownstein showed that they had their fingers on the pulse of young-adult culture by poking fun at the “reclamation” of childhood games. Instead of the all-too-common dodgeball league, this sketch focused on a serious game of hide and seek played inside a library, featuring a startling discovery by one character and some pitch-perfect deadpan acting from an elderly bookworm.
Did You Read It? (Season 1, Episode 4)
In under two minutes, “Portlandia” had its merry way with the hipster’s greatest concern: FOMO. Carrie and Fred did their best to one-up each other’s reading habits, and like many of the show’s best bits, it escalates to brilliantly manic proportions, culminating in a literally killer punchline.
Eddie Vedder Tattoo (Season 2, Episode 2)
Hipsters do love their tattoos, especially ones with a little bit of an ironic twist to them. That provides the core of this sketch where Carrie tries to reckon with the fact that her new beau has a terrible tattoo of Eddie Vedder on his arm. It’s a bit of a lightweight concept that’s strengthened a fake Pearl Jam soundtrack and a self-mocking appearance by (former Sleater-Kinney tourmate) Vedder himself.
DJ Night (Season 2, Episode 4)
In the wake of the vinyl resurgence, a new swarm of crate diggers are now taking over record stores and thrift shops around the world. And many of them fancy themselves to be DJs now, providing the background music for bars, coffeehouses, and barber shops. Fred and Carrie turn this reality into a hilarious horror movie parody, where they are chased down by dozens of record spinners all seeking a little recognition for their good taste in music.
Change the World One Party at a Time (Season 3, Episode 2)
One of the show’s few moments that became quickly outdated in the wake of Trump-related protests, this sketch made hay of the then-indifference that most young hipsters exhibited towards actual activism once Obama made it into office. That is, unless you put a booming house beat behind the cause and include a couple of complimentary Mind Eraser shots.
Battle of the Gentle Bands (Season 3, Episode 6)
The Portland music scene is a relatively healthy mishmash of styles and ideas, but if there’s a prevailing “sound,” it’s the one being mocked in this brilliant sketch. This city is home to artists like Loch Lomond, the Shook Twins, and (until recently) Laura Gibson, whose earnest, delicate sounds are built atop a foundation of folk and Americana. Their occasionally timid approaches and performances make the “Portlandia” image of a wispy woman blowing on an array of feathers seem a little too probable.
Portland as Art Project (Season 3, Episode 9)
Packed with hyper-self-aware young people who seem to be performing for an unseen audience, Portland often does feel like an a city wide art installation à la Synecdoche, New York. The writers of “Portlandia” recognized this, too, and took the concept to an illogical extreme in which pursesnatchers, traffic cops, and even Carrie’s parents are all trying out their own artistic experiments.
Spyke Buys a Car (Season 4, Episode 5)
Though Portland dropped to third on the list of best bike cities, the city does love its two-wheeled transportation. The people who love biking can often be a little too into it. Naturally, “Portlandia” has one such citizen: Spyke, the recurring character best known for his court battle with Matt Groening over bootleg “Simpsons” t-shirts, his attempts to bring MTV back to its roots, and of course, bike rights activism. The genius was in the details with this character, from his shitty goatee and gigantic earlobe gauging, to his quick shift in priorities when his work forces him to buy a car.
Slow Driving (Season 4, Episode 5)
“Portlandia” doesn’t reserve the mockery for young hipsters. As aging scenesters themselves, Fred and Carrie save some of their most pointed commentary for those older folks who try to keep up with the culture of cool and fail miserably. On a similar wavelength as the Spyke sketch in the same episode, this clip showed how the headstrong beliefs of youthful idealism—like a steadfast refusal to drive a car—sometimes don’t quite translate to adulthood. No surprise then that when Armisen’s crunchy recurring character Peter has to get his partner Nance to the ER, it doesn’t go so well.
Club for My Friend’s Band (Season 7, Episode 8)
Pretty much all hip young people know at least one person in a band, and chances are, a healthy number of them aren’t that great. But you’re a supportive friend so you check out their show anyway, and sometimes wind up being one of the only people there. This great sketch from the current season had some lighthearted fun with that phenomenon, offering up a venue for such truly unexceptional bands and the loved ones who tolerate them.
Bonus cut: Because self-awareness is key to the hipster mindset, we have to quickly acknowledge the show’s humorous dig at Pitchfork, from season two. For the record: we could think of worse ideas for a band than Catnapped.
