This Week in the Mercury
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
TV Someone Outside of Portland Who Doesn't Like Portlandia
Posted by Wm.™ Steven Humphrey on Wed, Feb 22, 2012 at 1:29 PM
Hat tips to Bobby for this story... The Washington Post style blog has published a review of Portlandia: The Tour (in which Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein perform a live show to drum up viewership for Portlandia), and ummm... it sounds like the critic didn't like it very much. Says the Post's Dan Zak:
Tuesday night the rotting kudzu of post-ironic self-aware pseudo-hipsterism wrapped its twee tendrils around the 9:30 Club, which hosted two sold-out shows of “Portlandia: The Tour,” the live version of the cutesy sketch comedy on IFC, and it was probably the worst thing ever.
Zak goes on to give Portlandia (the TV show) moderate props for occasionally nailing the hipster mindset, but then swings back around to label the live show "a scam" and "an ill-conceived, half-baked, rudderless, 80-minute chat about nothing."
The most insufferable episode consisted of Armisen and Brownstein narrating a slide show of photos they “found” on each other’s iPhones. The pickled egoism that they lampoon on television was presented as unspun matter-of-factness on stage, creating a self-referential, self-defeating artistic disconnect, an ouroboros in a wormhole.
OUCH. But if it makes Fred and Carrie feel any better, I've been called much worse. READ THE REST HERE!
1
Portlandia isn't just about the sad clowns that make up hipsterism, it's an almost literal, word-for-word re-telling of the daily encounters one has with utter dipshits in Portland. I'm totally unsurprised someone outside of Portland wouldn't get it. This is one joke where you really do have to be there (or have been here).
2
People like #1 try to make the show immune to criticism by countering all negative comments about the show (even the live show) with either "You just don't get it!" or "You must be taking it personally because it's all about you!" As if those are the only possible reasons someone wouldn't find it funny. Can you people be any more repetitive and predictable?
If one has to have been here to get it, it wouldn't be airing on IFC.
Also, people in Portland who are dipshits aren't as unique as a lot of you like to think. Whenever people start ranting about Portland and types of people they think are found mainly here, it makes it pretty apparent they've never spent time in other cities, like Seattle, the Bay Area, etc. etc. The only annoying kind of dipshit unique to Portland is the one who's constantly bitching about the people in Portland, who are supposedly inferior or more annoying than the person doing the complaining.
If one has to have been here to get it, it wouldn't be airing on IFC.
Also, people in Portland who are dipshits aren't as unique as a lot of you like to think. Whenever people start ranting about Portland and types of people they think are found mainly here, it makes it pretty apparent they've never spent time in other cities, like Seattle, the Bay Area, etc. etc. The only annoying kind of dipshit unique to Portland is the one who's constantly bitching about the people in Portland, who are supposedly inferior or more annoying than the person doing the complaining.
4
No, not defensive at all. I can't just be sick of people repeating the same mindless things? Thanks for providing yet another example of what I'm talking about.
So people living in New Jersey can't make any legitimate points about how Jersey Shore is shitty television? It's all just because the show is "TOO CLOSE TO HOME!!!11!!" ?
So people living in New Jersey can't make any legitimate points about how Jersey Shore is shitty television? It's all just because the show is "TOO CLOSE TO HOME!!!11!!" ?
Posted by ($8239f8h248cerfehjf23@&*@ebdjhb23f237OCDBO#BD*(#
on February 22, 2012 at 3:20 PM
· Report
7
I'd say that if you take the time to comment on a blog about a tv show on IFC, you probably qualify as one of the "utter dipshits."
9
I'd feel the same way about a show that takes one-note jokes, pounds them into the ground with fierce repetition, and still fails to be funny that happened to be called "Williamsburg," too.
10
I don't find shows about brain-damaged people (played by Fred Armisen) to be funny. Like that bit about ye olde Portland of the 1890s. Clearly it's the 1890s. Carries asks "the 1990s?" and Fred grins like an idiot, pauses for what seems like 45 seconds, then says "no, the 1890s". Since we all knew that's what he meant were we supposed to laugh when he was able to find the phrase? You can fall asleep waiting for line delivery.
11
I hereby issue a challenge to Dan Zak to define the term "post-ironic." For that matter, I also issue him a second challenge to define the word "post," and a third to define the word "ironic." And while Zak may be right about the show for all I know, I'm pretty sure he wouldn't know an Ouroboros in a wormhole from an eagle claw up his own butthole...
12
Portlandia could be decent if they didn't just go for the low-hanging fruit and then pound said fruit into unfunny mush. There just isn't a lot of bang for the buck with this show.
13
Up here in Seattle we got so tired of seeing those incessant "Portlandia" birds everywhere that we decided to take action. Check out http://www.PutAPlaneOnIt.com and https://www.facebook.com/PutAPlaneOnIt. Go Jet City!
14
The horror! People outside Portland who have their own special snowflake, urban pioneer, pickle-making, long-bearded banjo dilettants don't find Portlandia fascinating! They have actual culture and real-world interests and worries! These folks don't dominate their city's culture! WTF! It's bullshit! They just don't get it.
17
Other than a couple of sketches in the first season Portlandia just isn't funny. The writing is poor, and Fred and Carrie aren't just bad actors, they are bad comic actors, sorry. I agree with the Jersey Shore comparison to a degree (although there are a lot of losers like that there, but who cares?) it is shitty television. The only people I encountered who "loved " that show were outright morons
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