Portlandia

[effecT]

I thought it was smug.  It was of a piece with what it was lampooning.

Please point out what led you to that conclusion. I thought it was very funny at times and at others not so much. The women's bookstore wasn't for me as i happen to know real radical feminists and they are even more over the top...
But please elaborate, Sarah.

[Martin]

I disagree.

I agree with your disagreement!

I hope Portlandia airs for at least six seasons.

It might've been mentioned in this here very thread but at least it's coming back for a second season.

[Sarah]

Too tired today, effecT.  When I have a little more gas in the tank, I'll try to put into clean words what is currently an amorphous feeling of distaste.

[Sarah]

All right, I have a bit more vim this morning, so here goes:

Almost all of the humor in Portlandia derives from making fun of people who are utterly convinced they are superior to others, often for reasons that seem absurd to outsiders.  In making fun of them, however, Armisen and Brownstein are acting just like their targets:  they are as persuaded of their rightness and the wrongness of others as those feminist bookstore owners or the bike messenger.  The humor has everything to do with "us" (Armisen, Brownstein, and the viewers) ridiculing a series of "thems."  Maybe A. and B. are aware of the irony that they are engaging in the same behavior as those they deride, and I'm just missing it; but, even if they are, the humor remains cheap and mean-spirited.  I may find annoying most of the "thems" on the show, but I sure as hell don't like "us," either.

[effecT]

All right, I have a bit more vim this morning, so here goes:

Almost all of the humor in Portlandia derives from making fun of people who are utterly convinced they are superior to others, often for reasons that seem absurd to outsiders.  In making fun of them, however, Armisen and Brownstein are acting just like their targets:  they are as persuaded of their rightness and the wrongness of others as those feminist bookstore owners or the bike messenger.  The humor has everything to do with "us" (Armisen, Brownstein, and the viewers) ridiculing a series of "thems."  Maybe A. and B. are aware of the irony that they are engaging in the same behavior as those they deride, and I'm just missing it; but, even if they are, the humor remains cheap and mean-spirited.  I may find annoying most of the "thems" on the show, but I sure as hell don't like "us," either.

I think in this asessment you are presupposing a certain vantage point. I don't think Armisen and Brownstein to be bullies who just have a laugh at the expense of counter culture. Heck, counter culture is where they are coming from. What they put in their crosshairs are extreme positions and their logically derived excesses. For example: I was listening to "Citizen Radio" with Jamie Kilstein, because Sam Seder recommended it. I was also interested in the Bill Ayers interview they did. They are somewhat extreme vegans, which i am not. Aside from that disagreement i was willing to tune out their rhetoric and just take the good with the bad. But at some point i couldn't anymore. Jamie Kilstein exclaimed at one point: "If you are still a meat eater I just don't want to talk to you."
I thought that was great and turned off the podcast forever.
I am somewhat radical in my viewpoints but i will still talk to anybody and have a civilized argument and respect/expect that you have most likely some sort of reasoning as to why you arrived at this position and we can start from there.
There are dismissive extremes in counter culture to ensure congruence and differentiation. Exactly that radicalized dismissiveness is what Armisen and Brownstein are trying to point out and ridicule. They are calling for at least some reexamination of the sacrosanct in counter culture. They do hit and miss and do not nail everything as one would hope but they have a legitimate target. They are not ridiculing the individuals or the philosophies per se but rather their mutations. I also do not think their humor is cheap and/or mean, because they are using characters here that are supposed to be beyond good and evil. They are over the top and not to be taken for the real thing, which can be a lot worse if you ask me. If radical feminists on youtube, who i regularly watch, call for the extinction of all males that basically humbles all of A.'s and B.'s characters.
Also A. and B. don't follow up their program with shouts of "Get a job, you dirty hippies!". They are just calling for moderation of conviction and examination of principles.

[Stupornaut]

Yeah, that's a good point -- I think the main problem right now is that goofing on countercultural types, at least from an indie perspective, used to be something that actual artistic/bohemian/subcultural types used to do as a way of poking fun at themselves (which I'm guessing Portlandia is meant to do). Then it turned into a way for aging punk rock dudes to whine about poseurs ("man, these kids haven't earned it, I used to get beat up for dying my hair green and listening to the Misfits" -- as if high school kids aren't getting beaten up right now for wearing skinny jeans and listening to Hot Chip). Then it blew up into a big internet trend and now it's basically a way for self-conscious dudes who mistrust anything artsy or "weird" to sneer at "pretentious" people. I knew something was wrong when I started seeing people use the word "hipster" to denigrate other people for not liking $100 million dollar summer blockbusters.

[Alex_from_the_woods]

I gave it a chance but I'm not a fan of the show either. It has it's moments but I've stopped watching. The show does seem to have an undercurrent of mean-spiritedness to me. I know a lot of comedy is kinda mean at it's core but this isn't mean in a way that I find funny.

 Also, I get tired of seeing the guy in a dress. When you do it every other skit, it changes from funny to, "wow, that is one ugly and annoying woman".

[Kim Kelly]

"Put a Bird on It!" made me laugh. And the Sarah McLachlan piñata, oh my god.