Latest / Podlandia: A-O Rewatch with Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein / 104: Mayor is Missing

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104: Mayor is Missing · Podlandia: A-O Rewatch with Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: You're listening to Podlandia. Hi, Fred.
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: Hi, Carrie.
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: This is AO Rewatch.
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: It's a Portlandia Rewatch podcast. That's right. We're going to
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: talk about the fourth episode of the first season called
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: The Mayor is Missing.
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: The Mayor is Missing. But two things. One, we're working
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: on our potential uniforms for the podcast.
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: Yes.
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: Are we going for it? We don't know yet. Occasionally,
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: it's just nice to wear the same thing. I've made
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: a slight adjustment. I've buttoned the shirt up to the top.
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: Oh. I made no adjustments. It looks great. Thank you.
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: We like the ease of it. Yeah. Yeah. I also,
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: I just, I feel comfortable. I'm settling in. It's more
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: how I am in real life. I feel like it
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: would be slightly, like, deceitful. if I was wearing a
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: different thing every episode, that's just not, that's not how
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: it works. That's not how it works. I don't even
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: know if I have enough clothes for that.
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: If it were up to me.
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: We would have matching just button down shirts.
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: I think eventually. Yeah. We will surprise people by doing that.
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: Yeah. When you had that blue button down, or I
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: guess we'll see later.
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: The jacket.
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: There's that blue one where I also had a, I
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: had like a blue shirt.
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: Oh, yes. Mine was the jacket.
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: Okay. Well, maybe at some point we'll settle into it. Yeah.
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: But something like that. I think matching. Yeah, something matching
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: and uniform-y.
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: Okay. Let's work on it.
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: The other thing I want to say is that I
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: feel like eventually we will get to the origin of
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: the AO in AO Rewatch. Yes.
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: It will make sense. For some fans, they already know.
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: For some... They're like, why are they making these sounds?
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: Yes. All right. The mayor is... All right, the mayor
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: is missing. Yes. This is the second mayor episode. So
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: this is the first season. We didn't know how many
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: mayor episodes we were going to have in each season.
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: This is the second of three that we end up
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: doing in season one. And then, of course, Kyle MacLachlan,
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: who plays the mayor of Portland in our fictitious Portland,
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: comes back season after season and is... the mayor of
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: the show till the very end. Yes. But here we
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: are in our second storyline, our second wraparound, which is
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: that three-part sketch we do in every show. Here he
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: is in his second adventure with Fred and Carrie, who
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: he's just starting to get to know.
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: Yeah. And even though, I guess, we're presented as friends,
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: there's something about it that seems like an occupation, too.
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: We have a sort of Unofficial job. Yeah.
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: Advisors.
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: But the relationship's new. Like, we're still, you know, later seasons,
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: I think we legitimately become kind of friends with Mayor Kyle. Yeah.
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: But here, we're still feeling things out. And so, you know, anyway,
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: we'll get to that. But first, there is a cold open.
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: Did you read?
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: Did you read? Another oft-referenced Portlandia sketch. Yeah. Because it
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: is very relatable to sort of have that one-upping of,
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: you know, how informed are you about a certain topic?
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: How widely read are you?
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: How up-to-date?
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: Yeah. And also, like, how, like, specific or esoteric is
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: your reading?
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: You know, like, are you just reading mainstream stuff or, like,
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: are you kind of going down into, like, more rarefied things? worlds.
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: In fact, the question, did you read? You are hoping
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: the answer is no, because you want to be the
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: only person who read said article.
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: Exactly. So this is sort of a group of friends
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: one-upping each other with all of the different articles and
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: things they've read.
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: And this I would say is like a real, we're
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: getting to know the editors better because they really, there
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: are some things that they do that I'd never seen before.
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: And they're really funny and really effective.
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: Really funny. And I did mention this earlier, but a
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: shout out to one of our co-writers in this first season,
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: I'm sorry. I did mention her earlier, but I do
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: want to give a shout out to one of the
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: co-writers of this first season, Alison Silverman. This was a
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: very fledgling idea, an observation that I brought in. And
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: Alison looked up at the board or in the writer's room,
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: and we had sort of Talked about it, moved on.
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: And she said, I think there's something here. And I
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: think in those early days of writing, I would not
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: have kind of stuck up for this idea. And she did.
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: And then, of course, that was just the seed of
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: the idea. And then it turned into this much bigger
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: sketch with a lot of heightening. Yeah. Including us eventually
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: eating the paper, eating the magazine. I remember them making.
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: Consuming it.
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and it was like sugar paper. Remember, they made
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: like special edible paper made out of like sugar that
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: we were able to actually consume.
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: Wolf down.
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: Wolf down.
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: I remember before we knew how they were going to
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: edit it, this day we had shot a sketch that
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: we never used.
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: This is a long day.
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: A very long day. That was the ambulance sketch.
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: Oh, my gosh.
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: And we spent the whole day doing it. That sketch
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: has never seen the light of day. That never worked.
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: Right. We were tired.
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: We were really tired. I think maybe in the back
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: of this ambulance or some vehicle.
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: I remember riding around in the ambulance. Is it because Tyler,
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: our production designer, literally the ambulance was his work truck?
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: Yeah. The sketch was that we were ambulance drivers. And.
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: We keep coming back to this couple who are like
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: kind of out in the street. Like, I unfortunately think
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: this might've been my idea where, you know, when you
• 6:58
  Speaker 2: see an ambulance sort of, they're just, all that's happening
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: really is that someone's drunk. So they're like, you called
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: an ambulance and it turns out they probably don't even
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: really need it. So there's like an emergency. And then like,
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: what's really going on here? And then they're just like,
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: I'm just drunk. Something like that where they left. And
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: I think they keep having to come back. And I
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: think what we banked on was our small talk. Our
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: conversation in the ambulance was going to be the comedy.
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: That's where it was going to be like, don't worry,
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: I got it. We'll think of subject matter and we'll think.
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: And there was nothing there. There was just like.
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: Don't worry, you just have to film us driving all
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: over town.
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: We'll figure it out.
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: We're going to be funny ambulance drivers. Yeah. And then
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: we keep coming to the same couple.
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: Right. And I remember the other joke was just us
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: turning on that siren.
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: Oh, okay.
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: Yeah. It was just like, anyway. Yeah.
• 7:53
  Speaker 2: It wasn't a wraparound, but it was.
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: It felt long.
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: It was long. Like we kept coming back to the
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: same couple.
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: Yeah. And also clearly, clearly we had blocked out plenty
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: of time for it as well.
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: We did not have a lot of extra sketches, I
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: will say.
• 8:10
  Speaker 2: No. Once in a while.
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: Once in a while. But I had forgotten about that.
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: But I think, yeah, Tyler, his basically, his truck, his,
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: you know, like art truck was an ambulance. Yep. Decommissioned ambulance.
• 8:30
  Speaker 2: And I remember we were, we still had this one
• 8:32
  Speaker 2: to do. And we seriously discussed telling them we're too tired.
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: And this is, I don't know how I didn't realize
• 8:40
  Speaker 2: that's not how work works. That's not how shooting something works.
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: Now I'm like, that's not allowed.
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: Yeah. I also don't remember us doing this before that.
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: You know, like I, this feels like maybe the first
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: and only time that we would have even, I think
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: we even voiced that.
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: Oh, we did.
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: And Jonathan said, Jonathan Kreisel, our director and co-creator was like, no, no, no,
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: this is like, this will go fast. This is going
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: to be, this is worth it. You know, you're literally
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: just sitting there In this cafe. Yeah. And then there's
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: a beat at the end.
• 9:18
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: Where you run outside.
• 9:19
  Speaker 2: And he was right. He was right.
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: We did it. And it became.
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: Knocked it out.
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: Yeah. It became a really memorable sketch.
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: But yeah, we were very tired. Yeah. Yeah.
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: And luckily, some of the editing that they did was
• 9:36
  Speaker 2: repeating the same clip.
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: Yes.
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: Over and over. Which is, it's effective. It's effective.
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: It's effective. Well, it makes it like even though we
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: were trying to up each other, it just added to
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: sort of the weirdness of it. Yeah. And like almost
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: that it was sort of this like automated, like just
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: really strange like yeah machine like back and forth for
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: you to keep repeating certain things like what you say
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: like i did not like the ending yeah i did
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: not like the end yeah yeah um yeah this was
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: this was a fun one and also just one of
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: those things very much based on like real life observations,
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: you know, just that sense of whether you're at a
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: dinner party or even sometimes like with your, I sometimes
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: will still hear myself doing it with like my partner
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: or with friends, like, especially like around, like there's sort
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: of like a new topic or something that just feels
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: like very like, Oh, this is really relevant. This is like,
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: this is sort of the like topic du jour and
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: you want to be like the most informed about it.
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: And you're like, okay, well I've, I read the piece
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: in the New York times, but then I read the
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: piece in the Atlantic and then I read the piece
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: in the New Yorker and then they read a sub
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: stack and that, you know, and you're just like, then
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: you listen to a podcast about it and you're like,
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: and you do find yourself like if you're right, that
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: you want the other person to say no. So you say, Oh,
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: did you see that? Yes. You know, you read that
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: thing in the New York times. I did. Oh, well,
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: did you read it? Like, it's like, you're like trying
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: to get, to the most obscure version of it so
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: that you're like, well, I actually read the most about
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: this because I followed this like long winded path until,
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: you know, whatever, like that's the thing. And I feel
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: like I still do it.
• 11:30
  Speaker 2: I also think that the point of saying it is
• 11:34
  Speaker 2: to kind of say your opinion is starting to be
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: wrong about the other person. So like I read this article,
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: what you think you know about this topic, it turns out.
• 11:45
  Speaker 2: So it's, you're almost like you're breaking news to them. Like,
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: I feel like it's an enlightened, you're, you're getting enlightened
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: in a way.
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: That you're like, you're not considering whatever this article is about.
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 11:59
  Speaker 2: So like, I'm about to blow your mind.
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: Yeah. It can feel, if in the wrong, like context,
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: it can be really exhausting. Like at a dinner party
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: or like at like a, little gathering in a friend's
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: house and you kind of get like cornered by a
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: did you read person.
• 12:16
  Speaker 2: Yeah that's rough okay well let's see we'll do one
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: now um i read i can't even remember why i
• 12:23
  Speaker 2: read this that i bored myself just now i was
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: i i just now was starting to think about Something
• 12:35
  Speaker 2: about AI.
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: Oh, no, please let's not do AI.
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: I poured myself. I poured myself.
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: Honestly.
• 12:41
  Speaker 2: I'm with you. I'm with you. As the thought came
• 12:44
  Speaker 2: to my head, I started to like, the other side
• 12:48
  Speaker 2: of my brain was like.
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: Well, because now it would be like, did you read,
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: we would be naming the same publication and listing a
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: thousand articles.
• 12:56
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Right.
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: Did you read yesterday's thing? Did you read today's thing?
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: You know, like. Yeah. This afternoon is saying, do you
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: read the op-ed? Do you read the op-ed by the
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: other guy? Yes. Yes.
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: And it turns out that this is actually what's happening.
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 13:06
  Speaker 2: So no, I'm glad I didn't go down that path.
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: Thank you for coming with me on that little.
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: You're very, very welcome.
• 13:13
  Speaker 2: Sure.
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: So yeah. And this ends with us. Literally, of course,
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: the irony is that we just, we don't read the
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: sign right in front of us and we get run
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: over by a car.
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: It's because the sign says, don't walk.
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 13:28
  Speaker 2: It's like, And you see it blinking and blinking and
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: whose voice is saying that? Is that, is that Jonathan saying,
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: can you read?
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: It's I think it's John.
• 13:36
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: Yeah. And sorry, we, we mentioned John a lot. If
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: we were just saying John, it's, it's always John or Jonathan,
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: as we call him, Kreisel.
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: Uh, created the show with us and directed basically the
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: first two seasons before anyone else stepped in as a director,
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: which is pretty rare for TV. Just have one director, uh, Um, uh, yeah,
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: so it kept things pretty, I guess, consistent, you know,
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: and we became a very tight little unit in terms
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: of like trusting each other and understanding like the flow of,
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: you know, any given shoot day and yeah, really feel
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: lucky that we got to do that. Cause sometimes, you know,
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: you're just kind of at the mercy of a different director,
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: different sensibility or way of running the set. Um, which
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: can be really. exciting and kind of keep things moving
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: and keep things sort of like, Oh, okay. This is
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: keeping things interesting, but also can be disruptive if you
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: and the crew and everyone has like a workflow and
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: a way of doing things.
• 14:36
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: And so I feel like in these, this first season
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: for sure, but second season as well, we were just
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: like a well-oiled machine, like just really working very efficiently
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: and having a lot of fun.
• 14:49
  Speaker 2: And also sort of complimenting each other. And cause we,
• 14:53
  Speaker 2: They were like places where we were a little different
• 14:55
  Speaker 2: from each other.
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: Of course.
• 14:56
  Speaker 2: Which I really liked. That felt a little bit like
• 14:59
  Speaker 2: a band.
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: Yes. Hopefully greater than some of its.
• 15:13
  Speaker 2: Parts.
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: All right.
• 15:16
  Speaker 2: So we go to the mayor's missing part one.
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: Yeah. So we show up, what are we looking for?
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: A book?
• 15:23
  Speaker 2: For him to sign our book. Yeah.
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: He's written a memoir. Yeah. Autobiography.
• 15:29
  Speaker 2: Yeah. We needed it signed for some reason.
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: By the way, when Fred and Carrie, when we are
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: sitting there, that is the real like waiting room.
• 15:36
  Speaker 2: Of City Hall.
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: Of City Hall. And all the photos behind us are
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: the mayors of Portland.
• 15:44
  Speaker 2: Yep.
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: Um, and yeah, I think we talked about this a
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: couple of times, but always surreal how little, you know,
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: except for the mayor's office itself. And sometimes a few
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: maybe props in the waiting room that just is city hall. Yeah.
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: As is unchanged.
• 16:02
  Speaker 2: I remember the artwork in there. Sam Adams actually had
• 16:06
  Speaker 2: a giant painting. Is it Isaac Brock? Yeah. Right. Like a,
• 16:13
  Speaker 2: a giant painting of him.
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: Yeah, Isaac from Modest Mouse. Yeah. Yeah.
• 16:20
  Speaker 2: So we show up and our guest star is Edie McClurg.
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: People might recognize from Planes, Trains, and Automobiles, Ferris Bueller's
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: Day Off. She's got a great voice.
• 16:33
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: And she's playing the mayor's assistant. Yeah. Or, you know, receptionist.
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: Kind of unclear. But she's sort of giving us the runaround.
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: She's being a little cagey. Yeah. Like, where's the mayor? She's,
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: you know, very kind of cartoony. Yeah.
• 16:51
  Speaker 2: Perfect for that.
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: Yeah. And I would say, like, that sort of, like,
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: cartoonish stuff, we fall back on every once in a while. Like,
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: that becomes part of the lexicon of Portlandia, that we will,
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: with sound effects or whatever, kind of go to that. Yeah.
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: You know? Especially with the mayor, for some reason. Like,
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: there's something... yeah, it gets, it can get cartoony with
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: the mayor. I think just to help differentiate, like this is,
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: we're never really like too embedded in real politics here
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: or like the real way that a city works. Like,
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: just kind of helped keep it in this very like
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: mythical pretend environment. And that's, I think, I feel like
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: Kyle kind of led that in terms of that's sort
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: of who he created with this character. Yeah. And we
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: sort of We expand on that.
• 17:45
  Speaker 2: So at the end of this part, she says that
• 17:50
  Speaker 2: no one can find the mayor.
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 17:53
  Speaker 2: It's kind of a cliffhanger right there.
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: Kind of a cliffhanger. And again, some funny sound effects.
• 17:58
  Speaker 2: Oh, there's music stings too. We look at each other
• 18:03
  Speaker 2: and you think they're going to cut away. But they
• 18:05
  Speaker 2: do these music stings of like ding, ding. And it
• 18:11
  Speaker 2: goes for a little while.
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I will say now someone like Edie McClurg, like
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: growing up in the eighties, like Tim and nineties, but
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: to be an adult and working with someone who, when
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: I was a kid saw in movies, this was one
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: of those sort of surreal, you know, they'll be, they'll
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: end up being a lot of these kinds of moments
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: in Portlandia, depending on who the, the guest star was,
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: but this was definitely one of those weird, well, like
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: there's this, you know, I mean, I remember watching Ferris
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: Bueller's day off as a kid and now I'm acting
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: in a scene with this woman, you know, you just never,
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: it was, yeah.
• 18:48
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: Just those small little moments that kind of take you
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: by surprise. But I remember that when we were just
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: even like sitting in the trailer with her. And again,
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: we've talked about this, but we all shared a trailer.
• 19:00
  Speaker 2: That's right.
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Especially first season. We shared a trailer with Hair, makeup,
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: and wardrobe. And the couple who owned the trailer.
• 19:09
  Speaker 2: And the couple who owned the trailer.
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: Yeah. That was our dressing room. Yep.
• 19:13
  Speaker 2: It was everything.
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: It was everything.
• 19:15
  Speaker 2: And by the way, as an old camper.
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: Old camper. Not like a, yeah, brand new. No. 2011
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: or whatever. 2012 camper. Like a, maybe even late 90s.
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: Early 2000s.
• 19:27
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah. And then Amy McClure was great. Great.
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: Very fun. And then that's it. That's sort of, yeah,
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: that's part one is a cliffhanger. And then we move on.
• 19:41
  Speaker 2: So this is the house sitter sketch.
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: With Bryce and Lisa from Put a Bird on It. Yeah.
• 19:46
  Speaker 2: Which I wonder, like, why, since the show hadn't been
• 19:49
  Speaker 2: on yet. how did we know that those were characters
• 19:52
  Speaker 2: who would be viable to be repeated?
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's interesting because we, they also come back for
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: We Can Pickle That, which, again, has that more presentational, like,
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: we often use Bryce and Lisa for sketches that were
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: more presentational.
• 20:06
  Speaker 2: Hmm.
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: But perhaps because we were dealing with like very like
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: particular persnickety kind of like homeowners and we associated them
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: with that. But yeah, it, to me it's interesting that
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: we chose them. I don't think it was necessary. Like
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: now looking back, I think we maybe could have, it
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: could have been someone else.
• 20:27
  Speaker 2: We could have been someone else.
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: We could have even invented or made up new characters.
• 20:32
  Speaker 2: Um, I thought the same thing when I was watching it.
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Like also I think where it ends up going comedically,
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: like it doesn't even necessarily make sense for Bryce and Lisa.
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: Like it looks, the aesthetics of it really work.
• 20:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: You know, because there's, it's just like all these, you know,
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: the colors are very specific and, you know, everything's very meticulous.
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: But yeah, I'm with you on that. I thought, oh, okay.
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: Interesting choice.
• 21:00
  Speaker 2: I wonder if someone watching it who doesn't know the
• 21:02
  Speaker 2: show that well that it would make a difference to them.
• 21:05
  Speaker 2: But they wouldn't even clock it as Bryce and Lisa,
• 21:07
  Speaker 2: just like some weird couple.
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: Yeah, well, I mean, to be fair, I think except
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: for early on, I would say there are a couple
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: duos who you're going to know. And, you know, it's
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: like Nina and Lance, of course. Tony and Candice of
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: the Feminist Bookstore. I would say those are the only
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: two by at this point and Fred and Carrie. who
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: people would be like, okay, here they come again. I
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: think it takes a couple more seasons to realize, oh,
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: this is Kath and Dave. This isn't just some, another,
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: this is just another annoying couple. This is like, that's
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: Kath and Dave, or that's Peter and Nance. Like it
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: might take, I think for some of the other couples,
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: it took like Brendan and Michelle, especially like people, you know,
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: you really, I think we started writing for these characters
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: more and writing to their personalities and characteristics and, But here,
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: this feels like a kind of in-between.
• 22:01
  Speaker 2: Definitely.
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: We hadn't necessarily figured out all of who Bryson and
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: Lisa were, and maybe this wouldn't have been who we
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: chose in a second or third season. Yeah.
• 22:13
  Speaker 2: And Aubrey is funny as always.
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so Aubrey Plaza we hire. Ostensibly, in the sketch,
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: seems like someone we've never met before. Someone we've hired
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: through a service or a friend of a friend. And
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: she shows up to this sort of mid-century house where
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: we have a lot of rules for how she needs
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: to take care of things.
• 22:33
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: A house we shoot at multiple times over the years.
• 22:35
  Speaker 2: It's a really pretty house.
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 22:39
  Speaker 2: Mayor part two.
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: Oh, I thought you were going to say something more
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: about that. I was just going to say you're really
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: funny in this.
• 22:45
  Speaker 2: Oh.
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: I feel like this sketch mostly became about that, you
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: and that cactus. Or you and that, like there's this
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: section on the.
• 22:53
  Speaker 2: On the kitchen counter.
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: Counter, which became like 90% of the sketch.
• 22:57
  Speaker 2: It became most of it.
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 23:00
  Speaker 2: But you have a really funny line in it, which
• 23:02
  Speaker 2: I think is improvised. She's like, when is trash day?
• 23:06
  Speaker 2: Because she's house-sitting. And you say, we don't observe trash day.
• 23:11
  Speaker 2: That's a really good line.
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: Well, thanks. Yes, I couldn't tell you whether it was
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: improvised or not. But, yeah, there was some funny stuff there.
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: And we loved working with Aubrey, and I think this
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: might be the last time she appears on the show.
• 23:24
  Speaker 2: Oh, really?
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: I think so.
• 23:26
  Speaker 2: And then how– this is a really dumb question. The
• 23:30
  Speaker 2: show hadn't aired yet. What were we doing? Did she
• 23:34
  Speaker 2: shoot on the same day as another sketch, or did
• 23:37
  Speaker 2: we bring her back twice?
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: Twice. It's a good question. I actually, I vaguely remember
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: that she came back. Like maybe she had, we, we
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: normally would have, I think block and some block shooting.
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: I vaguely remember that she was like, and I'll be,
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: I'm going to see you guys again in another X
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: amount of days. Some of this stuff you just can't,
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: please don't hold us to this stuff.
• 24:00
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: Who knows? But that is my sense. Traditionally though. Yes.
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: Someone would come for a couple of three days and yeah.
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: All right. Oh, gosh. Okay. Next, we get to the
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: cell phone plan with Kumail Nanjiani. Yeah.
• 24:17
  Speaker 2: Now, there's so much going on in this sketch.
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: Yes.
• 24:20
  Speaker 2: There's so many memories of Portland for me because I
• 24:24
  Speaker 2: know where that store is on Sandy.
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: Yeah, which is gone.
• 24:28
  Speaker 2: It's gone. But I think there have been over the years,
• 24:31
  Speaker 2: there have been like new businesses in there.
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: I can guarantee you it's a weed store now.
• 24:36
  Speaker 2: That sounds right. Yeah. Now Kumail, brand new to the show.
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: Yep. We were already fans of his stand-up.
• 24:45
  Speaker 2: But he's so funny in this. We keep using the
• 24:49
  Speaker 2: word funny, but that's the deal. Yeah.
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: I mean, so Kumail came to set, and this will
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: happen again in season two. He completely... made up all
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: of these plans. Like he came with all of this
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: stuff written. It was not in the script. It was
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: a very threadbare, again, this first season, more outlines than script,
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: a couple of lines. So, you know, each scene has
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: a series of beats. It's like, okay, this is like,
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: here's a couple of beats and there's a beat change
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: and it gets the next part of the sketch. And,
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: you know, maybe there's whatever. Anyway, outline. He came with
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: all these cell phone plans written And he just was
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: really prepared. And it was incredible.
• 25:37
  Speaker 2: By the way, the premise of this part of the
• 25:39
  Speaker 2: sketch is we're trying to find the mayor. Fred and
• 25:41
  Speaker 2: Carrie is Fred and Carrie. We want to track his
• 25:44
  Speaker 2: cell phone. So we think by going to the cell
• 25:48
  Speaker 2: phone store, we can find some sort of a plan
• 25:51
  Speaker 2: where we can track his phone. So it's one of
• 25:54
  Speaker 2: those cell phone places, you know, there's like, they're just
• 25:59
  Speaker 2: cheap in a way. They're just like these sort of
• 26:01
  Speaker 2: flimsy stores where there's like, you have all these options.
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Kind of off, a little bit off brand. Yeah.
• 26:07
  Speaker 2: It's not of any specific brand. So he's a guy
• 26:11
  Speaker 2: working at this, almost like an electronic store. And we
• 26:16
  Speaker 2: are just ourselves just trying to get through the day
• 26:19
  Speaker 2: because it's an emergency. The mayor is missing.
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: Right. There's a sense of urgency on our end.
• 26:24
  Speaker 2: Yes.
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: Like we're agitated.
• 26:26
  Speaker 2: I think you literally say time is of the essence. And-
• 26:30
  Speaker 2: So we go in and we're just like, we just
• 26:33
  Speaker 2: want to get on his cell phone point. And he
• 26:35
  Speaker 2: slows everything down by asking what specifically we're signing up for.
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: Yeah. And he has all of these different plans.
• 26:44
  Speaker 2: And this is what life is like, I think.
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: Yeah. It just sucks all of the air out of
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: the room, but it's so funny. And it becomes, it's like,
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: he brings us into this world. Like, it doesn't matter.
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: Like our sense of time. is completely thrown out the window.
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: It's like you go into his universe, his sense of time,
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: and it's just like, we'll discard everything. It's almost like
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: you just leave your old life at the door. You
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: enter this world, and now you are susceptible. It's almost,
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: you feel like you're getting sucked into a cult. The
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: language is purposely confusing. You're essentially worn down.
• 27:26
  Speaker 2: Yeah. You are worn down, yes.
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 27:30
  Speaker 2: And our goal, or because we're in a rush, we
• 27:35
  Speaker 2: start to do this thing, which is like any plan
• 27:39
  Speaker 2: will do.
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: Yes.
• 27:40
  Speaker 2: Any cell phone plan, please hurry, whatever. Whatever it is
• 27:44
  Speaker 2: that people usually do here, and that's what makes it worse.
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: Yes. It should make it better. I actually remember, even
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: though we're literally shooting a sketch– I'm there with, ostensibly,
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: a lot of time. I was getting angry because Kumail
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: was doing such a good job of just completely just
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: like hampering like everything we were doing, like just putting
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: a wrench in the system over and over again. And
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: like every time you thought like, oh, we're finally here,
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: like three more doors would open. I'm like, no. No, no, no, no, no, no.
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: I made the decision. It's incredible. And it's a very
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: real phenomenon.
• 28:32
  Speaker 2: I think he uses the word plus a lot. You
• 28:35
  Speaker 2: want this and then pro. Oh, so you want the
• 28:38
  Speaker 2: family plan pro.
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Yes. Where they basically mean the same thing. It's
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: such a tiny difference. You're not even sure what the
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: difference is. And the more he says it, the less
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: it makes sense. And I remember we're so like beat
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: down and we're ready to spend whatever money and like
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: turn over anything. And he says, I'm like, okay, we'll
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: just like free. And I was like, okay, but we
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: still have to pay. He's like, yes, after you pay
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: for it, it's free. Okay. Yeah. And I was like, oh,
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: like just that's such a brilliant line. And like, it's just,
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: and yet you feel like that's the kind of stuff
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: that people say to you all the time. Like it just,
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: it feels like.
• 29:23
  Speaker 2: Yes.
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: Classic manipulation. Like you can convince yourself that that is
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: how free stuff works. Yeah. Yeah. Like once I've completely
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: just like expended all of my energy and like giving
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: you all all of my money, like now. Yes.
• 29:43
  Speaker 2: Yep.
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: Now it is free. Like, you know, and you're like,
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: and you're celebrating it. Cause you're like, I won. I won. Yeah. It's,
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: it's a brilliant piece of comedy and customer service. So yeah. And, Basically,
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: after this, Kumail comes back year after year. Yeah. I mean,
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: it's just we had so much fun with him.
• 30:07
  Speaker 2: Yeah. He became like a necessity for every season. Yeah.
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: Just that being thwarted, you know, just like just that.
• 30:17
  Speaker 2: By someone being official.
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: Yeah. And by bureaucracy.
• 30:21
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: You know, where like something that should be easy becomes
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: like the most like tortuous labyrinthine. Yeah. Thing in the world.
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: And you wish you had never started the journey.
• 30:35
  Speaker 2: One of the colors for the phones was pumpkin. I
• 30:40
  Speaker 2: think one is like glossy pumpkin or regular pumpkin.
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah.
• 30:47
  Speaker 2: Too good. Those were there. I think props brought them.
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: Props brought those.
• 30:57
  Speaker 2: We had sunglasses there. Yep. That had little sayings on them.
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 31:03
  Speaker 2: And a little display case that we got it for free.
• 31:05
  Speaker 2: I have a weird feeling that did that company sort
• 31:11
  Speaker 2: of give them to us? Sort of like, hey, will
• 31:13
  Speaker 2: you use these? Something, that might just be like a
• 31:18
  Speaker 2: false memory. But there was something about the glasses that
• 31:20
  Speaker 2: were like very allowed.
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: Yes. Like they almost wanted us to use them.
• 31:25
  Speaker 2: Something like that.
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Okay. Anything else in the mail?
• 31:34
  Speaker 2: Let's just sit in silence for a minute. You know
• 31:36
  Speaker 2: what I mean? Because there's a lot of talking. It's
• 31:39
  Speaker 2: okay not to be, you know what I'm saying? This
• 31:41
  Speaker 2: doesn't have to be a talk fest. Let's just think
• 31:45
  Speaker 2: for a little while. The next one is a new character.
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: To me, she's proto-Sandra.
• 31:56
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: So Sandra we'll talk about later. Sort of innocent, sweet.
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: hopeful sandra again kind of the like rom-com protagonist is
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: but this is not sandra but this is her wig
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: which is i think why i conflate the two but
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: it's not sandra it's a girl on a bike yeah
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: yeah and again one of these sketches that like when
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: i look back i'm like huh i don't you know
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: like i don't see what the POV is here. Like
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: it feels, it's probably the energy piece of this, you know,
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: just something that like kind of gets you to point
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: from point A to B. Like there's some music, there's,
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: but it's, yeah. Rewatching this, I felt very, I was like, okay.
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: There was like sort of an ambivalence.
• 32:44
  Speaker 2: And then she crashes into the bicycle rides guy. Yes.
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: So again, a little bit of that sort of crossover,
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: like of disparate worlds and a birthday reference, which comes
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: back which is sort of comes back later.
• 32:57
  Speaker 2: I mean, it is funny. The one thing that I,
• 33:01
  Speaker 2: you know, she keeps telling people that it's her birthday.
• 33:04
  Speaker 2: There's something about that that I think is kind of
• 33:07
  Speaker 2: funny sometimes. Like a person who's like, today's my special day.
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: The only thing, sorry, the only thing I can think
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: of is that we did later do a birthday sketch
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: about having to take out a birthday loan.
• 33:20
  Speaker 2: Oh, yes.
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: And To me, like I can't guarantee this is what
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: this is, but I know that there were certain ideas
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: that just kept percolating year after year. Like someone would
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: bring up something like, oh, like the way that like birthdays,
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: like the friends that like they're celebrating their birthday all week.
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: It doesn't even have to be a big birthday. It's
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: not 25, 30, 40, whatever. It's just like Monday night,
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: we're going to do drinks, blah, blah, blah. Tuesday, and
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: you're like, oh my God, like just when's your birthday?
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: Like it's really annoying. And I, that has really become
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: a thing. And I don't know if it's just because
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: like everything's, we're just living in like a dumpster fire
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: and people are like, birthdays are all I have anymore.
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: But like, and which I get, but like, you know,
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: it's still, it's like, it's a lot. And so to me,
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: this might be a very early iteration of of just
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: starting to think about like how birthdays have become this
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: sort of, taken on this disproportionate kind of importance. How
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: they do in someone's life. And it's not a very
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: like successful examination of that. It's just very like rudimentary
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: and half-baked even. But like, I do see this theme
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: coming back later.
• 34:35
  Speaker 2: Yeah, definitely.
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: So that's just what I'll throw out there. And we
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: will get to a much bigger sketch. And in fact,
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: a wraparound. Yep. About a destination for things. All right.
• 34:58
  Speaker 2: Now here's a third part of The Mayer. Now, this
• 35:05
  Speaker 2: is a rare thing in that there's actually four sketches
• 35:08
  Speaker 2: for the wraparound. Yeah. This one is where we find
• 35:14
  Speaker 2: him as a bass player.
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: Yes. So we are now just on the hunt. Well,
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: I think we, like, locate him on, right? Yes.
• 35:21
  Speaker 2: It ends up working.
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: Yeah. So we find him. He's at a bar.
• 35:25
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: So we, like, race into the bar. And, you know,
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: we do that, like, very classic comedy thing. We go
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: and reach for a guy. not him you know it's
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: like just very silly and we're like oh my gosh
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: he's not here uh.
• 35:39
  Speaker 2: So yeah we find him at this bar and.
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: Well first we think we haven't found him and so
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: we're like oh he's not here let's just get a
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: drink we're ordering milkshakes again there's just like and then.
• 35:50
  Speaker 2: You see the band this reggae band is playing and
• 35:56
  Speaker 2: he's playing bass but the camera even finds him we're
• 35:58
  Speaker 2: like look And the camera sees that he's up there
• 36:01
  Speaker 2: playing bass.
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: Yeah. So we have found the mayor. He has joined
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: a reggae band. And then we cut to a series
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: of newspaper articles that have all the puns, like, you know,
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: New York Post style. Yeah. Mayor's gone reggae.
• 36:20
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: Or is it mayor comes out as reggae? Anyway.
• 36:24
  Speaker 2: There are many. Yeah, there are many.
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: And it's really funny. They're pretty funny.
• 36:27
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: And kind of Simpsons-y. Yeah.
• 36:29
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Also that it would be a crime of some kind.
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah.
• 36:34
  Speaker 2: One of them is, one of the headlines is mayor
• 36:37
  Speaker 2: in a jam.
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: Yes. Which is great.
• 36:39
  Speaker 2: That's pretty good.
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: Yeah. So, yeah, I mean, that's basically the reveal of Kyle. Yeah.
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: Having gone off to join a band.
• 36:48
  Speaker 2: And this is reggae band and it's as simple as that.
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: Yeah. And then.
• 36:56
  Speaker 2: So it's almost like. an ending in a way, even
• 37:01
  Speaker 2: though there's another piece to it.
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: Right. It's the end of that part of it.
• 37:05
  Speaker 2: Yeah. And it's also like the story actually has an answer.
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: Yes.
• 37:12
  Speaker 2: A conclusion.
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: And Kyle does play bass.
• 37:15
  Speaker 2: Yeah. You could tell as he's playing.
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 37:17
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: And I actually remember Kyle McLaughlin really enjoying jamming with
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: those guys. Like, you know, I feel like anytime we
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: have music on set, and actual like people playing or
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: any of the actors get to play, people really enjoy it.
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: I just remember I did in that moment feel like, Oh,
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: Kyle's like, he's like gone off. He's like cool now.
• 37:40
  Speaker 1: And he's in a band and we're just stuck here
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: as advisors. We just, we just work for the city
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: and he's like in a cool band now. Um, All right,
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: next we have a sketch that literally is filmed at
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: Wieden and Kennedy, which is a pretty huge ad agency
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: in Portland, although it's headquartered in Portland, although there's offices
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: in New York, Amsterdam, all over the world, really. Pretty
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: renowned ad agency. Came up with the Nike's Just Do
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: It slogan and Air Jordans and anyway, no, like pretty,
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: pretty major for Portland, especially.
• 38:24
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 38:25
  Speaker 1: And, uh, they let us shoot there.
• 38:29
  Speaker 2: And I think we know some people from widening Kennedy.
• 38:32
  Speaker 2: So it was, and the office that you see there,
• 38:34
  Speaker 2: it's just, Oh, the sketch takes place in an ad,
• 38:37
  Speaker 2: at an ad age, at an ad agency.
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: And we call it widening Kennedy in it. Right.
• 38:42
  Speaker 2: That's right. Yes. And then it's a sort of labyrinth.
• 38:45
  Speaker 2: The office is so gigantic. And that really is how that,
• 38:49
  Speaker 2: that building is.
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 38:50
  Speaker 2: Where there's like a nest up top and a very
• 38:54
  Speaker 2: sort of, yeah, imaginative in its design.
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: And between Slater Kinney going on hiatus and me starting Portlandia,
• 39:04
  Speaker 1: I worked at Whitehead and Kennedy for six months. So
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: it felt like a weird, like fictional version of my
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: own early experiences there. You're like walking in very wide eyed,
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: feeling very out of my depth into this like creative environment,
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: but that was very different than the kind of creative
• 39:26
  Speaker 1: environment I'd been in. And like, yeah, and a new
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: language to learn, like a new culture. And this character
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: is sort of going through that where this is, it's
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: like very Alice in Wonderland.
• 39:39
  Speaker 2: I think we worked on something together at Wynette Kennedy
• 39:45
  Speaker 2: where you had a project that And we had to
• 39:48
  Speaker 2: write something together.
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: Oh my God, you're right. That's when I still worked there. Yeah. Yeah.
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: And we went there. Yep. Yeah.
• 39:56
  Speaker 2: I don't know what the project was. Just some, I
• 40:00
  Speaker 2: don't remember what it was, but.
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: It obviously was not something that ever got made.
• 40:05
  Speaker 2: Yeah, but something that, but I do think we wrote it.
• 40:07
  Speaker 2: Like I think we worked on it for real. In
• 40:11
  Speaker 2: this sketch, I'm doing an impression of one.
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: Of our producer's They love that.
• 40:19
  Speaker 2: Andrew Singer.
• 40:19
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 40:20
  Speaker 2: That's me doing out like how he stands and how
• 40:23
  Speaker 2: he talks and he's in it.
• 40:25
  Speaker 1: And he's in it. And I will say you are
• 40:29
  Speaker 1: a very, you are a great impressionist.
• 40:33
  Speaker 2: Thank you.
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: And one thing that people often ask you to do
• 40:37
  Speaker 1: is to do like impressions of them. Like I've heard
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: people ask you like, do me.
• 40:44
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: Like it's not something that, like people, people actually find
• 40:48
  Speaker 1: it very flattering to sort of see like that, you know,
• 40:53
  Speaker 1: some mannerism or way they speak has like had an
• 40:56
  Speaker 1: effect on another person. They've been able to sort of like,
• 40:59
  Speaker 1: you know, internalize it, reconstitute it and like, you know,
• 41:02
  Speaker 1: put it back out there. So I, when I'm around you,
• 41:04
  Speaker 1: I've heard people ask for that. And then you often
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: just voluntarily will do in a really fun way, impressions
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: in the room. Like it's just how you operate in
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: the world. So I have a feeling. In fact, I
• 41:19
  Speaker 1: know that like the Andrew impression had already come up. Yes.
• 41:23
  Speaker 2: That's what it seems like.
• 41:23
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Cause we were working with Andrew all the time.
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: He was our EP. He was with us in Portland.
• 41:28
  Speaker 1: We saw him all the time. And yeah, he's very specific.
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: That's very specific mannerisms.
• 41:35
  Speaker 2: And if you're watching the sketch, he's at the end,
• 41:39
  Speaker 2: he's sort of like, he works there, but he's like
• 41:41
  Speaker 2: lying down looking at his phone.
• 41:43
  Speaker 1: Yes. Yes.
• 41:45
  Speaker 2: Um, and then Erin McGarry, I think is in this, right? Um,
• 41:49
  Speaker 2: who's in a few more sketches as well, or a
• 41:52
  Speaker 2: friend of yours as well.
• 41:53
  Speaker 1: Yeah. She's the one with the birthday where I, my
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: character writes stay cool on the birthday card. Yeah.
• 42:01
  Speaker 2: So that's one of the points of this sketch is
• 42:04
  Speaker 2: that there's a birthday going on and it's a big deal.
• 42:08
  Speaker 1: Yep. And then this is also one of the first
• 42:11
  Speaker 1: uses of just like weird post-production, like special effects where,
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: We go up to this like nest, which they really
• 42:18
  Speaker 1: have there. I think we might've called it something else
• 42:20
  Speaker 1: in the sketch.
• 42:21
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 42:21
  Speaker 1: Basket. The basket. And it takes off. Yeah. Yeah. It
• 42:25
  Speaker 1: like launches.
• 42:26
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 42:26
  Speaker 1: Like a hot air balloon or a rocket or something.
• 42:29
  Speaker 1: And yeah, obviously we did that in post. Yeah. Yeah.
• 42:35
  Speaker 2: I'm glad we got to see the inside of Wyman
• 42:37
  Speaker 2: and Kennedy. Yeah. That was worth shooting.
• 42:40
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 42:40
  Speaker 2: Yeah. From there we go to the real ending of
• 42:59
  Speaker 2: the wraparound.
• 43:00
  Speaker 1: I love a press conference.
• 43:02
  Speaker 2: This is one of my favorite things.
• 43:03
  Speaker 1: Because I love Pat Boyle.
• 43:05
  Speaker 2: Pat Boyle, who plays one of the journalists.
• 43:07
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and so is Dwight Jeans. And I just really
• 43:11
  Speaker 1: enjoy this press conference because they're speaking in that very, like, officious...
• 43:17
  Speaker 1: you know, journalistic tone, like asking serious questions, but what's
• 43:21
  Speaker 1: coming out of their mouth are those questions specific to
• 43:26
  Speaker 1: the music that the mayor is playing.
• 43:28
  Speaker 2: Like they're like reggae specific questions. And I love it.
• 43:33
  Speaker 2: I could listen to that all day. Just the idea
• 43:36
  Speaker 2: of like getting serious in politics about dub.
• 43:39
  Speaker 1: Yes. Yes. Pat Boyle says, would you consider this dance
• 43:44
  Speaker 1: hall or real roots reggae? Yeah. And Kyle's answer is
• 43:47
  Speaker 1: really earnest. And then she says, would you consider yourself
• 43:52
  Speaker 1: a skipper or a rude boy? And he really thinks
• 43:54
  Speaker 1: about it. The tone, though, is as if she's asking
• 43:59
  Speaker 1: about what are you going to do about taxes? It's
• 44:04
  Speaker 1: just treated with that severity.
• 44:06
  Speaker 2: As a press conference in front of the real city hall.
• 44:09
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 44:09
  Speaker 2: And to see the mayor... use the name Augustus Pablo.
• 44:16
  Speaker 1: Which I believe he just, I mean, Kyle knows Augustus Pablo. Yeah,
• 44:21
  Speaker 1: he really just improvised that.
• 44:23
  Speaker 2: I just want that from a TV show.
• 44:25
  Speaker 1: Yes.
• 44:26
  Speaker 2: I want to hear the name Augustus Pablo.
• 44:28
  Speaker 1: 100%. Exactly. Yeah. Like it's so satisfying to me to
• 44:34
  Speaker 1: just like get to mention that. like a brilliant artist that,
• 44:40
  Speaker 1: you know, just that you're not going to normally hear
• 44:41
  Speaker 1: on TV, just in, in a bizarre episode and, and
• 44:48
  Speaker 1: like a, a silly wraparound and then gets to name
• 44:52
  Speaker 1: drop like a really cool artist. And in, and in
• 44:56
  Speaker 1: a way where you can also tell, like, I also
• 44:59
  Speaker 1: love knowing that Colin McLaughlin was being earnest about that.
• 45:03
  Speaker 1: You know, where you sort of see through just like,
• 45:06
  Speaker 1: these are the parts where I'm being silly and then no,
• 45:08
  Speaker 1: I'm really going to say an influence of mine.
• 45:10
  Speaker 2: Yes.
• 45:11
  Speaker 1: For bass. That was very fun.
• 45:13
  Speaker 2: That was great. Yeah. Talked about the bass he used.
• 45:16
  Speaker 2: I mean, everything.
• 45:18
  Speaker 1: Went really into like the bassiness, you know, like again.
• 45:21
  Speaker 2: Yeah. And the band is there too. The band are
• 45:23
  Speaker 2: off to the side. There's a shot of them laughing
• 45:26
  Speaker 2: and Joanna's in it. Yeah. Yep. um, a friend of
• 45:31
  Speaker 2: ours who.
• 45:32
  Speaker 1: Was playing the mayor's wife never comes back to play
• 45:34
  Speaker 1: the mayor's wife, but no.
• 45:36
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 45:37
  Speaker 1: And again, there's sometimes those early decisions I see on
• 45:39
  Speaker 1: other shows too. You're like, Oh, well you think you're
• 45:43
  Speaker 1: not going to need a, you're like, Oh, he'll have
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: a wife in this scene, but you don't think like, Oh,
• 45:46
  Speaker 1: well maybe we should actually cast. Yeah.
• 45:48
  Speaker 2: But then never really comes up.
• 45:49
  Speaker 1: It never really comes up. So you just cast our,
• 45:52
  Speaker 1: our friend, but it's also enjoyable to me to have
• 45:55
  Speaker 1: our friends in it. Um, But yeah, I really like
• 45:58
  Speaker 1: the stuff around City Hall.
• 46:00
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 46:00
  Speaker 1: And I love... We do a lot of press conferences
• 46:03
  Speaker 1: on the show.
• 46:05
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 46:05
  Speaker 1: Which I really enjoy.
• 46:05
  Speaker 2: It's a good device, for sure.
• 46:07
  Speaker 1: And Kyle's so good at this stuff. So, like, so believable. Yeah.
• 46:12
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 46:13
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that was a really fun one.
• 46:16
  Speaker 2: Agreed.
• 46:17
  Speaker 1: Yeah. I would say I really enjoyed this episode. In
• 46:21
  Speaker 1: season one, this is probably one of my favorite... Late
• 46:26
  Speaker 1: season one episodes.
• 46:27
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 46:29
  Speaker 1: Very satisfying.
• 46:30
  Speaker 2: Definitely.
• 46:31
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 46:32
  Speaker 2: Well, Carrie?
• 46:33
  Speaker 1: Well, Fred?
• 46:34
  Speaker 2: Let's just sit in silence.
• 46:37
  Speaker 1: Okay. What are you going to wear?
• 46:41
  Speaker 2: For the next one?
• 46:41
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 46:44
  Speaker 2: I wish I could find something that was like the
• 46:48
  Speaker 2: chore coat. That's not necessarily a chore coat. Because that's
• 46:51
  Speaker 2: my favorite thing I've worn.
• 46:52
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 46:52
  Speaker 2: But something a little less jacket-y.
• 46:56
  Speaker 1: Less jackety. Only a little. Jacket adjacent.
• 47:01
  Speaker 2: Jacket adjacent, yeah.
• 47:05
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 47:06
  Speaker 2: I think I can do it.
• 47:07
  Speaker 1: Jacket adjacent it is. See you next time. We watch.