What I’m Not Doing Now

Watching Portandia. This has nothing to do with being offended as a Portlander because we’ve only been here two years and they are a wild and wacky people. For instance, in the rest of the United States it is called a stop sign but in Portland it is a ‘stop and contemplate’ sign. Moving through the intersection does not appear to be a goal. In fact, they’ll gladly wave you through even if they have the right of way, something which makes my husband apoplectic and makes me glad he doesn’t carry a gun in the car since we left Utah.

I’ve stopped watching because they crossed the line from campy to stupid mid-episode two. Things are funny up to a point but if you use humor as a cudgel it doesn’t work (unless of course you use the cudgel to hit some guy in the nads and then that is the funniest damn thing ever- even guys laugh). The chicken bit in the restaurant? Funny. Wanting to know its name and the farm? Funny. Going to the farm and ending up in a cult? Stupid. It’s weird enough that Portlanders want to know where their food came from so leave it at that.

I’m also more than a little tired of (and a bit suspicious about) Fred Armisen in drag. He’s not attractive as a man and clown makeup makes him looks creepy not funny. Which, given how much he seems to like doing it, is in and of itself creepy.

Stupid and creepy- I had to accept it in my prom date but not in my comedy TV.