Y’all had to know this was coming.
Fred Armisen’s popular IFC show “Portlandia” just dropped a video on YouTube that takes a few gentle barbs at our beloved Austin. It’s not exactly insulting, but we’re also not too sure where they’re going with this. Yet.
Check it out:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Seo7XWxp1XY
Given that Armisen is wearing a cowboy hat, and the stroller-hating “mayor” of Austin (played by Kyle MacLachlan) — who looks more like Sam Elliott than Steve Adler — is talking about potentially moving into a new neighborhood here, it seems like Thursday’s episode of “Portlandia” may finally address the very real rivalry between our two liberal cities.
The description of the episode from IFC’s website reads, “Fred wants to do something big with his life so he moves to Austin; Carrie experiences motherhood.” So, that theory would seem to be about right. The footage above also gives subtle shoutouts to End of an Ear, Barton Springs Saloon, Gibson Bar, The ABGB, and G&S Lounge… Fingers crossed for more quality cameos from some of our favorite spots.
Even if they are going to rip on Austin, it would still be fun to see how Portland hipsters deal with Austin hipsters. They aren’t that different, according to Armisen, who also claims he doesn’t believe hipsters exist (a sign he definitely is one), but let’s just hope they don’t push too far on which city is better, Austin or Portland. We’ve long since settled that.
On the other hand, it would be nice if maybe Armisen came to Austin and discovered that Portland can’t be that Weird, considering that they stole our slogan. *ahem*
The episode this footage comes from airs on Thursday at 9 p.m. on IFC, if you’re into that sort of thing.
