As Portlandia nears its fifth season premiere, hipster darlings and the show’s stars Carrie Brownstein and Fred Armisen took to Reddit for an AMA, and as the acronym suggests they did answer anything.
As Portlandia nears its fifth season premiere, hipster darlings and the show’s stars Carrie Brownstein and Fred Armisen took to Reddit for an AMA, and as the acronym suggests they did answer anything.
Reddit user the_danny asked, “Do people yell cacao at you in the streets?” in reference to this classic Portlandia sketch between Lance and Nina when they develope a safe word for coitus. Fred Armisen replied enthusiastically, “ALL. THE. TIME. It’s actually very nice, very sweet.”
In true Portlandia fashion, it didn’t take long for the thread to take an unusual turn, with Fred Armisen posing a question in his own AMA.
“How about this: who knows more about the pyramids. US, or people 100 years after the pyramids? The people for whom it was more recent? Like, I actually don’t know the answer.”
This elicited a thoughtful response from Carrie Brownstein. “I think this involves 2 different kinds of knowing. One is experiential, and one is forensic. One has the benefit of time, which allows perspective, and critical analysis, and one has the benefit of oral history and tradition that feels very recent.”
They continued this train of thought until Brownstein called it off. “Guys, this is… whistle”
Asked about which costume/wig was their favorite by reddit user turangaleah, Fred Armisen said “For some reason, I like the… eco-terrorists. Or the gutter punks?”
Ecoterrorists start at 1:30:
Acknowledging Brownstein’s musical duties, reddit user skeletonvegas asked her “as it strange going back and forth between Portlandia and Sleater-Kinney this season?”
Brownstein’s band, Sleater-Kinney, recently reunited and announced a new tour and album, releasing a single called “Bury Our Friends.” Their first album in a decade, “No Cities to Love” comes out on 1/20/15.
Brownstein, gracious as always, responded to skeletonvegas saying, “No, I think… both are an extension of who I am, and of my creativity, so for me, it’s a joy to be able to do both and to work with people whom I love and admire.”
Since Portlandia is primarily a show based on improv, reddit user JoyfulZ asked “What’s an example of a skit that went completely off the original writing?”
Brownstein talked about the famed A-O River sketch. “…once that term [A-O River] was improvised, it became about that phrase and about Dave writing a letter, and yeah… the tangent became the center.”
Portlandia’s fifth season premieres tomorrow, Thursday January 8th at 10 p.m. on IFC.
The 10-episode season will reportedly differ from previous seasons and feature an over-arcing story, as opposed to the loosely connected sketches seen previously in the series. “We’re interested in changing the form,” Brownstein told Entreatment Weekly. “We see it possessing a lot of elasticity.”
