104: Mayor is Missing

Podlandia: A-O Rewatch with Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein

Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein revisit Season 1's 'The Mayor is Missing' episode of Portlandia, highlighting its standout sketches, gues

Key takeaways

• The 'Did you read?' sketch originated from a simple idea that evolved into a complex, heightening comedic sequence involving edible paper.

Main topics

• Portlandia Season 1 Episode Rewatch
• Guest Star Performances (Aubrey Plaza, Kumail Nanjiani, Edie McClurg)

Notable quotes

We're still feeling things out. And so, you know... Anyway, we'll get to that.

Conclusion

This episode stands as a fan favorite due to its layered humor, stando

Transcript preview

Speaker 7 (0:00) This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed human. On the new podcast, Solita, we share the messy reality of traveling alone as a woman. I can wait four hours for the next bus or this random dude is offering me a ride on his motorcycle. I chose option B. I'm Julie Pinheiro and I travel by myself because it's a rare space where I can say yes without asking anyone else first. I'm on a mission to reclaim the word Solita, trading the pity for possibility. Listen to Solita on the iHeartRadio app. Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Speaker 7 (0:40) I survived nine months in captivity, and I've spent my life exploring how other people survive what should have destroyed them. I'm Elizabeth Smart, and these are The Survivor Files. Every week, I'm with survivors who live through the unthinkable, abducted, stalked, controlled, and nearly silenced. These are stories about what it takes to make it out alive. Listen to The Survivor Files with Elizabeth Smart on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. If Speaker 3 (1:12) your bookshelf and your For You page are equally important to your personality, welcome home. Pro Society is a weekly podcast that's part book club, part group chat for anyone who thinks Pride and Prejudice and Love Island deserve the same level of discourse. Each week, we're connecting the dots between books, the internet, and pop culture with your favorite writers, book talk creators, and plenty of overthought opinions. Yeah, I'm obsessed. I'm obsessed. Listen to Pro Society on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Speaker 8 (1:45) Hey, this is Hayes Davenport. And Sean Clements. We host the podcast Hollywood Handbook. Each week, we talk to someone in show business and try to help them with their careers and see what they have to offer us. Everyone has a good time and no one gets mad at their publicist for letting them do our show. We've had a lot of great guests like Sarah Sherman, Adam Scott, Danny McBride, Ben Stiller, and a lot of other big shots that wouldn't be where they are without us. Listen to Hollywood Handbook on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Speaker 2 (2:45) Hi, Fred. Speaker 6 (2:46) Hi, Carrie. Speaker 2 (2:47) This is AO Rewatch. It's Speaker 6 (2:50) a Portlandia Rewatch podcast. That's Speaker 2 (2:53) right. Speaker 6 (2:53) We're going to talk about episode, the fourth episode of the first season. Speaker 6 (3:02) called The Mayor is Missing. Speaker 2 (3:04) The Mayor is Missing. But two things. One, we're working on our potential, like, uniforms for the podcast. Yes. Are we going for it? We don't know yet. Occasionally, it's just nice to wear the same thing. I've made a slight adjustment. I've buttoned Speaker 1 (3:20) the Speaker 2 (3:20) shirt up to the top. Speaker 1 (3:21) Oh. I made no adjustments. It looks great. Thank you. Speaker 2 (3:27) We like the ease of it. Yeah. Yeah. I also, I just, I feel comfortable. I'm settling in. It's more how I am in real life. I feel like it would be slightly like deceitful if I was wearing a different thing every episode. That's just not, that's not how it works. That's not how it works. I don't even know if I have enough clothes for that. Speaker 1 (3:51) If it were up to me, we would have matching just button-down shirts. I Speaker 2 (3:58) think eventually we will surprise people by doing that. Yeah. Speaker 1 (4:03) When you had that blue button down, or I guess we'll see later. The Speaker 2 (4:07) jacket? Speaker 1 (4:08) There's that blue one where I also had a, I had like a blue shirt. Speaker 2 (4:13) Oh, yes. Mine was the jacket. Speaker 1 (4:15) Yeah. Speaker 2 (4:16) Okay. Well, maybe, maybe at some point we'll settle into it. Speaker 1 (4:19) Yeah. But something like that. I think matching. Yeah. Something matching and uniform-y. Speaker 2 (4:24) Okay. Let's work on it. Speaker 1 (4:25) Yeah. Speaker 2 (4:25) The other thing I want to say is that I feel like eventually we will get to. The origin of the AO in AO Rewatch. Speaker 6 (4:34) Yes. Speaker 1 (4:36) Yeah. Speaker 2 (4:37) It will make sense. For some fans, they already know. Speaker 1 (4:41) For some. Speaker 1 (4:44) They're like, why are they making these sounds? Speaker 2 (4:46) Yes. All right. The mayor is, all right, the mayor is missing. Speaker 1 (4:51) Yes. Speaker 2 (4:51) This is the second mayor episode. So this is the first season. We didn't know how many mayor episodes we were going to have in each season. This is the second of three that we end up doing in season one. And then of course, Kyle McLaughlin, who plays the mayor of Portland in our fictitious Portland. comes back season after season and is the mayor of the show till the very end. Speaker 6 (5:17) Yes. Speaker 2 (5:18) But here we are in our second storyline, our second wraparound, which is that three-part sketch we do in every show. Here he is in his second adventure with Fred and Carrie, who he's just starting to get to know. Speaker 1 (5:32) Yeah. And even though I guess we're presented as friends. There's something about it that seems like an occupation too. We have a sort of... Speaker 2 (5:42) Unofficial job, advisors. But the relationship's new. We're still... Later seasons, I think we legitimately become kind of friends with Mayor Kyle. But here, we're still feeling things out. And so, you know... Anyway, we'll get to that. But first, there is a cold open. Speaker 1 (6:03) Did you read? Speaker 2 (6:04) Did you read? another oft-referenced Portlandia sketch. Yeah. Because it is very relatable to sort of have that one-upping of, you know, how informed are you about a certain topic? Speaker 1 (6:17) Yeah. Speaker 2 (6:18) How widely read are you? Speaker 1 (6:20) How up to date. Yeah. Speaker 2 (6:23) How that, and also like how like specific or esoteric is your reading? Yeah. You know, like, are you just reading mainstream stuff or like, are you kind of going down into like more rarefied? worlds. Speaker 1 (6:40) In fact, the question, did you read? You are hoping the answer is no, because you want to be the only person who read Speaker 2 (6:47) said Speaker 1 (6:48) article. Speaker 2 (6:49) Exactly. So this is sort of a group of friends one-upping each other with all of the different articles and things they've read. Speaker 1 (6:58) And this, I would say, is like a real, we're getting to know the editors better because they really, Speaker 6 (7:04) there are some things that they do that. I had never seen before. And they're really funny and really effective. Speaker 2 (7:12) Really funny. And I did mention this earlier, but a shout out to one of our co-writers in this first season, I'm sorry, I did mention her earlier, but I do want to give a shout out to one of the co-writers of this first season, Alison Silverman. This was a very fledgling idea, an observation that I brought in. And Alison looked up at the board or in the writer's room, and we had sort of talked about it, moved on. And she said, I think there's something here. And I think in those early days of writing, I would not have kind of stuck up for this idea. And she did. And then, of course, that was just the seed of the idea. And then it turned into this much bigger sketch with a lot of heightening. Yeah. Including us eventually eating the paper, eating the magazine. I remember them making it. Yeah. And it was like sugar paper. Remember, they made like special edible paper. made out of like sugar that we were able to actually consume. Wolf Speaker 1 (8:10) down. Wolf Speaker 2 (8:11) down. Speaker 1 (8:12) I remember before we knew how they were going to edit it. This day, we had shot a sketch that we never used. Speaker 2 (8:21) This is a long day. A very long day. That was Speaker 1 (8:24) the ambulance sketch. Speaker 2 (8:25) Oh, my gosh. Speaker 1 (8:27) And we spent the whole day doing it. That sketch has never seen the light of day. That never worked. Speaker 2 (8:33) Right. Speaker 1 (8:34) We were Speaker 2 (8:35) tired. Speaker 1 (8:36) We were really tired. I think maybe in the back of this ambulance or some vehicle. Speaker 2 (8:40) I remember riding around in the ambulance. Is it because Tyler, our production designer, Literally, the ambulance was his work truck. Speaker 1 (8:49) Yeah. The sketch was that we were ambulance drivers. And we keep coming back to this couple who are kind of out in the street. Speaker 1 (9:06) I unfortunately think this might have been my idea where, you know, when you see an ambulance sort of, they're just, all that's happening really is that someone's drunk. So they're like, you called an ambulance Speaker 6 (9:17) and it turns out they probably don't even really need it. So there's like an emergency and then like, what's really going on here? And then they're Speaker 1 (9:25) just like, I'm just drunk. Something like that where they left. And I think they keep having to come back. And I think what we banked on. was our small talk. Our conversation in the ambulance was going to be the comedy. that's where it was going to be like, don't worry, I got it. We'll think of subject matter and we'll think. And there was nothing there. There was just like. Speaker 2 (9:48) Don't worry, you just have to film us driving all over town. Yeah. We'll figure it out. Speaker 1 (9:51) We're going to be funny ambulance drivers. Yeah. Speaker 2 (9:53) And Speaker 1 (9:53) then we keep coming to the same couple. Speaker 2 (9:55) Right. Speaker 1 (9:56) And. Speaker 2 (9:57) I remember the other joke was just us turning on that siren. Speaker 1 (10:00) Oh, okay. Speaker 2 (10:01) Yeah. It was just like, anyway. Speaker 1 (10:03) Yeah. It wasn't a wraparound, but it was. Speaker 2 (10:07) It felt long. It Speaker 1 (10:08) was long. Like we kept coming back to the same couple. Speaker 2 (10:11) Yeah. And also clearly, clearly we had blocked out plenty of time for it as well. Yeah. We did not have a lot of extra sketches, I will say. No. Speaker 1 (10:24) Once in a while. Speaker 2 (10:25) Once in a while. But I had forgotten about that. But I think, yeah, Tyler, his basically, his truck, his, you know. Like art truck was an ambulance. Yep. Decommissioned ambulance. Speaker 1 (10:41) And I remember we were, we still had this one to do and we seriously discussed telling them we're too tired. And this is, I don't know how I didn't realize Speaker 6 (10:52) that's not how. Speaker 6 (10:55) work works. That's not how shooting something works. Right. Speaker 2 (10:58) Now Speaker 6 (10:59) I'm like, that's not allowed. Speaker 2 (11:01) Yeah. I also don't remember us doing this before that. You know, like I, this feels like maybe the first and only time that we would have even, I think we even voiced that. Oh, we did. And Jonathan said, Jonathan Kreisel, our director and co-creator was like, no, no, no, this is like, this will go fast. This is going to be, Speaker 1 (11:22) this Speaker 2 (11:23) is worth it. You're literally just sitting in this cafe. Yeah. And then there's a beat at the end where you run outside. Speaker 6 (11:32) And he was right. He was right. We did Speaker 2 (11:34) it. And it became. Knocked Speaker 6 (11:35) it Speaker 2 (11:35) out. Speaker 6 (11:35) Yeah. It became a Speaker 2 (11:37) really memorable sketch. Yeah. Speaker 1 (11:39) But Speaker 2 (11:39) yeah, we were very tired. Yeah. Yeah. Speaker 1 (11:42) And luckily, some of the editing that they did was repeating the same clip. Speaker 2 (11:50) Yes. Over Speaker 1 (11:51) and over. Which is. It's effective. Speaker 2 (11:55) It's effective. Well, it makes it like, even though we were trying to up each other, it just added to sort of the weirdness of it. Speaker 6 (12:05) Yeah. Speaker 2 (12:05) And like almost that it was sort of this like automated, like just really strange, like machine-like back and forth for you to keep repeating certain things. Like what do you say? Like, I did not like the ending. Yeah, I did not like the ending. Yeah, yeah. Speaker 2 (12:23) Yeah, this was a fun one. And also just one of those things very much based on... like real life observations. You know, just that sense of whether you're at a dinner party or even sometimes like with your, I sometimes will still hear myself doing it with like my partner or with friends, like, especially like around, like there's sort of like a new topic or something that just feels like very like, oh, this is really relevant. This is like, this is sort of the like topic du jour. And you want to be like the most informed about it. And you're like, okay, well, I've, I read the piece in the New York times, but then I read the piece in the Atlantic and then I read the piece in the New Yorker and then they read a sub stack and that, you know, and you're just like, then you listen to a podcast about it. You're like, and you do find yourself like, if you're right that you want the other person to say no. So you say, Oh, did you see that? That's, you know, you read that thing in the New York times. I did. Oh, well, did you read it? Like, it's like, you're like trying to get to the most obscure. version of it so that you're like, well, I actually read the most about this because I followed this like long winded path until, you know, whatever, like that's the thing. And I feel like I still do it. Speaker 1 (13:42) I also think that. The point of saying it is to kind of say your opinion is starting to be wrong about the other person. So like I read this article, what you think you know about this topic, it turns out. So it's almost like you're breaking news to them. Speaker 2 (14:01) Like Speaker 1 (14:02) I feel like you're getting enlightened in a way. Right. That you're like, Speaker 6 (14:07) you're not considering whatever this article is about. Speaker 2 (14:11) Right. Speaker 6 (14:11) So like I'm about to blow your mind. Speaker 2 (14:13) Yeah. It can feel. If in the wrong context, it can be really exhausting. Like at a dinner party or like a little gathering at a friend's house and you kind of get like cornered by a did you read person. Speaker 1 (14:28) Yeah. Speaker 2 (14:29) That's rough. Speaker 1 (14:31) Okay, well, we'll do one now. I read, I can't even remember where I read this, that I bored myself just now. Speaker 1 (14:43) I just now was starting to think about something about AI. Oh, no, please, Speaker 2 (14:49) let's not do AI. I Speaker 1 (14:51) poured myself. I poured myself. Speaker 2 (14:52) Honestly. Speaker 1 (14:53) I'm with you. I'm with you. As the thought came to my head, I started to like, the other time my brain was like. Well, because Speaker 2 (15:01) now it would be like, did you read, we would be naming the same publication and listing a thousand articles. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Right. Did you read yesterday's thing? Did you read today's thing? You know, like Speaker 6 (15:11) this Speaker 2 (15:12) afternoon's thing? Did you read the op-ed? Did you read the op-ed by the other guy? Yes, yes. And it turns Speaker 6 (15:16) out that this is actually what's happening. Speaker 2 (15:18) Yeah. Speaker 6 (15:18) So no, I'm glad I didn't go down that path. Thank you for coming with me on that little trip. You're Speaker 2 (15:24) very, very Speaker 6 (15:24) welcome. Speaker 2 (15:25) So yeah, and this ends with us literally, of course, the irony is that we don't read the sign right in front of us and we get run over by a car. Speaker 1 (15:38) It's because the sign says, don't walk. Speaker 2 (15:39) Yep. Speaker 1 (15:40) And you see it blinking. Speaker 2 (15:42) Blinking. Whose Speaker 1 (15:43) voice is saying that? Is that Jonathan saying, can't you read? Speaker 2 (15:47) I think it's John. Yeah. Yeah. And sorry, we mentioned John a lot. If we were just saying John, it's always John or Jonathan, as we call him, Kreisel. Yeah. Created the show with us and directed basically the first two seasons before anyone else stepped in as a director, which is pretty rare for TV to just have one director. Yeah, so it kept things pretty, I guess, consistent, you know. Yeah. And we became a very tight little unit in terms of like... trusting each other and understanding like the flow of, you know, any given shoot day. And yeah, really feel lucky that we got to do that. Cause