TV
FEBRUARY 24/MARCH 3, 2017 EW.COM 89FRED ARMISENAs we were coming
up with ideas [in 2010], Carrie
made this observation that birds
are everywhere. It’s shorthand
for “This is artistic.” We had a big
laugh—I thought those people
were such dummies—and I went
back to my apartment and my
doormat had a raven on it. I was
first in line of being a sucker.
CARRIE BROWNSTEINI remember
going around to little boutiques in
Portland, and I felt like it was kind
of an insult to my intelligence that
just because there was a lamp-
shade with a bird stencil on it, that
somehow elevated it to a place of
art: “Now that there’s a bird on it,
you should put a frame around it.”Cracking the hosts’ relationship was
key to the sketch—and to the show.JONATHAN KRISEL(Co-creator/director)
Right before the shoot, we talkedabout “Yes, this is a really good
conceptual observation, but what
is this weird dynamic between
the people?” That became the for-
mula for all the sketches.
BROWNSTEIN Put a crack in the
veneer of preciousness.... At first
we were thinking of a more low-
key artisan couple. Then we real-
ized that we wanted it in a slightly
Wes Anderson [vein].... They are
really buttoned-up and fastidious,
but they’re secretly rage-filled.Taking place on the first day of pro-
duction, the shoot was a leap of faith.KRISELI remember thinking, “Let’s
try a commercial-y thing—but
as if one of those Beatles movies
made a commercial—stop-
motion, jump-cut.” The piece has
a very chopped-up feeling, so
I remember thinking, “This is noth-
ing.” I was crossing my fingers.
ARMISEN “Put.” “Put.” “Put.” He
wanted us to separate the words.
I didn’t understand what was
happening, but I trusted it.
BROWNSTEIN [A pigeon] is just a
weird animal to have on set.
KRISELAnd it wasn’t a professional
movie pigeon. It was just a guy
like, “You want my pigeon?”...
Once we submitted the first cut to
the network, [then IFC develop-
ment and production VP] DanPasternack was like, “Is there some
way you could end this? Just give
it a button?” And I was like, “Okay,
I have this crazy idea...”
DAN PASTERNACK That’s when he
came up with Fred throwing a
vase and it strikes the bird, which
falls to the ground, dead. [Note:
It involved digital-editing magic,
not animal cruelty.]The sketch became a signature bit—
see: the bird perched atop the
show’s logo—and took hold in the
vernacular and in knockoff-merch
form. It even reentered the zeitgiest
last year when a bird landed on
Bernie Sanders’ podium during a
campaign speech in, yes, Portland.ARMISENWe were really happy
with [the sketch], but it wasn’t until
a year later when people would
say to me, “Put a bird on it!” that
I realized it was something.
BROWNSTEIN Peopleyelling it.
JENNIFER CASERTA(IFC president)
It truly was the identifier—you
didn’t even need to say “Port-
landia.” It really was the beginning
of something special for us.
BROWNSTEINI have illustrator
friends that felt more self-conscious
about putting birds in their illustra-
tions. And I feel too self-conscious
wearing things with birds now.
So it’s ruined birds for me.Portlandia’s
“Put a Bird on It!”
Before the IFC sketch series from creator-starsFred Armisen and
Carrie Brownstein (Thursdays, 10 p.m.) ends its seventh season on
March 9, let’s get a bird’s-eye view of the bit that helped it soar.
BY DAN SNIERSONPortlandia flew onto the sketch-
comedy radar, somewhat
literally, in 2011: Its second epi-
sode offered up a deft, daffy
dagger to hipster-craft preten-
sion with the part-commercial,
part-outtakes masterpiece “Put
a Bird on It!” Cheery how-to
gurus Bryce Shivers (Armisen)
and Lisa Eversman (Brown-
stein) visit a Portland store to
transform teapots and totes
into art by affixing bird images
to them. But when a real pigeon
flaps in, things devolve into
ewwws (the irony!) and utter
chaos. Here, thePortlandia play-
ers relive the sketch that began
on a wing and a prayer.5-MINUTE
Oral History