As Laurelhurst's regular denizens amble by, "Portlandia" star Carrie Brownstein sits on a blanket, having a picnic with guest star Scott Green. In the sketch, the two are dating, but Green has a tattoo that Brownstein just can't abide: a cartoonish image of Vedder, Pearl Jam's frontman.
"Portlandia" co-creator Fred Armisen, standing near a playback monitor as the scene unfolds, recalls, "We had a brainstorming session and Carrie came up with this idea. Sometimes tattoos are poorly done or the subject matter calls into question a lot of stuff. You like the person, but all of a sudden, their tattoo makes you say, 'Wait, what's that about?' "
After the picnic scene but before moving on to a bike-riding sequence, Brownstein explains her inspiration for the sketch.
"It's a conversation people have all the time about arbitrary deal-breakers that are actually quite significant in determining if you could actually like someone or imagine a life with someone," she says. "There's something so permanent about a tattoo, and I think specifically with music, Fred and I are such music snobs, we are constantly shocked by the lack of depth of people's knowledge. We're both Pearl Jam fans, but the idea somebody would have a bad tattoo of a cool band is just kind of amazing and shocking."
Sunday, January 1, 2012
Portlandia/Vedder Details
The Seattle Times has a brief synopsis of the January 13th episode of Portlandia in which Eddie Vedder will be guest starring. Highlight to read.