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We're going to talk about Girls. It's not like we want to. But Lena Dunham, creator and star of the HBO series, will be in town Sunday to promote her new book, Not That Kind of Girl (Random House, 288 pages, $28). She will talk with Carrie Brownstein of Portlandia and Sleater-Kinney fame. Duty calls.
In addition to being wildly successful writer-producers of comedy shows on expanded cable, Dunham and Brownstein share something else. The shows they write for have been think-pieced to death. Girls has dealt with more critics, who have lambasted Dunham for depicting racism, nepotism and unsafe sex on the show. Though Portlandia usually gets sucker-punched in pieces about the real Portland, it too has been criticized for honoring hipsterdom. And for being really, really white.
But for all the important issues raised in print about Portlandia and Girls, one aspect of both remains overlooked: their comedic value. You could read every article published about either show in the past two years and not know if they're funny. We've set up five categories to compare the shows, and we'll tally the results at the end.
Best Musical Send-up
Portlandia: The DJ-glut-as-zombie-apocalypse sketch is good, but the best is "Battle of the Gentle Bands." It finds a number of bands, one featuring J Mascis of Dinosaur Jr. and members of Dirty Projectors, competing to be the quietest band.
Girls: At the end of the first season, Marnie's (Allison "Brian's Daughter" Williams) boyfriend, Charlie (Christopher Abbot), finds Hannah's (Dunham) diary, wherein she cruelly dissects his relationship with Marnie. At his band's next show, which both Hannah and Marnie attend, Charlie reads the diary aloud, backed by Ray (Alex Karpovsky), drumming on his own body. It sounds weirdly like "Popular" by Nada Surf.
Winner: Girls. Ray's body-drumming is funny in its own right. As the background to one of the most dramatic scenes in the series, it's hilarious.
Best Use of a Truck
Portlandia: Fred Armisen and Carrie find themselves caught in a series of one-ups over who has read the most current publications. Both realize they haven't read the newest Portland Monthly, run outside to grab it, and are mowed down by a truck.
Girls: Hannah rescinds her offer to her boyfriend to move in and they begin fighting. He walks into the street while yelling at her and is hit by a truck.
Winner: Portlandia. This is a classic example in which they hit on something real and give it the ridiculing it deserves. Plus, it exposes the very real risks of reading Portland Monthly.
Best Use of Drugs
Portlandia: Fred and Carrie tend to shy away from drug humor. In the fourth and latest season, however, the couple star as middle-aged people experimenting with some unnamed drug in the sketch "Late in Life Drug Use." They take a comical amount of precautions beforehand, like visiting the dentist in case they grind their teeth.
Girls: There are some characters on Girls that, if they skinned their knees, would no doubt bleed cocaine. But the frequent drug use tends to be maudlin—"these people are depraved." Hannah's airhead friend Shoshanna (Zosia "Yes, David is my father" Mamet) smokes crack, thinking it's pot, ratcheting up her frantic nature another notch.
Winner: Girls, by a hair. Not because the Shoshanna bit is particularly strong, but because the "Late in Life Drug Use" sketch goes on too long.
Biggest Snob
Portlandia: Fred, playing some kind of countercultural amalgam, grows increasingly annoyed as his "weird" activities are invaded by a normal-looking guy. He eventually gives up being weird, exclaiming "everything is over," and starts dressing normally.
Girls: In season two, Thomas-John (Chris O'Dowd), a venture capitalist who makes "mash-ups" of popular songs and field recordings, is snubbed for a threesome by Marnie and Jessa, who spill wine on his $10,000 rug.
Winner: Portlandia. It's the show's best sketch, thanks to Armisen's ability to play hip indignation.
Best Catchphrase
Portlandia: "Put a bird on it." (Ugh.)
Girls: "I feel like I'm the voice of my generation," cries Hannah on the phone to her parents in season one, asking them to send her money.
Winner: Girls, in the most hollow victory since West Germany beat Austria in the 1982 World Cup.
And the overall winner is: Girls, by a 3-2 score. Even the dramatic moments in Girls are full of witty zingers. Dunham should have plenty of them Sunday night.
GO: Carrie Brownstein interviews Lena Dunham at the Newmark Theatre, 1111 SW Broadway, on Sunday, Oct. 19. 7:30 pm. Sold out.
WWeek 2015
