How Accurate is Portlandia?

People who have never been here often ask me if Portland is anything like the satirical comedy Portlandia. Of course it is, or the jokes wouldn't make any sense. Maybe they don't make any sense anyway, but that's one of my favorite things about this place. It's okay not to make sense sometimes.

I usually tell people that Portlandia is as much a documentary as it is a satire. Portlanders revel in their otherness. We want to Keep Portland Weird, after all. If you want the Portlandia life, you can definitely find it here — but you don't have to, either. We celebrate differentness and individual creative expression in Portland, but along with that mindset comes the philosophy that you can live however you want — even traditionally — and that's okay here. If you want a white picket fence and two-and-a-half kids to put in your minivan, that fits in, too. 

You can't live in Portland without at least a little bit of the Portlandia experience — you will likely get passed on the sidewalk by a bagpipe-playing unicyclist, or by a hipster walking his pig — but we'll welcome you to our city even if you don't commute by skateboard or sport purple hair.