Brow Beat

Portlandia Makes Fun of Social Media–Only Activists Who Care More About Looking Woke Than Being Woke

Clicktivists, beware: Portlandia has your number. In “Postful Protest,” Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein are two hipsters who decide that instead of just posting about noble causes on social media, they’re going to actually attend a protest for bicyclists’ rights for a change (while still posting about it, of course). But by the time they get dressed up to look the part, acquire bikes of their own, and stop for a bite to eat, they’ve missed the rally completely—though they are in time to talk to reporters, who are plenty late to the party themselves.

Portlandia is always at its best when it pokes fun at its own kind, and “Postful Protest” is a sharp satire of one of the most widespread and least helpful forms of liberal slacktivism there is. So the next time your wannabe-activist friend posts a rant about climate change to an already sympathetic Facebook audience—all without leaving the couch!—fear not. You now have the perfect video to send him or her in reply.