The Dream of the 1890s Is Alive in Portland

In a cold open parody of the show's own Season 1 signature "Dream of the 90s" sketch, Fred Armisen performs an original folk song celebrating Portland's embrace of 1890s Victorian-era aesthetics. The song waxes nostalgic about pickling vegetables, brewing beer, wearing suspenders (belts hadn't really been invented yet), carving your own ice cubes, dandies, hobos, strongmen, and turn-of-the-century sensibilities. Melanie (Carrie Brownstein) chimes in with the observation that it's "like if President McKinley was never assassinated." The sketch satirizes hipster culture's obsession with vintage lifestyles taken to an absurd historical extreme, framing the 1890s as the new 1990s for Portland's countercultural residents.

This sketch is a direct parody/sequel to the famous "Dream of the 90s Is Alive in Portland" cold open from Portlandia Season 1, which became the show's signature bit. The YouTube upload by "Zmin Constantin" has 640,000+ views and 4,100+ likes as of early 2026. The song was praised by fans as genuinely catchy, with many comparing it to Sufjan Stevens' style. The sketch references the Panic of 1893 silver crash ("I lost it all in the silver crash of 1893"). Olympic Provisions meat sign briefly cameos in the video, a real Portland landmark.