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Vagina Pillows
The setup
The premise
Here’s the bit.
Toni and Candace are settling into a festive Christmas at Women & Women First when Candace mentions that her son Robert is stopping by. Robert arrives with a three-month-old baby that Toni never knew about and asks the pair to mind the infant while he shops for his partner Valerie. Their pitch that he simply buy another vagina pillow from the store falls flat, and the visit turns into a prickly standoff as the women insist they cannot know anyone's gender, the baby's included, and Candace revisits how deliberately she blurred Robert's own upbringing. Left alone with a dirty diaper, the two try to change the baby without looking and pay for it.
The funny people
Meet the cast. 3
Say it with us
Highly quotable.
My entire bed looks like a bunch of women exploded on it.
I don't need a vagina pillow. / No one does.
Do I look like a woman? / I don't know what a woman looks like.
Behind the scenes
The people who made it.
A little extra
Notes from the archive.
Part of the December 2012 holiday special "Winter in Portlandia", which opened Season 3 ahead of the season's January 2013 premiere; IFC released this sketch as its first Season 3 clip. Bobby Moynihan guest stars as Candace's son Robert.
Script
Automatically generated script; wording may contain errors. Speaker labels are inferred.
- 00:01
Candace
Everything looks really nice
- 00:02
Toni
me too. It's gonna be a really nice Christmas
- 00:05
Candace
stockings out.
- 00:06
Toni
I know thank you for making one for me
- 00:09
Candace
Well, I've actually used those as shoes.
- 00:11
Toni
Okay.
- 00:12
Candace
My son is just coming by. Did I tell you that
- 00:14
Toni
Robert?
- 00:15
Candace
Mm-hmm,
- 00:15
Toni
okay
- 00:17
Candace
This is really good by the way
- 00:19
Toni
What is it?
- 00:22
Candace
It's sort of unsweetened maple syrup
- 00:24
Candace
there he is
- 00:29
Toni
Come and say hi.
- 00:31
Candace
Why are you being so rude?
- 00:32
Robert
Happy holidays. It's good to see you.
- 00:34
Toni
I didn't know you had a child, Robert.
- 00:36
Robert
Yeah, I had a baby three months ago.
- 00:39
Toni
Candace, you didn't say anything.
- 00:40
Candace
I did.
- 00:41
Toni
You didn't?
- 00:42
Robert
Look, I'm trying to go shopping. I got to get something for Valerie. Can you just please watch the baby for a couple minutes?
- 00:47
Toni
We're watching it right now.
- 00:48
Robert
Yeah. You know you're... By watching, I don't mean just physically watching it. Like, I'm gonna leave...
- 00:54
Candace
Always new information with you. Always some new spin on it.
- 00:57
Toni
Why don't you get something here in our house? Why don't you buy for Valerie?
- 01:00
Robert
There's nothing here for Valerie.
- 01:03
Toni
You want this vagina pillow?
- 01:04
Robert
I don't want that vagina pillow. We have so many. We have 13 vagina pillows. My entire bed looks like a bunch of women exploded on it.
- 01:11
Candace
That's one room. So there's other rooms in the house that you could.
- 01:16
Robert
Just give each other vagina pillows every Christmas.
- 01:18
Toni
I don't need a vagina pillow.
- 01:21
Robert
No one does.
- 01:22
Toni
And especially for the little one.
- 01:23
Robert
The little one does not need a vagina pillow. He doesn't need one.
- 01:26
Candace
Bob, we don't want to know the gender of the baby. We don't want to know the sex, and you know that.
- 01:31
Toni
I don't know your gender. I don't know Candace's. I don't know mine.
- 01:34
Robert
You don't know my gender?
- 01:35
Toni
I don't.
- 01:36
Robert
Do I look like a woman?
- 01:37
Toni
I don't know what a woman looks like. Do you?
- 01:41
Robert
I just feel like I'm good at recognizing a woman when I see one.
- 01:45
Candace
What are you? You're a detective? A gender detective?
- 01:48
Robert
No, I just...
- 01:49
Candace
Lifting up skirts and pulling down pants and just getting in there with your magnifying glass?
- 01:52
Robert
I've never done that.
- 01:53
Candace
I didn't even consider your gender.
- 01:55
Robert
I know. You still don't.
- 01:56
Candace
Didn't, didn't, I've accepted it now. I accept you're a man.
- 02:00
Robert
Thank you.
- 02:00
Candace
I accept you have a penis. That doesn't mean it's going to stay that way.
- 02:04
Robert
Excuse me?
- 02:04
Candace
Is there a problem? Because we can discuss our whole family history right now if you want, Bob.
- 02:08
Robert
I don't think that would be appropriate.
- 02:10
Candace
That's your father talking. That is your disgusting father.
- 02:18
Robert
I'm sorry. I didn't, I don't know why you're mad.
- 02:21
Candace
I raised you right. We, do you remember?
- 02:24
Robert
I do.
- 02:25
Candace
I definitely kept it fuzzy when it came to what gender you are. Not raising you by any kind of binary gender code? Do you remember I'd dress you up in a ballerina costume one day and the next one a sailor outfit?
- 02:36
Robert
So confusing.
- 02:37
Candace
All of our world's geniuses were confused. Einstein was very confused, he said.
- 02:42
Toni
Was Einstein a man or a woman?
- 02:44
Candace
He turned out to be a man because of the mustache. Even a woman cannot have a mustache that thick. That's a true fact.
- 02:51
Candace
I'm proud of you. You know that, right? even though you're a man.
- 02:54
Robert
I can't change that.
- 02:56
Toni
You can, actually.
- 02:58
Robert
I know. I probably won't this late in the game.
- 03:01
Candace
Yes, we'll watch the baby.
- 03:03
Robert
Thank you.
- 03:03
Candace
Something stinks a little bit. Do you smell that?
- 03:06
Toni
Yeah, OK, well.
- 03:07
Candace
Yeah, it's dangerous.
- 03:08
Candace
OK, we have to do this without finding out what the gender is, OK?
- 03:11
Shh, OK. Shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh.
- 03:17
Oh, oh, oh, oh.
- 03:19
Toni
I was hit, I'm hit, I'm down.
- 03:21
Candace
Oh, we have to get paper towels.
- 03:22
Ugh.
- 03:23
Candace
Stay there. Don't move.
- 03:25
Ugh. God.
The rabbit hole continues
One more couldn’t hurt.
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