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Vagina Pillows

Portlandia
SKETCH-O-VISION
A VERY GOOD USE OF YOUR TIME.

The setup

Candace's son Robert leaves his newborn at Women & Women First, where gift advice and gender-blind babysitting both go badly.

Community rating

– / 10

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.

ScriptEnglish · 81 turns

Automatically generated script; wording may contain errors. Speaker labels are inferred.

  1. 00:01

    Candace

    Everything looks really nice

  2. 00:02

    Toni

    me too. It's gonna be a really nice Christmas

  3. 00:05

    Candace

    stockings out.

  4. 00:06

    Toni

    I know thank you for making one for me

  5. 00:09

    Candace

    Well, I've actually used those as shoes.

  6. 00:11

    Toni

    Okay.

  7. 00:12

    Candace

    My son is just coming by. Did I tell you that

  8. 00:14

    Toni

    Robert?

  9. 00:15

    Candace

    Mm-hmm,

  10. 00:15

    Toni

    okay

  11. 00:17

    Candace

    This is really good by the way

  12. 00:19

    Toni

    What is it?

  13. 00:22

    Candace

    It's sort of unsweetened maple syrup

  14. 00:24

    Candace

    there he is

  15. 00:29

    Toni

    Come and say hi.

  16. 00:31

    Candace

    Why are you being so rude?

  17. 00:32

    Robert

    Happy holidays. It's good to see you.

  18. 00:34

    Toni

    I didn't know you had a child, Robert.

  19. 00:36

    Robert

    Yeah, I had a baby three months ago.

  20. 00:39

    Toni

    Candace, you didn't say anything.

  21. 00:40

    Candace

    I did.

  22. 00:41

    Toni

    You didn't?

  23. 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?

  24. 00:47

    Toni

    We're watching it right now.

  25. 00:48

    Robert

    Yeah. You know you're... By watching, I don't mean just physically watching it. Like, I'm gonna leave...

  26. 00:54

    Candace

    Always new information with you. Always some new spin on it.

  27. 00:57

    Toni

    Why don't you get something here in our house? Why don't you buy for Valerie?

  28. 01:00

    Robert

    There's nothing here for Valerie.

  29. 01:03

    Toni

    You want this vagina pillow?

  30. 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.

  31. 01:11

    Candace

    That's one room. So there's other rooms in the house that you could.

  32. 01:16

    Robert

    Just give each other vagina pillows every Christmas.

  33. 01:18

    Toni

    I don't need a vagina pillow.

  34. 01:21

    Robert

    No one does.

  35. 01:22

    Toni

    And especially for the little one.

  36. 01:23

    Robert

    The little one does not need a vagina pillow. He doesn't need one.

  37. 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.

  38. 01:31

    Toni

    I don't know your gender. I don't know Candace's. I don't know mine.

  39. 01:34

    Robert

    You don't know my gender?

  40. 01:35

    Toni

    I don't.

  41. 01:36

    Robert

    Do I look like a woman?

  42. 01:37

    Toni

    I don't know what a woman looks like. Do you?

  43. 01:41

    Robert

    I just feel like I'm good at recognizing a woman when I see one.

  44. 01:45

    Candace

    What are you? You're a detective? A gender detective?

  45. 01:48

    Robert

    No, I just...

  46. 01:49

    Candace

    Lifting up skirts and pulling down pants and just getting in there with your magnifying glass?

  47. 01:52

    Robert

    I've never done that.

  48. 01:53

    Candace

    I didn't even consider your gender.

  49. 01:55

    Robert

    I know. You still don't.

  50. 01:56

    Candace

    Didn't, didn't, I've accepted it now. I accept you're a man.

  51. 02:00

    Robert

    Thank you.

  52. 02:00

    Candace

    I accept you have a penis. That doesn't mean it's going to stay that way.

  53. 02:04

    Robert

    Excuse me?

  54. 02:04

    Candace

    Is there a problem? Because we can discuss our whole family history right now if you want, Bob.

  55. 02:08

    Robert

    I don't think that would be appropriate.

  56. 02:10

    Candace

    That's your father talking. That is your disgusting father.

  57. 02:18

    Robert

    I'm sorry. I didn't, I don't know why you're mad.

  58. 02:21

    Candace

    I raised you right. We, do you remember?

  59. 02:24

    Robert

    I do.

  60. 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?

  61. 02:36

    Robert

    So confusing.

  62. 02:37

    Candace

    All of our world's geniuses were confused. Einstein was very confused, he said.

  63. 02:42

    Toni

    Was Einstein a man or a woman?

  64. 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.

  65. 02:51

    Candace

    I'm proud of you. You know that, right? even though you're a man.

  66. 02:54

    Robert

    I can't change that.

  67. 02:56

    Toni

    You can, actually.

  68. 02:58

    Robert

    I know. I probably won't this late in the game.

  69. 03:01

    Candace

    Yes, we'll watch the baby.

  70. 03:03

    Robert

    Thank you.

  71. 03:03

    Candace

    Something stinks a little bit. Do you smell that?

  72. 03:06

    Toni

    Yeah, OK, well.

  73. 03:07

    Candace

    Yeah, it's dangerous.

  74. 03:08

    Candace

    OK, we have to do this without finding out what the gender is, OK?

  75. 03:11

    Shh, OK. Shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh.

  76. 03:17

    Oh, oh, oh, oh.

  77. 03:19

    Toni

    I was hit, I'm hit, I'm down.

  78. 03:21

    Candace

    Oh, we have to get paper towels.

  79. 03:22

    Ugh.

  80. 03:23

    Candace

    Stay there. Don't move.

  81. 03:25

    Ugh. God.

The rabbit hole continues

One more couldn’t hurt.

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