This is the week the Timbers Army becomes famous!

OK, maybe not famous. Perhaps a bit more than internet famous, but not quite Lana Del Rey famous. I’m willing to bet we’ll become about as famous as a critically-liked Friday night extended cable sketch comedy show will allow. And that fame will last about a week, right up until next week’s episode hits the air. And that’s fine by me.

The full court press is on for this week’s episode of Portlandia (Friday, Feb. 24, 10/9c on IFC), and Major League Soccer’s own web site kicked it off with a nice piece (and great photo) to preview the TA’s appearance. (Watch for even more publicity around this week’s episode also featuring Trail Blazers all star LaMarcus Aldridge. Apparently the producers of Portlandia felt this season needed an obligatory sports episode.)

Not all Portlanders will admit this, but Portlandia’s a pretty good show. Like most shows, it has its share of hits and misses. But when it hits, it’s REALLY hits. The only people I know who dislike it are those the show tends to mock frequently: people I refer to as “extreme Portlanders.” These tend to be the people who ONLY shop at second hand stores and food co-op’s. (They’re usually vegan, too.) That’s probably not even 1% of Portlanders, but we all know at least one person in town who fits this bill.

I truly believe I’m in the most desired target demographic for Portlandia: married, childless suburbanite who frequents the downtown core. Basically, I’m repeatedly exposed to the wackiness that Portland has to offer, while concurrently able to “breathe suburban normalcy” and view that same wackiness from my front row seat. Trust me when I say most of Beaverton finds nearly every Portlandia sketch to be pretty funny.

The thing that I enjoy most about the TA’s involvement in Portlandia is that it shows we’re not afraid to take the piss out of ourselves. Nothing turns a crummy day around like a clever Twitter meme started by the TA, especially those where we rip our own to shreds for something posted on Twitter / Facebook / 107IST Member Forums / etc. Nobody makes fun of the TA better than the TA themselves. Of course, as good as we are at making fun of ourselves, we’re even better at mocking our enemies (i.e. #LacksSounders).

This is why I tend to get a little frustrated with our Cascadian rivals. Canadians are funny by default (see The Kids In The Hall, Picnicface or Strange Brew). Seriously, it’s in their DNA. I hold the Southsiders to a pretty high standard for being clever. The recent video from the Whitecaps FO to the Timbers FO was pretty good, but they kinda missed the mark with that “Round 2” reference at the end, because this is actually Round 30-something. Plus, that was from their FO, and not the supporters group. C’mon guys and gals! If our own FO did something more clever than us (and remember…we’re awesomely clever), we’d probably have an emergency 107ist board meeting to discuss how to rebound and out-clever them.

As for ECS, don’t get me started. I’m sure they have a few clever apples in the basket, but they tend to be overshadowed by stuff that’s generally unoriginal and borderline offensive. My Sounders-fan friend (who shall remain anonymous) is one of the most clever guys I know, but he’s not involved with ECS. Trust me, he could really help them out, but he has distanced himself from them, and I can see why: they don't have a sense of humor. Even a prominent Seattle-based web site, one that I know numerous TA members read many times daily, missed the overall point of that aforementioned #LacksSounders meme. Nothing riles up the TA like a total misunderstanding of a Twitter meme. If Seattle can give us timeless laughs in the form of Almost Live, then ECS is surely capable of adding some wit to their punchlines and comebacks.

(Side note: I realize I’m feeding the trolls a bit here. But hey, the season starts in three weeks…time to #HTFU.)

As the regular season nears, the Twitstreams will be pinned with smack-talk between all three Cascadian sides. We'll steal each others hashtags. We'll feed the trolls. We'll argue on message boards. It’s all supposed to be in good fun. If you can’t have fun doing it, you’re basically setting yourself up for an online massacre, which is essentially the equivalent of getting an abnormally large amount of junk mail on one day. Yeah, it’s annoying, but it bears no actual burden on your reality, and it’s easy to click “delete” and be done with it.

Watch Portlandia this Friday, and happy trolling!

This is an opinion piece and does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the 107ist or the TA.