Here’s a promo for “Portlandia,” a sketch show coming to IFC in January that will mock Pacific Northwest granola types. It stars Fred Armisen of “SNL” and Carrie Brownstein of Sleater-Kinney, and the first season promises appearances by Kyle MacLachlan, Heather Graham, Jason Sudeikis, Selma Blair, and Aubrey Plaza (who appears in the video).

I’m not exactly a fan of Armisen, but this has a chance to win me over. It’s definitely time that the Northwest’s 21st century eco-yupsters got made fun of. All it’s gonna take is a recurring gag featuring a white guy with dredlocks getting beaten by policemen, and this will instantly be my new favorite show.

"Shell art is OVER!"

[Pitchfork via Vulture]

Paul Rudd hosted “Saturday Night Live” this weekend, and it was a pretty disappointing show, even by my own forgiving standards for “SNL.” Paul McCartney was given time to play four songs, which is understandable since he was a Beatle, but is NOT understandable when most of those songs are Wings songs. “Band on the Run”? Seriously? In 2010? Screw you, McCartney.

“SNL” also wasted Rudd’s comedic talents on my least favorite recurring sketch, the Kissing Family. (Haha, relatives making out. It’s funny because it’s gay incest.) And I now fast forward through the cold open the second I see Fred Armisen’s Barack Obama, because I know that it’s just going to be five minutes of me waiting for a laugh that never comes.

However, criticism aside, there were some highlights. Click through for the best of the show. And yes, they’re Hulu videos, so you foreigners will just have to busy yourself with government health care while we Americans enjoy online video clips.

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Anne Hathaway hosted this weekend’s episode of “Saturday Night Live,” and the entire episode was downright not terrible. I’d even go so far as to call it “good,” as long as you discount the politically-themed cold open (I’m getting into the habit of fast-forwarding through the first sketch).

Anyway, Hathaway’s Katie Holmes impression will probably get the most buzz, but my favorite sketch was “Visting the Queen.” I always enjoy a comical blue-collar British accent, but it’s even funnier coming from a man pretending to be the Queen of England. Also included in my highlight reel below:

• Mega Mart’s Black Friday commercial starring Bobby Moynihan. Reminiscent of the YouTube classic PowerThirst, and in general more things need to remind me of PowerThirst.
• The Thanksgivies: an awards show honoring people who have ruined Thanksgiving. This video is a WEB EXCLUSIVE!, which is a nice way of saying it didn’t make the cut for the live show. But I enjoyed it.

Continue below for all the Hulu videos that the Canadians can’t watch. And a caveat: the headline is deliberately misleading, so you won’t see a KATIE HOLMES-ANNE HATHAWAY NUDE LESBIAN SEX SCENE.

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Fred Armisen of “Saturday Night Live” looks like Elton John dressed as a lesbian, but that doesn’t seem to affect his love life. When he married Elisabeth Moss last year, there was some cognitive dissonance, but nobody seemed to mind because Moss plays ugly on “Mad Men.” Apparently, Armisen (43) ejaculates diamonds, because he’s split up with Moss after ten months and is now dating 23-year-old “SNL” castmate Abby Elliott, AKA “the cute one.”

“They’ve known each other for a few years from being on SNL together but after the split, Fred sought comfort in Abby. They just started dating a few months ago. “Fred and Abby are getting to know each other in a romantic way and taking things slowly. But they’re enjoying each other’s company. It’s early days,” says a source close to the couple.

A friend of Elisabeth’s tells Life & Style, “Elisabeth is doing great and focused on Mad Men and is enjoying the single life. This news won’t even phase her.” [Life & Style]

Or, more accurately, the news won’t even faze her. Because she’s moved on to a new phase in her life.

Christ. The person who wrote that article gets to tell everyone she meets that she writes for a magazine, as does the copy editor who missed the mistake, as does the editor responsible for it. And everyone they meet is like, “Oh, that seems like a nice job.” And yet every third person I meet is all, “A blogger? You can make money doing that?” Yeah, I can. It’s not the best job, but I’m overqualified for magazine work.

Exactly a year ago today while filling in for Matt on this site, I proclaimed that SNL deadweight Fred Armisen had never done anything funny in his career. Now comes the news that IFC has picked up a series that Armisen will star in that will consist of comedy shorts that “lovingly illustrates the people and values of Portland, Ore.” I’m laughing already. Repetitive tasks just put me in that kind of mood.

Lorne Michaels is producing, so this must be some sort of consolation to a long-time cast member who can’t develop a character interesting enough to carry a movie vehicle. But Aubrey Plaza has already been mentioned as one of the guest stars on the show, so I suppose I can be convinced to tune in to see her mumble and glare at someone. I’m convinced she’s the daughter of Mexico’s Bill Belichick.

Now, I’ve never been to Portland and probably never will because it’s not located within my laptop, but it’s always mentioned in the same breath as Austin as one of the noted hipster havens in our great nation. So I’m guessing there’s something to trade on with that. So long as you’re into the lovingly illustrative school of hipster insults.