You want 5,000+ words on Portlandia in the New Yorker? You got it.

Armisen and Brownstein text each other every night before bed. Brownstein says of their friendship, “Sometimes I think it’s the most successful love affair either of us will ever have.” Both claim that it wouldn’t work if they were romantically involved. “It would be colder, because we’ve both treated our romantic relationships in a cold way,” Armisen says. “Carrie and I are more romantic than any other romantic relationship I’ve ever had—that sense of anticipation about seeing the other person, the secret bond. But things don’t become obligatory. I’m not thinking, I’m doing this because you’re my girlfriend; I’m just thinking, I love Carrie.”

Two of the main characters on “Portlandia” are named Fred and Carrie; they have an ambiguous joined-at-the-hip relationship. The show’s production designer, Tyler B. Robinson, has proposed that, at some point, they be shown waking up in the same room, in twin beds, with their names above them. “It’d be very Bert and Ernie,” Brownstein said, adding that if, in real life, “Fred said to me, ‘I’m going to move into your house, and sleep in the same room, in twin beds,’ I’d be, like, ‘Sure!’ ”