When discussing the Wilco song, “Kicking Television,” an outtake that went on to debut and provide the title of their 2005 live album, Jeff Tweedy described the premise of the non album track: “If you’re out of the house and with a bunch of people enjoying something together, that’s kicking television to me.”
But what Tweedy didn’t acknowledge is that as TV is the most powerful medium in the world, it can really kick back with a vengeance.
Here are five times that Wilco was mentioned or mocked (or both) by various programs as their star was rising. Not all of these take potshots at the music made by Tweedy and company, but they all give a good indication about how the multi-genre musicians are perceived in each show’s pop cultural viewpoint.
5. A How I Met Your Mother tie. “Third Wheel,” a third season episode of the rom com sitcom concerned protagonist Ted’s attempts to have a threeway with a couple of willing women. He lures the ladies to his pad with the promise of listening to a Wilco CD. Despite his friend, Barney (Neil Patrick Harris) purposely breaking the disc, the song “Passenger Side” comes on the soundtrack as the story concludes.
In the season 8 episode, “Something Borrowed,” Ted helps his friend Robin (Cobie Smulders) dig up a locket she buried in Central Park. As it begins to rain, Wilco’s “How to Fight Loneliness” fills the background while Ted convinces Robin that her missing locket isn’t the Universe giving her a sign about her pending marriage. Watch the scene below:
One last HIMYM connection: in the season 4 episode “Intervention,” Robin comically threatens her friend Lily: “I’ll give you summer teeth. Some are here, some are there.”
4. In episode four of the second season of the Showtime series, Billions, astronaut in training Elena Gabriel confided with corporate therapist Wendy Rhodes (Maggie Siff) about the lessons that can be learned from a particular Chicago rock band:
Elena: “This may sound like a weird non answer thing, but do you like Wilco?”
Wendy: “Yeah. Yes, I love the one with ‘Jesus, don’t cry.’”
Elena: “Yeah, me too. Because in that one, Jeff Tweedy and Jay Bennett had found in each other a perfect mind meld. They communicated on a level few ever reach. But the thing about Wilco in that moment is – it was never that good again. Bennett left the group. Somehow even though each had to know the other made him better, they just couldn’t find a way to keep going together.”
Wendy: “Did the band break up?”
Elena: “No, even without Bennett, Wilco was Wilco. It kept trucking along.”
Wendy: “And Bennett?”
Elena: “He died, just a couple years later. He O’ded. Somehow on his own he couldn’t keep it together. Makes me wonder how you can find a true partner and keep them.”
For some fans (like me), this conversation was a little controversial in its breakdown of Wilco’s knotty narrative. So much so that Scott Tobias’ recap of the episode included this response:
“And, finally, let us note, contrary to Wendy’s assertion, that there was plenty of creative life to Wilco after the Tweedy-Bennett partnership ended, just as Tweedy found a new sense of purpose with Wilco itself after ending his partnership with Jay Farrar in Uncle Tupelo. One might counsel the writers of Billions to give A Ghost is Born and Sky Blue Sky another spin. Wilco didn’t peak with Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. It evolved.”
3. Another Showtime series, Shameless, touched on Wilco in a season three episode (“Can’t Knock the Hustle”) in 2013, but in a less flattering way. When one character complains about not being able to get tickets for a secret gig at Solider’s Field, one of the show’s leads, Lip (Jeremy Allen White) responds, “Wilco? Aren’t they for dads with receding hairlines, and shit?”
After being told that “Wilco is the beacon of anti-commercialism,” Lip says “because no one wants to buy their whiny music they got to give it away for free.” From there, Lip sets up a parking scam involving floating a rumor that Wilco is performing at his sister’s club so he can rip off a bunch of rich teens.
These are all very valid reasons to hate Lip, as I have since the series started.
2. One of the first shows to take on the alt rockers was the ultra popular animated MTV programs, Beavis and Butthead in 1995.
1. One of the most notable Wilco references came from the Tina Fey-created NBC sitcom 30 Rock in 2010. The season five episode, “Let’s Stay Together,” featured a guest appearance by Queen Latifah as Congresswoman Bookman. At a particularly sly moment, Latifah asks, “"Why is it that NBC looks about as diverse as a Wilco concert?”
Comedian Hannibal Buress, who wrote the line, appeared with Tweedy on the JPEGMAFIA podcast in 2019. Tweedy explained that Buress “wrote a famous joke about my band.” After laughing about the one-liner, Buress offered “To be fair, my concerts are pretty white too.”
Have any favorite Wilco, or Wilco-related, television moments to share? Drop them in the comments section below.
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