Live From Palmerston!

A popular TV series mentioned in My Cousin's Keeper.

It's the kind of series that almost everyone has heard quotes from, even if they don't watch it.

The basic premise of the show is a national stand-up comedy show which is coming up in the town of Palmerston, Oregon. The main characters are three groups of hopefuls from different backgrounds who are travelling to Palmerston. One of the running jokes is that they keep on running into people who come from Palmerston, or are heading there for different reasons, or have a relative there; despite it being a relatively small town that nobody had heard of before going there. Every time a main character says the name of the town, or some other character mentions it, the response is an incredulous "Palmerston, Oregon?", as if the other person can't believe the coincidence of someone having heard of the place. This happens 2 or 3 times in every episode, and has become a line that people repeat in the real world (with friends who are talking about the show, or mentions of any place with a similar-sounding name).

At least one of the groups in the show makes subtle references to The Blues Brothers; a couple of performers travelling cross-country, putting on impromptu performances along the way, trying to raise money for a good cause. Another is a group who have never done stand-up professionally before, and are doing open-mic nights and similar on the road in an attempt to hone their skills. And the third are some "big name" comedians who have made their stage banter so natural that they always sound like a double act; they missed their plane, and their efforts to get to Palmerston are continually thwarted by unexpected consequences of whatever the other groups get up to.

Trivia

• Possibly some snowclone or paraphrase: "Why, Miss Kim, I think perhaps you have startled my friend. She seems quite unable to warn you about the wiles of the Greek Inquisition.", spoken in a nasal voice with a faint trace of an exotic accent. Not sure if it's the words, mannerisms, accent, or some combination that would send any fan of the show into fits of giggles.

Characters

Characters mentioned so far include:

• Sandy - meek and nervous, but when put on the spot she can use cutting remarks to tear a rival down
• Klaus - constantly having to deal with bureaucratic nonsense
• Carly - has semi-coherent verbal meltdowns when nervous
• Lysette - always focuses on the negative. Her fiance is the comedian, and she demanded to come along to make sure he didn't pick up any groupies. Can't go ten minutes without complaining about the food, tacky hotels, expensive rooms, or most often her POS car
• Donald - the jerk who is always the butt of the joke and doesn't know why. Thinks he's in charge, but always enters at exactly the right moment, or with something wrong with his suit, so that the audience immediately laughs on seeing him