Skip to content
News

The National Will Headline Pennyfarthing Fest (on ‘The Mindy Project’)

The National 'Mindy Project' Video trailer

The National are more adept at cracking jokes than a reputation for dour music might suggest. Their humor has so far been limited to onstage banter, some interviews, and the drunken injury-causing video for “Graceless,” but the Brooklyn quintet will now bring a few laughs to Mindy Kaling’s FOX sitcom The Mindy Project.

Airing October 1, the episode titled “Music Festival” revolves around the characters attending Pennyfarthing, a fake event headlined by the SPIN cover stars. When one character grudgingly goes because of his love for the National, another fakes a gay marriage proposal in order to get the group to meet them for an exclusive backstage performance. The band, minus drummer Bryan Devendorf, then plays an acoustic version of the Trouble Will Find Me track “This Is the Last Time.”

“I’m a big fan of the show and in interviews, they would ask me what I’d been reading lately. I kept saying The Mindy Project because I watch more TV than I read,” Matt Berninger said in a making-of video. “We became really big fans of the show, so they invited us on.”

The behind-the-scenes clip also shows Berninger delivering one of his two or possibly three lines. According to the cast, his role was beefed up because of how well he handled himself on the set, so maybe acting is in his future?

The episode airs on October 1 at 9:30 p.m. ET.