…doesn’t mean it isn’t serious. So says comedian Jon Gnarr, who is, ridiculously, Reykjavik’s newest mayor. The New York Times profiled Gnarr on Saturday, and said profile included his excellent method of weeding out potential collaborators.

With his party having won 6 of the City Council’s 15 seats, Mr. Gnarr needed a coalition partner, but ruled out any party whose members had not seen all five seasons of “The Wire.”

[…]

The Best Party, whose members include a who’s who of Iceland’s punk rock scene, formed a coalition with the center-left Social Democrats (despite Mr. Gnarr’s suspicion that party leaders had assigned an underling to watch “The Wire” and take notes).