PROVINCETOWN — When a group of men walked into Womencrafts last month, Vicky Barstow, who was on duty in her “dream retirement job,” wanted to know why they would want T-shirts from a lesbian-owned feminist bookshop.

“We were just at the Las Culturistas award show taping,” they told her.

Barstow knew that Womencrafts was up for an award, but what that meant hadn’t really registered. She wasn’t a follower of Las Culturistas, the podcast hosted by pop culture wizards Bowen Yang and Matt Rogers.

The name of the award the shop had been nominated for, the Jamie Lee Curtis Award for Gusto, Enthusiasm, and Individuality, didn’t exactly ring a bell.

Yang and Rogers’s podcast is a hit. This year both Lady Gaga and Michelle Obama were guests. Their spoof awards show, which started as a running joke on the podcast, aired on Bravo on Aug. 5 — this time as a real awards show. Sort of.

They gave Andy Samberg the Creatine Award for Straight Male Excellence, and Quinta Brunson won the Eva Longoria Award for Tiny Woman, Huge Impact. Other categories included Best Gay Guy — Famous, Best Gay Guy — Normal, and Best Gay Guy — in Between.

Unlike Barstow, store owner Michelle Axelson is a Las Culturistas listener. And a year ago, when the show’s hosts came into her shop, she recognized them right away.

At the time, Kamala Harris, who had just been in Provincetown, had announced her run for the presidency. Yang and Rogers had stopped by Womencrafts because they heard the shop had merch.

“We had Kamala for President posters,” says Axelson. “We made T-shirts and tote bags. Kind of before anybody else had merch, we had merch.”

“I mean, the place was hopping,” Barstow says. “Everybody was coming to get their Kamala.”

Axelson gave the guys Kamala shirts and snapped a photo to post on Instagram. Yang and Rogers reposted it, mutual social media following ensued, and the three have stayed in touch ever since.

One day, after some social media pings, Axelson looked at the list of Las Culturistas nominations. There was Womencrafts Provincetown, sandwiched between Gagachella (Lady Gaga. Coachella.) and Julia Fox (the actress and model who in 2021 publicly swore off men and committed to celibacy).

Axelson planned to watch the awards on her couch. “I wasn’t going to make a big deal,” she says. She figured most of her friends wouldn’t know anything about the show, much less the awards. But when she received a text from Yang saying that Womencrafts would be “truly a highlight,” she rolled out a fake red carpet and threw a small watch party in the store.

The whole crew watched as Jamie Lee Curtis walked up to the stage to announce the winner. When Curtis shouted “Womencrafts Provincetown!” the bookstore erupted into dancing and cheering.

The camera panned to Ana Gasteyer, the actress and comedian who played an NPR host in her SNL days. She stepped onto the stage wearing a floor-length patchwork dress with puffy sleeves and a vest adorned with buttons and pins covered in slogans including, “I did not vote for him,” “Not my president,” and “Resist.” She accepted the award by putting it in her tote bag.

“Hi, I’m Mary Kate, one of the gals over at Womencrafts Provincetown,” Gasteyer said. “We’re a lesbian-owned bookshop,” she continued, to cheers from the audience. “If you’re here for Bear Week, come on down! Poly Week is coming up, so if you’re coming, come on down, we’ve got 4 for 1 Kamala shirts! Prove you’re poly and grab a Kamala shirt.”

The spoof contained a spoof — which only further delighted the women in Axelson’s shop. “When we saw Anna Gasteyer get up there,” Barstow says, “oh, my goddess, it’s just perfect.”

“Save NPR!” Barstow says, mimicking Gasteyer’s final line.

Womencrafts does not sell Amanda Gorman votive candles, as Gasteyer had joked, but you can get an Indigo Girls or Rachel Maddow votive or an Amanda Gorman print there. Axelson thought the impression was “spot on.”

Womencrafts does sell “fun crap,” as Gasteyer told the audience. It’s how they stay afloat, because “books aren’t that profitable,” says Axelson. There are RBG silk scarfs, hats that say, “shuck the patriarchy,” and stickers stating that “We the People Are Pissed Off.” The shop also offers historically banned books and portraits of powerful women from artist Jo Hay’s “Persisters” series.

Since the segment, Axelson has added a “Save NPR” option to the shop’s buttons.

Before the fake-but-real awards show aired, Rogers wrote to Axelson that he appreciated “how charming and political the store is in contrast to all of the gay partying that’s happening in town.” He also found “some very gentle fun about having a surplus of Kamala T-shirts after the election. We truly love you guys and are so touched and inspired by your energy; we hope you see this as the love letter it is.”

“When people think of Provincetown as a queer mecca,” Axelson says, “the truth is it’s a gay white male mecca.”

On social media, some people have asked whether Womencrafts is a real place. Barstow says she hopes the whole story will give the business a boost. “Caring about this small woman-owned business really brings out the capitalist side that I didn’t even know I had,” she says.

Every Friday night, Womencrafts has feminist readings on the front stoop, where a poster advertising their win now hangs off the railings. This week, Barstow is going to “impersonate Ana Gasteyer impersonating one of the gals at the shop,” she says. She’s going to add a Ruth Bader Ginsburg tote bag to her ensemble.

Maybe it’s odd for a feminist bookstore to get attention from the world of pop culture, but, Axelson says, “I’m happy to be in on the joke.”