Fred Armisen Gives Jimmy Fallon a Goofy Punk Rock History Lesson

We’ve been a fan of Fred Armisen for years now. First for his work on SNL, then on Portlandia. And then too many other projects to count. He also showed us not too long ago how he can mimic just about any accent from any part of the United States. It’s a pretty uncanny talent, we must say. But not only can he mimic regional accents, but he can also apparently mimic musical stylings too.

Via Laughing Squid, we learned that recently Fred Armisen went on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. There, and he picked up a guitar and gave Jimmy a musical lesson in punk rock (and post-punk) music history. It was not only spot-on accurate, it was also as hilarious as one would expect. You can watch the full video right here:

Armisen is clearly a musical expert on the rise of punk rock in the ’70s, and the post-punk influence. From the early days of the Velvet Underground to the Ramones to the Sex Pistols. Fred Armisen knows his history all right. As he was playing for Jimmy, he created lyrics on the spot, each in the style of the band he was interpreting. He took the music lesson through the ’80s, particularly music in the style of the Cure, to the ’90s grunge era, and up until the 2000s heyday of The Strokes and other similar bands.

Armisen didn’t miss a beat, and dovetailed into a very accurate impersonation of Henry Winkler, who he claims as the inspiration for his character on the animated series Big Mouth. Soon, he’ll be joining Chris Pratt in the Super Mario Brothers movie. But we don’t expect him to be doing any punk rock covers in that one. Sadly. Because we’d be all over a Cranky Kong cover of “God Save the Queen.”

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