Fred Armisen Might Do a ‘Get Back’ Parody With Him As Ringo
Last night, Fred Armisen sat down with the New York restaurant scene’s least favorite late-night host James Corden to talk about the fourth season of Armisen’s crushingly funny parody series Documentary Now! on IFC. Since Armisen is not a waiter, a bartender or a writer on The Late Late Show, Corden gave him a warm welcome and talked emphatically about how strong this current season has been through the first few episodes.
When Armisen mentioned that filming for this season’s third installment took place near Liverpool, Corden asked him if Peter Jackson’s epic documentary series The Beatles: Get Back could be a possible target for Documentary Now! parody. The answer was a resounding yes, and when Cordon inquired about which Beatle Armisen would prefer to play, his answer was obviously Ringo. Of course, Armisen would call dibs on the funny one.
Sooner or later, Documentary Now! is going to run out of popular documentaries to satirize, so it stands to reason that the creative team of Armisen, Bill Hader, Seth Meyers and Rhys Thomas will inevitably turn to more contemporary projects once they run out of classics. The Beatles: Get Back was a critical and commercial success, and the Fab Four are already so ingrained in our culture that the market for a fresh Beatles parody would be massive.
Obviously, the most popular band in music history has already been the target for mockery plenty of times — the most iconic mockumentary ever, This is Spinal Tap, was loosely inspired by the Beatles’ 1964 film A Hard Day’s Night, and every subsequent music mockumentary will inevitably be compared to the Christopher Guest masterpiece. Since Ringo is still alive (knock on wood), Armisen should be able to steer clear of copycat status.
It seems like every comedian has a Beatles impression up their sleeve — Simon Pegg can do all four of them in 12 seconds. And who could forget when, in the criminally underrated music biopic parody Walk Hard: A Dewey Cox Story, Jason Schwartzman, Paul Rudd, Jack Black and Justin Long showed the Beatles at their most acerbic during a brawl in an Indian ashram?
Armisen’s Ringo would probably be a little more accurate than Schwartzman’s attempt — though both actors are drummers, Armisen’s impression skills are slightly more developed than those of the Rushmore star. A Get Back parody wouldn’t be the first time that Armisen had the chance to combine his love of parody with his love of drumming either — his bizarre Netflix special Standup for Drummers was a strange social experiment where only proven drummers would be allowed in the theater for a night of mostly rhythm-themed jokes. The special won “Best Comedy Album" at that year’s Grammy Awards.
As refreshing as it is to see the return of Documentary Now!, it’s sad to realize that there are only three episodes left in this current season. Seasons Three and Four both took three years to make, so it will likely be a long time before we possibly get the chance to see Armisen don a mustache and a moptop. If we’re particularly unlucky, the wait might be as long as the runtime of Get Back.
