S2E5: C'mon ...I don't wanna viva that guy ...
This one's for Fred (NOT the early 2000s viral YouTube sensation)
The episode 5 post is all about: the power of a really good guest star.
Specifically: Fred Armisen.
Honestly, so many sitcoms NAIL amazing guest stars. It’s not rocket science! It actually takes us back to “The Poehler Rule," which is to hire the funniest person possible at any given moment. It’s so satisfying to rewatch old shows after a celebrity or comedian has made it big and recognize their 5-mins of fame in Sex and the City (specifically referencing Miranda Bailey as the cop who allows Samantha to keep hanging up fliers announcing Richard cheating on her.) (Also can we talk about Samantha literally flying the streets of New York??? Ah, the Stone Age.)
To clarify what I mean by “guest star,” I’m specifically referencing someone who has some sort of meaningful role for the plot of at least one episode. I love a good celeb cameo as much as the next person, but it can’t be a blink and you miss it scene. I want dialogue, I want rising and falling action, I want some character chemistry. This also can’t be a recurring character who’s integral to the broader plot, no matter how late in the show’s run — i.e. Paul Rudd in Friends doesn’t count. He marries Phoebe! That’s no guest star! I want someone who crops up for an episode or two with no impact other than pure comedy. (I realize this may discount Miranda Bailey from my SATC scene above, but it’s too good to not include).
An iconic guest star has the chance to make or break a scene … an episode … a show. Think about the most iconic guest stars you know. My Mt Rushmore is probably: Britney Spears in How I Met Your Mother as the receptionist at Stella’s office; Shania Twain in the Twaining Day episode of Broad City; Wanda Sykes as Abby’s boss in Broad City, specifically in the episode where Abby takes shrooms, has to unexpectedly run errands for Wanda, and kills her cat mid-trip (so I love Broad City, sue me); and Milipnos in Brooklyn 99 — more to come about Milipnos.
If everyone could please comment their guest star Mt Rushmores, that would be cool
Arguably no guest star has made me laugh like Fred Armisen.
Fred crops up in this episode of Parks and Rec as the very rude, Hugo Chavez-loving, loyalist head of the Parks department in the Venezuelan city of Boraqua. Leslie hosts a group of Venezuelan government officials as part of a “sister city” exchange, expecting sunshine, roses, hair braiding, and polite knowledge-sharing. The visiting Parks department disses Pawnee and the Pit (honestly — fair) at every turn. Leslie eventually calls them out and Fred’s character gives Leslie a check for $30k to fill in the Pit and build a park, but not before encouraging her to say “Viva Chavez” on camera and whispering behind her back about their committee to “humiliate and shame America.”
It’s a good episode made a great episode by Fred Armisen.
Fred Armisen is one of those people who is hilarious every minute he’s on screen. He’s hilarious just by being silent. He’s hilarious when he adopts a California accent. He’s hilarious in the Brooklyn 99 pilot when he introduces himself as “Milipnos”:
Amy: “What’s your name?”
Milipnos: “My name? …. Milipnos.”
Amy: “Can you spell that please?”
Milipnos: “M… L … E … P… Clay …”
Amy: “Did you say ‘clay’?”
Milipnos: “Yes the ‘clay’ is silent.”
The MINUTE he shows up absolutely anywhere I know we’re in for a great ride.
I was lucky enough to actually see Fred Armisen live last fall and guess what he was?? That’s right. A GUEST STAR. And also fucking hilarious.
Tina and Amy brought him out during their Restless Leg show as a guest on their Weekend Update segment. He did his bit where he pulls out a map and does the accent of every single state across the US. He gave special love to the Bay Area given the location, and said:
“The way I think of San Francisco’s accent is THIS IS A FACT. Everything’s a FACT. But then you go across the Bay to Berkeley and it’s kind of the same thing but they’re tiiiiiiiired. From thinking they carry the weight of the world on their shoulderssssssss”
When I tell you the crowd went absolutely wild. Man knew his audience.
He also has the craziest resume ever. He got his start as a punk rocker, before pivoting to comedy in the late 90s. The video that made him big is a prank video he made for SXSW in ‘98, which features him conducting fake interviews with people like Janeane Garofalo and popping up during breakout sessions with questions like “if you’re interviewing someone and you wanna get someone to loosen up a little bit, do you think it’s proper or right to, uh, threaten them physically? Say with a switchblade?”
By 2002, he was cast on SNL.
Fred was on SNL from 2002 to 2013 and was one of the cornerstones of a star-studded cast. There’s no true “star” from that time in the same way I’d consider someone like Kate McKinnon the star of the late 2010s and early 2020s (even though she’s now moved on), but this is more because Fred was privvy to and partially helped cause a total Golden Age of SNL.
I’ve written about this Golden Age before, after Tina was named head writer and ushered in a new era of funny women on screen, but a lot of the era’s greatness also came down to the cast. Tina & Co. could’ve written all the funny sketches in the world, but if you don’t have funny people to fill ‘em, who cares. The funny people we’re in question here are the likes of Kristen Wiig, Jason Sudeikis, Andy Samberg, Amy Poehler, Seth Meyers, Bill Hader, Jimmy Fallon, Rachel Dratch, Maya Rudolph, AND Fred Armisen (more too, but I’m trying to make this thing fit in one email). It was so stacked!!
He’s popped up in many-a-cameo since he left SNL in 2013, but over the course of his time as a cast member, he was in 856 sketches. 856!!!! And if you look back, they’re some of the most iconic SNL sketches ever to exist: Debbie Downer, the Californians, New Girlfriend, Garth & Kat, Kissing Family, Dear Sister, etc etc etc.
And he absolutely kills this Parks and Rec episode. He plays the part of the asshole, dictator-loving public servant perfectly. I was just today listening to the new Lonely Island and Seth Meyers Podcast (name self-explanatory). There was a moment where Andy was describing an old sketch that never made it to air called “Monkey Business,” and Seth cuts in to go “let me guess. Armisen was standing in the corner in a monkey suit?”
That’s the power of this guy. I don’t even know the context of the ultimately-killed sketch, but just the IDEA of him lurking nearby in a monkey suit makes me laugh.
It’s a bummer for us that he’s only in the one Parks and Rec episode because he absolutely makes this episode. The show goes on to have many, many other iconic guest stars (exciting!!!) and I think that’s the power of this weird little Hollywood/SNL-alum comedy bubble: they’re all friends with each other, they can easily pop in and out of each others’ shows for the most part, and it makes the show 100x better. Parks and Rec is gold because of the writing and because of Amy Poehler, but being able to rewatch an episode and go “holy shit, this is one with Fred Armisen??” just sends me into a whole new level of hype.
Other bests:
I love the oddly specific titles the Venezuelan Parks and Rec employees have when Fred introduces them. “This is our Minister of Small Fountains. And Director of Hedges.”
Leslie offers to help the men get settled in any way she can, and they interpret that to mean they can “select the woman they desire.” After they point to Donna, it cuts to her: “I am not surprised at all. I’ve been to South America. I did VERY WELL there.”
Fred & Co keep trying to send Tom on their errands (“peel the banana”) and paying him wads of cash. I absolutely love that Tom takes the money always — but then at the end we see him putting it in the fund for the Pit fill! Tom!
Hate & don’t hate how much I cheered when Mark introduces himself as “the city planner” and Fred Armisen goes “this city was planned?” Take that Mark
I LOVE that we get the re-introduction of the unhinged citizens of Pawnee!! At a town hall, Leslie tries to brag to Fred that “what shines in these meetings are the ideas” and then it’s just the local citizens throwing Frisbees at her
There’s this fantastic minute-long talking head of Fred listing all of the things that would put you in jail in Boraqua: “You undercook fish? Believe it or not, jail.”
The intern from Venezuela is in love with April, so he keeps trying to convince her to come to Venezuela with him so she can “live like a princess” and basically all she says is “…..nah.” Then at the end we see not only her, but DONNA, have both taken him up on it. Legends.
Alriiiiight that’s it for this week!! If anyone needs any reading/listening/watching recs for the week:
I’m reading ’s memoir, Joyful Recollections of Trauma! There’s a scene where he discovers he’s lactose intolerant that I unfortunately … deeply relate to
Loooove Julia Louis Dreyfus’s Wiser than Me pod, so I’ve been binging that, as well as Seth Meyers & the Lonely Island’s new pod about the history of the Lonely Island and the SNL digital short more broadly. No spoilers but a certain someone from this group guest stars soon so more to come ….
To stick with my Amy Poehler theme of life at the moment, I also saw Inside Out 2 over the weekend and WEPT. Incredible, chef’s kiss, go see immediately
See u next week, happy 4th, hope everyone finds some s’mores & rocket pops & dogs & burgs & corn. What else do people eat on the 4th?? Currently I have the means to secure absolutely none of that so wish me luck. Over and out
