As someone who's lived in the northwest their entire life, I was having a good chuckle and then he got to Seattle and Portland and my immediate reaction was just "oh he's talking normally now." Lunacy.
Here in the PNW. We say "You guys". But we say it to a group of all men, or a group of mix company, or a group of all women. My friends on the east coast always make fun of me when I say it. I worked in sales and had a older couple from the mid-west walk out on me because I said "Hello, how are you guys today?" The husband was very quick to point out his wife wasnt a "guy" and left. Lol!
As a Seattlite, I have to say I was surprised that he got us spot on. However, my family roots are from Maine and I went to college there for 4 years, and I think his Maine accent was WAY off. Not even close. Boston and New York were spot on though.
I lived in Houston for 6 years. I didn't realize there was a Houston specific accent and then he did it and my ears just had this primal reaction. Like I was listening to a family member
@@MortalConquest I grew up in fairfield county, and I feel pretty confident we speak very stereotypical american english with a lot of mumbling of words. hit up hartford or tolland though and things start sounding strange real quick.
It's mad how, in Britain, we have this many dialects/accets in the area the size of one US state. You go 50 miles in any direction in the UK and the accent changes completely.
I want a British comedian who’s good at accents to do the same thing. It would be a total rip off of this, but I want to hear the trademark phrases to get into the dialects of each region.
Ivan Reis yeah, most people who do accents or impressions have specific phrases that help them get into the accent/impression. A good example is when Kate McKinnon talked about it on the Ellen Show.
This is such a good "accents 101" approach. I remember learning in acting school that two of the most important tenants of doing accents is finding where the sound lives in your mouth and in your body, and finding a phrase or two that gets you to that place. Fred's doing both of these really rapidly, which is cool!
@@cmcull987 East coast especially has a lot of accents. The south, too. There's pockets where people have been isolated for so long they still have the accents of their ancestors. "Hoi Toider" is from North Carolina and Chesapeake Bay, but you'd think its speakers were British. Then you have multiple creoles and pidgins all over the country.
Matthew Alford it really does. I was watching the news a few years ago and the did piece talking about how one area of the Outer Banks literally has an English (British) accent even though they’re from the US
Well there no jokes if that’s what you mean, but if this were a class I’d walk out. Every single one of his accents is way off. Henry Higgins would be disgusted.
Why do I feel like this is his vocal warmup before everything he does? Queens, nobody told me, queens, brooklyn, Maine "You're on in 5 Fred." OK, thanks 5. QUEENS!
NJ can be sliced into 8 subsections depending on proximity to NY or Philly and the long belt of pine barrens through south/central where some folks have a blue collar style drawl, and they either live in a single-wide out in the sticks or in a 7 bedroom Victorian on 6 acres of wealthy rural land, there is no in-between
But there really is a "no-accent accent" in English speaking North America. If you want to know what a local accent sounds like you should talk to a cop, but a lot of people born and raised in a place don't talk with that local accent. I heard once that the default accent comes from Connecticut.
@@kylem1112 what I mean is that there is a national generic accent. People - especially younger, educated people - speak with it. You hear it all over the country, even in the south. That everyone has an accent is kind of my point, because the accent I'm talking about isn't really thought of as an accent at all, but is likely the local accent of Connecticut or maybe parts of California that spread through mass communication.
As a North Carolinian I came into this expecting to be offended, and then he got to us and I had to pause the video because I thought my dad was saying something. That was unbelievable.
@@retiredbingoplayersI heard a shift but I actually haven’t ever heard a Dominican speak Spanish believe it or lot! I only knew 2 Dominicans ever and they knew English
His mother is Venezuelan and he lived briefly in Brazil. Hence the perfect Spanish accents. His paternal grandpa was Korean. Loved the SoCal accent. Nailed it.
Its true, the difference between SC and NC’s accents! My dad’s NC accent has a little more bite. More podunk. A lot of SC has more of a proper Aristocratic accent. Governor McMaster is a good example.
My aunt, my grandmother's sister, lived most of her adult life in NC, but she came back to us pretty often and we went to her once for a week when I was a kid. (Crawdads at the cookout! Can't forget that.) I can always recognize the NC accent as separate from other Southern accents and I love to hear it. He did it well. I was a bit disappointed he barely stopped on Philadelphia, mixing it with Pittsburgh. I would definitely say we share more linguistically with Baltimore than Pittsburgh, but whatever.
@@liammaxcampbell I agree. Heck, even some comics make the best dramatic actors, too. I think of Robin Williams, Jackie Gleason, Billy Crystal in dramatic roles. They fully understand what their characters are going through.
@@MIKERUPTION Yep this was the exact example and people i was thinking of. I think of stand up comedians(the good ones) as intellectually intelligent as someone that has mastered any other craft, from law to astrophysics and quantum physics.
easims10 I’m from rural western Washington and I still hear people pronounce cash like “caysh” and creek is “crick” and Tuesday is “tuesdee” and it’s “Hunnerd, Differnt” instead of ‘hundred and different,’ we say yknow a lot and have that sorta low, long O sound and emphasized R sound. I absolutely love it. When I go to Seattle I get people that ask me if I’m from Oklahoma of all places, which has nothing in common with my accent.
As someone who's hugged the west coast for almost three decades...SoCal, Portland, and Seattle were all spot on and now I'm going to be hella self conscious about it
haha im from la and i never thought of myself to pronounce every syllable? definitely more than some ppl in the US but i randomly remembered how my ex is from ohio and used to pronouse "uncomfortable" as "un-com-for-tuh-bull" LOL
Chris Dawson I used to read a lot of Steven King and sometimes I’ll say something like jeezum crow and people around here have no idea what I’m saying lol
Ben Thurston I don’t know where the other guy is from but people definitely still say jeezum crow up here in northern Maine but it’s mostly from older folks
the BEST American accent description and demonstration of the local state dialects in under 5 minutes ever. GREAT JOB! (Fred missed TN, but its a bit like NC and VA, but with a slight lisp, almost a bit gay sounding, lol)
He skipped over the West Texas accent of J.R. Ewing and George W. Bush. In another video, he does an Arkansas accent that is identical to a northern Louisiana/Northeast Texas accent. He's very, very good.
I remember Fred trying to present this to Jimmy Fallon but Jimmy wouldn’t shut up and let him talk. Jimmy had to steal the show and demonstrate to Fred how he knows accents, too.
I used to do a version of this, 20 years ago, in my classroom. I had a lecture on regionalism that always got a huge reaction. Nice to see someone else hear the world like I do.
I can’t believe in an interview on Conan once he said he could do every accent in the country from every state including doing one from any town in any state.
Check this out, from four years ago, on Conan (it's all a joke, a shtyck) : ruclips.net/video/Nm7U_ZZaOAc/видео.html "Fred Armisen Can Do Any Accent In The World - CONAN on TBS"
I saw that too, and I thought he would be doing that here. But this was legit. Whereas that was a little bit joking. He can bluff about the towns... but the states he definitely has down.
@@hdpmrr wtf is a stuck. you mean schtick? Yeah he was blowing smoke up your ass a little on the Conan show, but he had an ear for it no doubt> he sat and actually developed an accurate version of that joke for his stand-up - and guess what? Fuckin A
As a Texan from Austin with relatives from Dallas and Houston, I can absolutely confirm that those accents are accurate. Not all of us, but it's definitely there.
@@MarioBecerraC yeah, as far as Mexican accents go, it was pretty terrible. It was more Venezuelan than Mexican. The cuban one is also close, but he missed the eating of consonants that's a major part of the accent. The tone is right, but the pronunciation could've been better.
HE TOOK ME BY SURPRISE WITH THE CUBAN ACCENT! ON POINT!!! 😍 He’s got me screaaaaaming 😂😂😂😂😂😂 QUEENS, KeeNz, Why Nobody Told Me??? Why Didn’t You Tell Me??? 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀
Fred has this wonderful quality to make every bit FEEL like it's being made up on the spot. You feel anxious that he's not going to find something funny in the situation and then rejoice with him when he lands it all. :D
It’s a quote from a replacements song. Kids don’t follow specifically. They recorded the police shutting down a party they were at and started the song off with it. The cop saying it has a very district accent.
he probably has heard it before maybe a few times? i bet theres a story there too. Id guess most of these examples are from things he has heard people say in that place when working there.
Me: Yeah, ok, sure sure. Everyone speaks a little different, but these could be exaggerations of themes in speech and I don't really notice these pinched nasal noises when I speak to people from these areas. *then jaw drops as he absolutely nails the Seattle speech pattern*
My Dad grew up in Tacoma, and I always noticed how he, along with other natives of that area, had EXACTLY the same delivery that Fred describes here. "Present their words on a plate" is PERFECT.
I love how he even differentiated between southern and northern Illinois! I’m from southern IL and sooo many people here have moderate to heavy southern accents it’s not until you get north that you get the classic Midwest Chicago accent
Similar to how Tom Hanks recently did a near-perfect Australian accent on SNL... he had been spending time in Australia. Fred literally tours the entire of North America, so he's had a lot of time to absorb the various accents. Then you just need a way to recall them all... and he uses my technique of picturing how somebody from that area would say the name of where they live. Also years on SNL will make you very good.
@@GlennDavey It doesn't hurt that he speak Spanish fluently, likely German too (his father), not to mention some Korean/Japanese influence as well. He had a wide exposure to languages growing up.
I'm disappointed that he skipped Louisiana, which has several distinct accents of its own, but this was very well done accurate. Fred Armisen is a talented comedian.
Yeah I was dying to hear his cajun accent though 😂 creole would have also been fun. it’s better that he didn’t do Louisiana. There are probably 10 accents that I can think of and half of them he would be cancelled for doing because they sound a bit like appropriation. even though we Louisianans know, it’s just the culture and it’s the way all the races in that specific parish speak
@@PaulyWally30I grew up there and never said Looziana in my life. Why is that the first reaction for so many people when the state is mentioned, to pronounce the name like all the natives are too stupid to say it right?
@@BeeWhistler It's a joke. It's not that deep. I'm Texan and we get stereotyped all the time. That's Hollywood for you. They exaggerate every state's accent and culture.
I had intentionally avoided this video because I am not a big Fred Armisen fan, but this is brilliant and skillful! He really demonstrates the gradients of accents. As an upper Midwesterner, I never realized how Chicago and Wisconsin are influenced by each other, but it makes perfect sense.
I'm from Southern Illinois and many people do have that Missouri/Kentucky drawl, especially the more country/rural you go. But there are also distinct accents that derive from Polish, German, and Italian immigrants who traditionally worked on farms and in coal mines. My farmer dad sounds "country" but you can hear the Polish a little in how he pronounces words, like saying just the "t" in "th" words. Older relatives sound even more Polish. It's really cool to hear those little remnants of our heritage when I hear them speak.
I was a little confused on that one because I'm an upstate New Yorker and I don't pronounce the I in Florida either! Never even been further south than Indiana. Weird.
Fred is a comedy beast. Portlandia is amazing. And the best cameos in everything. He always kills. Even his rare podcast appearances are gold. The dude just drips hilarity.
As an Oregonian close to Portland, I think the fact that I can't detect any accent whatsoever in the Seattle & Portland accents means that they're flawless. That's exactly what we sound like and I don't really understand what sounding presentational means 😆
As an Illinoisan, he does a great job with the nuance of the accent here. Most people imitate the exaggerated SNL “Da Bears” sound, but he absolutely nailed cat/bat/car. I must confess, that’s what I sound like. 😂😂😂
@Chuffer ..... fuck no. Those are expats from outside of California WHO FORGOT to go home. Have a conversation with someone born & raised in The City & it becomes clear it’s a tale of 2 Cities
@@robertnewell4054 I was born in San Francisco, and have lived in the Bay for twenty years, of course it's not perfect, but I just thought it was a funny joke dude!
@Chuffer ....... In all sincerity I wish you likewise coupled with my apology for any offense. For context I’m a PrunePicker (you’ll probably have to google that one) ... and I can be salty in my reactions regarding the diversity of The Bear Flag Republic that most miss. Broad brush characterizations & hyperbole to often lead. the way. 🖖🏽🤙🏽
@@kongvinter33 Queens is not mostly Jewish at all. I looked it up and Jewish people make up about 9% of the population. That is a high percentage compared to the country as a whole but Queens is basically the most diverse area in the USA. I'm from Queens and there's a pocket for every "ethnic" group in the world. It's not mostly anything
As a Miamian, I found his inflections for Miami English and lower class (balsero) Cuban accents surprisingly accurate! Even non-Latinos who grow up in Miami, I've found, end up speaking English with shorter, sharper vowels, like the ones you'd find in Spanish and adopting Spanish calques like "eating shit" to mean wasting time. Amazing!
It's not just crazy how many accents he has, but how effortlessly he can switch between them. I can only do a couple of accents, but switching between them feels almost impossible without taking some time to like, neurologically "flush" the previous accent. Not sure if that makes sense. This man really is a once a generation talent lol.
My issue is talking like the people I'm around, I've lived enough places across the US, I tend to slide into an accent as soon as I hear it and I have to be careful to not be offensive. That was HARD in Australia.
@@LaylaSowards I spent about half my childhood in Mississippi. And when my children were small and we lived in the upper Midwest, I explained to the other gathered parents at a Kindergarten play group that a Southern accent isn't about being lazy, it's 'bout bein' able able to say e'vythang with out lettin' that smile fall offa your face. An' that can mean using more to say less, so it's not lazy it's just diff'rent. The room fell silent, and EVERY child's head turned towards me (expect for mine, they hear me when I get around Southern friends/family) and about a dozen small children looked at me like an alien had landed in their midst.
@@mwater_moon2865 haha I LOVE THAT!! I'm 100% stealing that description ❤️🤗. I'm from SE KY, spent my first 31 years there, moved to Raleigh/Durham NC 7 years ago and my accent is still thick as cornbread. When Northerners hear me speak I immediately get asked 'where are you from?', they always think it's TN, GA, SC or AL. The closest to any I sound like are TN or WV...more WV though. For Appalachian accents it's more about the enunciation of vowels. My name is Layla but all non-southerners hear 'Lila' or 'Leela' 😂🤣🤣 My hard A's sound like I's 🤷🏼♀️ I did learn to say my name the 'right way', but I don't even try changing my accent for anything else 😄
As a German, I just have to say that I am more than happy that *finally* someone on the internet is explaining American accents *properly* - and believe it or not... it really helps. Thanks Fred, keep it up - LMAO😂👍
I only lived there for two years but when he did that I got transported like that scene in Ratatouille. Most people I met were from somewhere else but San Francisco native dudes were always obvious. Skinny and angry is what I remember most.
@@adamf.4823 pretty accurate ngl, and they all skate. Ive been hanging out with a ton of ppl at bonfires at ocean beach and I can't tell you the number of times I've heard the phrase "dude, we just bombed this epic hill, it was hella tight"
I’m just glad that he didn’t use the damned Fargo movie accent when he got to Minnesota. I’m aware that we have an accent, but we do not talk like we’re all Scandinavian immigrants. Fred nailed it.
Get out in the country and it’s super strong, I’m from the twin cities and I talk pretty normal but my family out west sound like their first generation American-Swedes
JasonL77 I’m from the Duluth/Superior area and I can tell you after being away from that area for 25 years, that is how the accents sound to everyone else.
from a south carolinian, he got it spot on, 10/10 i love linguistics and IPA so its really awesome to see one of my favorite actor and comedians nail my home state 💙
For New York, for many of us, that's how our parents and grandparents spoke. There are still holdouts who speak that way, but for the most part, the internet softened the accents of the younger generations.
Very true; his B'klyn accent was too strong and _perhaps_ influenced by movies. Talking with relatives back in B'klyn, I hear the much softer version of the now "stereotypical" accent. (I've since lost mine, I've been told.) He did nail Manhattan and Long Island! 😄
As someone who's lived in the northwest their entire life, I was having a good chuckle and then he got to Seattle and Portland and my immediate reaction was just "oh he's talking normally now." Lunacy.
I felt the same way about Virginia lol, he nailed it
Let's just say he's spent a lot of time in Portland so he knows.
Dude, I'm convinced he didn't do an accent at all lmao
Here in the PNW. We say "You guys". But we say it to a group of all men, or a group of mix company, or a group of all women. My friends on the east coast always make fun of me when I say it. I worked in sales and had a older couple from the mid-west walk out on me because I said "Hello, how are you guys today?" The husband was very quick to point out his wife wasnt a "guy" and left. Lol!
Same!
"Wisconsin's more Chicago than Chicago." I was dying at that part. Go Fred!
As a Chicagoan, I can attest to that!. Especially around Milwaukee over by dere. Oh may Got!
I only went to Chicago once to get my car towed. Like you do. 😅
"I am from Seattle, these are the words." Killed me
@@haashemmalik216 It's definitely true.
Id do like to present my words on a platter
Affirmation that Seattleites do indeed have a non-accent, as I have always felt was true.
As a Seattlite, I have to say I was surprised that he got us spot on. However, my family roots are from Maine and I went to college there for 4 years, and I think his Maine accent was WAY off. Not even close. Boston and New York were spot on though.
This is beyond accurate😂I was so confused when his accent disappeared🤣
“You mentioned two pumpkins “ 😂
I lived in Houston for 6 years. I didn't realize there was a Houston specific accent and then he did it and my ears just had this primal reaction. Like I was listening to a family member
same 😭
That's sexy
Is it because your family scolds you a little? :)
Kelly Clarkson and George W. Bush.
Sounded exactly like my grandma lmao
“That’s my business, not yours.” - Everyone in Connecticut at least once a day. Accurate can confirm
I always insisted Connecticut didn't have an accent... but apparently I was wrong.
Yeah I was born and raised in Bloomfield and never knew til I moved to Florida then all of a sudden...accent!
lmfao holy shit! You made me realize im so CT. Its because just about everyone in CT is nosey. Why do I feel this way? Thats my business not yours.
@@mr.nobody9697 I mean...when the state is this small you kinda end up knowing everyone (or it feels like it). We are asshole as a state pastime tho
@@MortalConquest I grew up in fairfield county, and I feel pretty confident we speak very stereotypical american english with a lot of mumbling of words. hit up hartford or tolland though and things start sounding strange real quick.
As a Brit I found that truly educational
You guys have a ton of regional accents as well, and don't even forget Wales!! Lol
It's mad how, in Britain, we have this many dialects/accets in the area the size of one US state. You go 50 miles in any direction in the UK and the accent changes completely.
The difference in accents from the different places in England would be fun too
I want a British comedian who’s good at accents to do the same thing. It would be a total rip off of this, but I want to hear the trademark phrases to get into the dialects of each region.
@@randalclarke5487 ì89⁸iì8099
I’m from Long Island, live in queens, work in Manhattan with people mostly from Brooklyn and Bronx and holy fuck he headshotted us all with perfection
"i was born in miami, but i still have this accent”.
Lol Miami has a few accents
As a former Miami resident... So accurate 😂😂😂
Accurate
Cuban accents?
miami accent = your normal accent + "bro"
I love how he randomly chooses little phrases to exemplify some accents, but they’re not entirely random.
Ivan Reis yeah, most people who do accents or impressions have specific phrases that help them get into the accent/impression. A good example is when Kate McKinnon talked about it on the Ellen Show.
Baseball mitt
Canada cigarettes got me ps canadian here
Pumpkins.. we were discussing..
"2 pumpkins" 😆
"Wisconsin's more Chicago than Chicago" 😂
Way too true
More shicago than shicago 🤣😘
Cmon gimme a little more Chicago tho and some Guatemalan while he’s at it right under Mexico
It’s from all the FIBs.
He did a perfect wiSCONSin
This is such a good "accents 101" approach. I remember learning in acting school that two of the most important tenants of doing accents is finding where the sound lives in your mouth and in your body, and finding a phrase or two that gets you to that place. Fred's doing both of these really rapidly, which is cool!
I think there are many accents in almost any state, but I think he gets a lot right. It's a conversation. He listens.
@@cmcull987 East coast especially has a lot of accents. The south, too. There's pockets where people have been isolated for so long they still have the accents of their ancestors. "Hoi Toider" is from North Carolina and Chesapeake Bay, but you'd think its speakers were British. Then you have multiple creoles and pidgins all over the country.
-- two of the most important "TENETS" of doing accents....maybe?
"You mentioned two pumpkins...not sure...just rethinkin what you said there..."
@Matthew Alford Agreed. I would have liked to have seen him include Outter Banks, but definitely shows very high level proficiency
Marcilla Smith hardly anyone knows about the Outer Banks accent apart from native NCians
Lol my favorite part
Matthew Alford it really does. I was watching the news a few years ago and the did piece talking about how one area of the Outer Banks literally has an English (British) accent even though they’re from the US
Yes, NC takes its time, lol! "Right away" might be 2 weeks, no "NY minute" down there. Come and sit a spell, chew some tobacco...
If there wasn’t a live audience this could be given as a lecture in a linguistics class
HA😂
Well there no jokes if that’s what you mean, but if this were a class I’d walk out. Every single one of his accents is way off. Henry Higgins would be disgusted.
@@herbertwells8757 nice reference
Or one of those acting classes where you learn how to do accents and dialects.
Wouldn't the students in the class technically be a live audience?
Why do I feel like this is his vocal warmup before everything he does? Queens, nobody told me, queens, brooklyn, Maine "You're on in 5 Fred." OK, thanks 5. QUEENS!
I'd upvote but it has 420 upvotes
Motor oil!
NJ can be sliced into 8 subsections depending on proximity to NY or Philly and the long belt of pine barrens through south/central where some folks have a blue collar style drawl, and they either live in a single-wide out in the sticks or in a 7 bedroom Victorian on 6 acres of wealthy rural land, there is no in-between
FACTS.
Damn
Yup lol. Small state, big nuance
I’m from Philly and that’s def true
Exactly 💯 New Jersey explained shout out to South Jersey❤
No one has an accent until they leave where they're from.
But there really is a "no-accent accent" in English speaking North America. If you want to know what a local accent sounds like you should talk to a cop, but a lot of people born and raised in a place don't talk with that local accent. I heard once that the default accent comes from Connecticut.
@@_yak Your "default accent" comes from Britain, dude.
it's impossible to not have an accent dude. What you probably mean is a non-distinct generic accent like news casters. It's still an accent.
The worst part of leaving where you're from is that when you go back... everyone has an accent.
@@kylem1112 what I mean is that there is a national generic accent. People - especially younger, educated people - speak with it. You hear it all over the country, even in the south. That everyone has an accent is kind of my point, because the accent I'm talking about isn't really thought of as an accent at all, but is likely the local accent of Connecticut or maybe parts of California that spread through mass communication.
"Cubans are like MÍRAME!" - dead lmao
His Cuban accent was dead on! Even women have that accent, too.
I didn’t even know that was a thing but it checks out completely
As a North Carolinian I came into this expecting to be offended, and then he got to us and I had to pause the video because I thought my dad was saying something. That was unbelievable.
Bro the fact you know the difference between Cuban and Mexican dialects makes me happy
Yea that's very nicely done! So many locations have such different sounds and intonation, very cool to hear it clearly :0
🤣👍dude is very talented. His Cuban went into Dominican. Did you hear it?🤣👍
@@retiredbingoplayersI heard a shift but I actually haven’t ever heard a Dominican speak Spanish believe it or lot!
I only knew 2 Dominicans ever and they knew English
More than his changing accent I love the phrases he chose for certain regions. I don't know why but "two pumpkins" is murdering me lol
Yeah, priceless! I’m Canadian, loved cigarettes..
4:00 m.ruclips.net/video/ftw1rlM2idk/видео.html
His mother is Venezuelan and he lived briefly in Brazil. Hence the perfect Spanish accents. His paternal grandpa was Korean. Loved the SoCal accent. Nailed it.
His SoCal reminded me immediately of Crispin Glover.
Holy crap, Fred Armisen is part Korean?
I get how having a Venezuelan mother can help with knowing Spanish, but what is the connection with Brazil and Spanish? Honest question.
@@MinaKay84 I know - I was shocked too.
@@marcell5172 there's no connection, and his mexican was far from perfect, it sounded venezuelan
As an NC native who's also lived/worked in SC a lot, I was *not* expecting him to get those accents. He nailed them.
Its true, the difference between SC and NC’s accents! My dad’s NC accent has a little more bite. More podunk. A lot of SC has more of a proper Aristocratic accent. Governor McMaster is a good example.
@@doubtingmustafa Wonderful last name he has
My aunt, my grandmother's sister, lived most of her adult life in NC, but she came back to us pretty often and we went to her once for a week when I was a kid. (Crawdads at the cookout! Can't forget that.) I can always recognize the NC accent as separate from other Southern accents and I love to hear it. He did it well.
I was a bit disappointed he barely stopped on Philadelphia, mixing it with Pittsburgh. I would definitely say we share more linguistically with Baltimore than Pittsburgh, but whatever.
Can confirm, that blew my mind
Wow. I thought he just bullshited his way through.
Honestly, as an improv performer, I’m just impressed that he was able to change his accent so quickly
@michaelevert6492that’s what they do lol
That was great picking up on all of the nuances of the American accents. I've always thought that the best comics are real students of humans.
the best comics have a command of the language like no other, forget actors.
@@liammaxcampbell I agree. Heck, even some comics make the best dramatic actors, too. I think of Robin Williams, Jackie Gleason, Billy Crystal in dramatic roles. They fully understand what their characters are going through.
@@MIKERUPTION Yep this was the exact example and people i was thinking of. I think of stand up comedians(the good ones) as intellectually intelligent as someone that has mastered any other craft, from law to astrophysics and quantum physics.
@@liammaxcampbell I couldn't agree more!
I agree. You have to be so intelligent and observant to be funny.
"I am from Seattle. These are the words"
that blew me away
In Warshington, we maihhh-zhur our words before giving them to you.
easims10 I’m from rural western Washington and I still hear people pronounce cash like “caysh” and creek is “crick” and Tuesday is “tuesdee” and it’s “Hunnerd, Differnt” instead of ‘hundred and different,’ we say yknow a lot and have that sorta low, long O sound and emphasized R sound. I absolutely love it. When I go to Seattle I get people that ask me if I’m from Oklahoma of all places, which has nothing in common with my accent.
Zach Taylor amazing. I grew up in Olympia but spent lots of time in rural W WA for climbing and hiking and totally know the accent.
@@zachtaylor9597 That's just your average western hick/Oakie accent. We have it in Nor Cal too if you go inland to a rural place.
He definitely has a feel for the inflections...could've been a linguist.
A lot of voice actors can do similar stuff to this. This is an excellent example of how versatile you have to be as a voice actor.
Cunning linguist, that guy.
mdunn16 that sounds dirty
He ... is and has been... in a way
@@michaelf3805 That's the joke, dummy
Somehow for me this qualifies as ASMR. There is something soothing about hearing him do this.
As someone who's hugged the west coast for almost three decades...SoCal, Portland, and Seattle were all spot on and now I'm going to be hella self conscious about it
SAME
haha im from la and i never thought of myself to pronounce every syllable? definitely more than some ppl in the US but i randomly remembered how my ex is from ohio and used to pronouse "uncomfortable" as "un-com-for-tuh-bull" LOL
Katherine Maitre As a Southern Californian, I’ll pass on hella ;)
SuhTHuRN CaLiFORnyuh. So true.
So true about Seattle LOL
Me..from Maine: "Oh I wonder if he'll mention Mai..."
Fred: "MAINE..YOU CAN ALMOST HEAR ENGLAND HEYAH."
Chris Dawson I used to read a lot of Steven King and sometimes I’ll say something like jeezum crow and people around here have no idea what I’m saying lol
It kind of sounds like forrest gump when he does it!
@@Reliquancy that's because that's not something people say anymore it's like an 80s upper crusty thing.
Big Bud Oh ok I didn’t know that. But no one ever said it in Florida so they’ve never heard it at all...
Ben Thurston I don’t know where the other guy is from but people definitely still say jeezum crow up here in northern Maine but it’s mostly from older folks
Skipping Ohio is probably the most Ohio thing he could have done.
I think we’ve evolved past a need for ohio
Ohio
I was hoping he'd do Michigan also. So which accent are we close to?
So much fertile ground for him in UhHIuh
ohio gozaimas
the BEST American accent description and demonstration of the local state dialects in under 5 minutes ever.
GREAT JOB! (Fred missed TN, but its a bit like NC and VA, but with a slight lisp, almost a bit gay sounding, lol)
when he busted out southern californian that totally sounded like stewart
GET OUT OF HERE DEVIN!
eeehhh eeeeewwww wwwwwhhhhhaaaadddrrrrrr yyyyeeeewwwww deeewwwwiiinnn hhheeeehhhhrrrrr???????
Or Dana Carvey kinda
Sounded like RDJ
@@fxllencoyote at this time of day? it's gonna be jammmmmed
I’m glad that he showed the differences in Dallas, Houston, and Austin because Texas being as big as it is, we have a lot of accents.
He skipped over the West Texas accent of J.R. Ewing and George W. Bush. In another video, he does an Arkansas accent that is identical to a northern Louisiana/Northeast Texas accent. He's very, very good.
Florida has even more since everyone in the damn country moves there.
I don't care
@@pornthepwongkitigumjorn1567 about what?
His Austin accent was pretty spot on for a San Antonio accent as well !
I remember Fred trying to present this to Jimmy Fallon but Jimmy wouldn’t shut up and let him talk. Jimmy had to steal the show and demonstrate to Fred how he knows accents, too.
Fallon has OCD, i swear.
Conan always steps all over everything too
@@brovold72 Conan is genuinely funny, though.
Conan will do that sometimes but he’s overall a much better listener and if someone is funny, his laugh is the best.
🤣🤣🤣🤣 jimmy f**kface
Not only is he entertaining, but he’s also giving a masterclass lol
As a San Franciscan, I can confirm that we say everything like it's a fact. And THAT IS A FACT!
Jack!
That's hella funny bro
And that's cuz everything we say *is* , in fact, a fact!
Damn, that change between Cuban and Mexican was so good!
agree! i've been to cuba and cancun and that was exactly what i noticed too.
Miami is English with a spanish letters. It's spot on ! 🤣
There was nothing Mexican about his Mexican accent.
No it wasn't. He was using his Venezuelan accent for Mexico. Only some southern Mexicans _might_ talk like that.
Erick D and then there is Puerto Rico which is different again!
as a New Yorker I'm dying at all his Tri-State area ones
Which borough is “I’m walkin’ here!”
i love that he skipped over staten island 🤣
Sta l l i n g f o r t i m e
@@mikeapi5074AWWW MAN LOL
"Nobody towld me!"
I used to do a version of this, 20 years ago, in my classroom. I had a lecture on regionalism that always got a huge reaction. Nice to see someone else hear the world like I do.
I don’t know why, but the “huh?” *wide eyed shoulder shrug* for Montana get me every time 😂
He looks like an old woman who just peed
What is that about? I didn’t get the reference.
as a born & raised San Franciscan ive NEVER thought about us speaking sounding like that but i think he got it right now that i hear it😂😂
yeah no hearing that was an experience. tbh i assumed he'd just do the c a l i f o r n i a n s... or some soft generic techboy amalgam.
My response was almost dying laughing because he is absolutely right. In other words, "This is a FACT!"
It stunned me too. I say "Excuse me??" in the EXACT same way he said it. All the time.
Yeah, you guys are good at emphasizing the SMUG! 😎
He's crazy with it when he did Mexican vs Cuban accent he didn't even have a gringo accent super cool
killa icy He’s part Venenzuelan I believe.
Gringo accent lol
Cause he’s not white
I was so impressed!
He is half Venezuelan
Cannot listen too many times.....absolutely spot on. I've lived in many of the regions he shows.
I can’t believe in an interview on Conan once he said he could do every accent in the country from every state including doing one from any town in any state.
That was a shtick. A Stuck. He also said he could do any foreign accent -- or was it any European accent?
Not too uncommon for ppl who do voices and imitation comics.
Check this out, from four years ago, on Conan (it's all a joke, a shtyck) :
ruclips.net/video/Nm7U_ZZaOAc/видео.html
"Fred Armisen Can Do Any Accent In The World - CONAN on TBS"
I saw that too, and I thought he would be doing that here. But this was legit. Whereas that was a little bit joking. He can bluff about the towns... but the states he definitely has down.
@@hdpmrr wtf is a stuck. you mean schtick? Yeah he was blowing smoke up your ass a little on the Conan show, but he had an ear for it no doubt> he sat and actually developed an accurate version of that joke for his stand-up - and guess what?
Fuckin A
As a Texan from Austin with relatives from Dallas and Houston, I can absolutely confirm that those accents are accurate. Not all of us, but it's definitely there.
yeah, his getting the diff Texan accents was impressive.
How the hell did Fred Armisen get the Mexican and Cuban accents better than the American ones??? LMFAO!! Good job, Fred!
Mom is Venezuelan and he lived in Brazil.
The Mexican one sounded a little bit more Colombian to my ears. 😅
Or maybe Venezuelan, considering that his mom's from Venezuela.
@@MarioBecerraC yeah, as far as Mexican accents go, it was pretty terrible.
It was more Venezuelan than Mexican. The cuban one is also close, but he missed the eating of consonants that's a major part of the accent.
The tone is right, but the pronunciation could've been better.
@@MarioBecerraC Oh really? That's cool, I didn't know that.
Such brilliance! SF and Mexico vs. Cuba had me rolling! I would’ve loved to hear his impressions of Puerto Rico, Hawaii, and Alaska, too!
I’ve always found it odd that Fred hasn’t scored any larger roles, as he’s so uniquely talented.
I’ve heard from a few people that know him that he is VERY messed up and aggressively narcissistic.
Well, now he's Cranky Kong 😂
Now he returns to monke.
@@superxavxii421 yeah XD
He played Jesus Christ in Man Seeking Woman
This man really created like 50 different characters and seamlessly transitioned between them all.
With the pacing and attention span of Nicholas Fehn!
Except he only covered like 20 states
Among.
imagine being so dumb you don't even realize he did less than half the states XD
"I'm born in Miami but I still have this accent" 😂😂😂
It’s so true 😂
I taught in Union City NJ. The Russian kids had a hispanic accent.
HE TOOK ME BY SURPRISE WITH THE CUBAN ACCENT! ON POINT!!! 😍 He’s got me screaaaaaming 😂😂😂😂😂😂 QUEENS, KeeNz, Why Nobody Told Me??? Why Didn’t You Tell Me??? 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀
Fred has this wonderful quality to make every bit FEEL like it's being made up on the spot. You feel anxious that he's not going to find something funny in the situation and then rejoice with him when he lands it all. :D
Probably the best FA stage presence description I’ve heard tbh
You really hit the nail on the head with this one, couldn't describe it better! 👌😆
well said!
I mean it helps that he's a consummate improviser too, so he's pretty comfortable riding that line
“This is the Minnesota police” how did he know...
Ikr it threw me off. I wonder what he thought lol.
It’s a quote from a replacements song. Kids don’t follow specifically. They recorded the police shutting down a party they were at and started the song off with it. The cop saying it has a very district accent.
I did quick double take to the date on the video. This guy felt the future.
This is the Minneapolis* police you mean
he probably has heard it before maybe a few times? i bet theres a story there too. Id guess most of these examples are from things he has heard people say in that place when working there.
He's not just doing accents he's also doing (harmless) stereotypes of the various places as well.
Fred is an incredibly astute observationalist.
I'm from southern california, he crushed it. Fantastic bit. What an artist.
Me: Yeah, ok, sure sure. Everyone speaks a little different, but these could be exaggerations of themes in speech and I don't really notice these pinched nasal noises when I speak to people from these areas. *then jaw drops as he absolutely nails the Seattle speech pattern*
My Dad grew up in Tacoma, and I always noticed how he, along with other natives of that area, had EXACTLY the same delivery that Fred describes here. "Present their words on a plate" is PERFECT.
He absolutely nailed that Baltimore to Virginia switch.
Grew up in Miami, currently live in LA… I literally LAUGHED OUTLOUD SO MUCH when he did the Miami, SoCal, Mexican and Cuban accents like SPOT ON!
As someone from Idaho who now lives in Nevada, I love that he was “yeah Idaho...” and moved on, and didn’t even bother to bring up Nevada. 😅
JustMikeThings The Nevada accent is a blend of California and Texas. I’ve never seen a comedian pull it off. Most won’t even attempt it.
Nevada accent is pretty nuanced and plain kinda like Seattle / Portland
Cuz nobody in NV is from NV. All relocated
Fred is a genius. Knows and understands people from inside their entrails.
He speaks perfect spanish. I was waiting for the puertorrican impression, really peculiar! 🇵🇷
He probably can't speak Spanish fast enough to do a Puerto Rican accent.
😆😄👏🏼Still keep coming back to this, Fred's simply the best!! 👏🏼😄💖🤟🏼✌🏼
I love how he even differentiated between southern and northern Illinois! I’m from southern IL and sooo many people here have moderate to heavy southern accents it’s not until you get north that you get the classic Midwest Chicago accent
illinois is a long, deep state so you probably have a wider range of accents than most states
How the hell did Fred get all the nuance from these accents? He’s like that guy on RUclips that rates movie accents wow
Eric singer
Yeah I love all this shit. Fred and and the dialect coach should start a show on accents.
Similar to how Tom Hanks recently did a near-perfect Australian accent on SNL... he had been spending time in Australia. Fred literally tours the entire of North America, so he's had a lot of time to absorb the various accents. Then you just need a way to recall them all... and he uses my technique of picturing how somebody from that area would say the name of where they live. Also years on SNL will make you very good.
@@GlennDavey It doesn't hurt that he speak Spanish fluently, likely German too (his father), not to mention some Korean/Japanese influence as well. He had a wide exposure to languages growing up.
He’s a professional
I'm disappointed that he skipped Louisiana, which has several distinct accents of its own, but this was very well done accurate. Fred Armisen is a talented comedian.
Yeah I was dying to hear his cajun accent though 😂 creole would have also been fun.
it’s better that he didn’t do Louisiana. There are probably 10 accents that I can think of and half of them he would be cancelled for doing because they sound a bit like appropriation.
even though we Louisianans know, it’s just the culture and it’s the way all the races in that specific parish speak
Looziana is a lil rounder 😂
Yeah I was thinking the same thing. I wanted to hear him at least attempt it. Oh well
@@PaulyWally30I grew up there and never said Looziana in my life. Why is that the first reaction for so many people when the state is mentioned, to pronounce the name like all the natives are too stupid to say it right?
@@BeeWhistler It's a joke. It's not that deep. I'm Texan and we get stereotyped all the time. That's Hollywood for you. They exaggerate every state's accent and culture.
I had intentionally avoided this video because I am not a big Fred Armisen fan, but this is brilliant and skillful! He really demonstrates the gradients of accents. As an upper Midwesterner, I never realized how Chicago and Wisconsin are influenced by each other, but it makes perfect sense.
I live in the exact spot between hick southern Illinois, and regular midwestern Illinois but not Chicago, Illinois. He’s exactly right. 3:35
RUclipsModerationTaskForce same with Indiana. Hicks in the south, Chicago/Midwestern accent the more north you go
Lasalle?? Lol
TheGoalieDave no, much further south
I'm from Southern Illinois and many people do have that Missouri/Kentucky drawl, especially the more country/rural you go. But there are also distinct accents that derive from Polish, German, and Italian immigrants who traditionally worked on farms and in coal mines. My farmer dad sounds "country" but you can hear the Polish a little in how he pronounces words, like saying just the "t" in "th" words. Older relatives sound even more Polish. It's really cool to hear those little remnants of our heritage when I hear them speak.
No one ever remembers us Alaskans 😔
Ayesha Malik
Or Hawaiians for that matter
Where's that
Don't feel bad he skipped most of the midwest too lol
At least you can see Russia.
Lol
Finally someone noticed that us Floridians don’t pronounce the “I” in Florida
Lizzy Baran My husband is from Floor-duh too 😄
Daniel Natal my parents are NYers (Manhattan and Brooklyn) and they pronounce it that way too! FLAW-rih-duh
I was a little confused on that one because I'm an upstate New Yorker and I don't pronounce the I in Florida either! Never even been further south than Indiana. Weird.
Daniel Natal Ayeeee 727
I’ve lived in florida for the majority of my life and didn’t even realize that other people might pronounce the I. Always Floorduh
Fred is a comedy beast. Portlandia is amazing. And the best cameos in everything. He always kills. Even his rare podcast appearances are gold. The dude just drips hilarity.
Unbelievably impressive. He’s one of my fav comedians. I binge watch his SNL skits and Portlandia.
As an Oregonian close to Portland, I think the fact that I can't detect any accent whatsoever in the Seattle & Portland accents means that they're flawless. That's exactly what we sound like and I don't really understand what sounding presentational means 😆
Egg -aig
As an Illinoisan, he does a great job with the nuance of the accent here. Most people imitate the exaggerated SNL “Da Bears” sound, but he absolutely nailed cat/bat/car. I must confess, that’s what I sound like. 😂😂😂
His southern California was a perfect Crispin Glover impression
"This is a fact." What a perfect phrase for SF, lmao
@Chuffer ..... fuck no. Those are expats from outside of California WHO FORGOT to go home. Have a conversation with someone born & raised in The City & it becomes clear it’s a tale of 2 Cities
@@robertnewell4054 I was born in San Francisco, and have lived in the Bay for twenty years, of course it's not perfect, but I just thought it was a funny joke dude!
@Chuffer ..... And I doubt the veracity of your statement.
@@robertnewell4054 Well I can't do anything to dissuade you, so I just hope you have a good day
@Chuffer ....... In all sincerity I wish you likewise coupled with my apology for any offense. For context I’m a PrunePicker (you’ll probably have to google that one) ... and I can be salty in my reactions regarding the diversity of The Bear Flag Republic that most miss. Broad brush characterizations & hyperbole to often lead.
the way. 🖖🏽🤙🏽
The boroughs ones had me cracking up cuz I was like, wait a minute well he’s not wrong! 😂 wish he would’ve did Staten Island too!
He forgot Staten Island, just like the rest of us
iluvpopcorn23 😂🤣💀
He forgot upstate NY, just like everyone does
Staten blows.... kids
I mean...They do call Staten Island “the forgotten borough “🤷🏽♂️
Fred Armisen is hysterical. He's so talented but underrated artist.
I thought about Fran Drescher when he did Queens. Looked it up: she's born in Queens.
I thought of Action Bronson
Man she is annoying
@@kongvinter33 Queens is not mostly Jewish at all. I looked it up and Jewish people make up about 9% of the population. That is a high percentage compared to the country as a whole but Queens is basically the most diverse area in the USA. I'm from Queens and there's a pocket for every "ethnic" group in the world. It's not mostly anything
It was literally in the opening of The Nanny.
You didn't know that? Lol
As a Miamian, I found his inflections for Miami English and lower class (balsero) Cuban accents surprisingly accurate! Even non-Latinos who grow up in Miami, I've found, end up speaking English with shorter, sharper vowels, like the ones you'd find in Spanish and adopting Spanish calques like "eating shit" to mean wasting time. Amazing!
What the hell. Did you just call people lower class?!
It's not just crazy how many accents he has, but how effortlessly he can switch between them. I can only do a couple of accents, but switching between them feels almost impossible without taking some time to like, neurologically "flush" the previous accent. Not sure if that makes sense. This man really is a once a generation talent lol.
My issue is talking like the people I'm around, I've lived enough places across the US, I tend to slide into an accent as soon as I hear it and I have to be careful to not be offensive. That was HARD in Australia.
He's incredible.
@@mwater_moon2865 did you ever live in any parts of the Southern or Appalachian U.S.? And if so, does that accent ever sneak up on ya?
@@LaylaSowards I spent about half my childhood in Mississippi. And when my children were small and we lived in the upper Midwest, I explained to the other gathered parents at a Kindergarten play group that a Southern accent isn't about being lazy, it's 'bout bein' able able to say e'vythang with out lettin' that smile fall offa your face. An' that can mean using more to say less, so it's not lazy it's just diff'rent.
The room fell silent, and EVERY child's head turned towards me (expect for mine, they hear me when I get around Southern friends/family) and about a dozen small children looked at me like an alien had landed in their midst.
@@mwater_moon2865 haha I LOVE THAT!! I'm 100% stealing that description ❤️🤗. I'm from SE KY, spent my first 31 years there, moved to Raleigh/Durham NC 7 years ago and my accent is still thick as cornbread. When Northerners hear me speak I immediately get asked 'where are you from?', they always think it's TN, GA, SC or AL. The closest to any I sound like are TN or WV...more WV though. For Appalachian accents it's more about the enunciation of vowels. My name is Layla but all non-southerners hear 'Lila' or 'Leela' 😂🤣🤣 My hard A's sound like I's 🤷🏼♀️ I did learn to say my name the 'right way', but I don't even try changing my accent for anything else 😄
As a German, I just have to say that I am more than happy that *finally* someone on the internet is explaining American accents *properly* - and believe it or not... it really helps. Thanks Fred, keep it up - LMAO😂👍
I think it really speaks to his talent that when he got to my state, any accent disappeared.
What is your state?
as someone from san francisco, i can confirm this is how we talk
this is a fact
I only lived there for two years but when he did that I got transported like that scene in Ratatouille. Most people I met were from somewhere else but San Francisco native dudes were always obvious. Skinny and angry is what I remember most.
@@adamf.4823 pretty accurate ngl, and they all skate. Ive been hanging out with a ton of ppl at bonfires at ocean beach and I can't tell you the number of times I've heard the phrase "dude, we just bombed this epic hill, it was hella tight"
Fred is absolutely hilarious!!!!!!!!! We need more of him in our lives!!!!
A glorious tour de force. Fred's been consistently fresh, random, and hilarious over time.
This is one of the most accurate accent portrayals I have ever seen
I can listen to him and all his accents all day. For some reason I find it very soothing and relaxing.
baltimore here, he nailed it. mowder awwl
Go warsh your hands
Hell yes
@@maggiee639 Warsh and rinsh em good
I love that he picked up on the nuance of how Chicagoans vs. southern Illinois speak, that's one that people often don't know about.
I’m just glad that he didn’t use the damned Fargo movie accent when he got to Minnesota. I’m aware that we have an accent, but we do not talk like we’re all Scandinavian immigrants. Fred nailed it.
That's cause you don't hear it. But the rest of us do.
Get out in the country and it’s super strong, I’m from the twin cities and I talk pretty normal but my family out west sound like their first generation American-Swedes
JasonL77 I’m from the Duluth/Superior area and I can tell you after being away from that area for 25 years, that is how the accents sound to everyone else.
Winston Ruchie agree I was in the twin cities the whole
Time I was there but met some old old people and oh boy the accent was very discernable.
*ooh, sure, ooh you betchya, MinnesOOta, eh?*
born and raised here in D.C. and all of his eastern seaboard was right on point it's scary
Right? I was waiting for him to fuck up the Bolmr accent, but he got it.
Have you guys seen this? I love his reaction to his own accent. ruclips.net/video/Oj7a-p4psRA/видео.html
from a south carolinian, he got it spot on, 10/10 i love linguistics and IPA so its really awesome to see one of my favorite actor and comedians nail my home state 💙
utterly brilliant. Wish there were more of Fred Armison on YT.
Well, he nailed the essence of the Long Island accent: “Aw.”
Wow! The man is so talented. I have never realized how talented these performers are. Bravo!! 👏👏👏
“I’m from Seattle, here are the words.” LOL
For New York, for many of us, that's how our parents and grandparents spoke. There are still holdouts who speak that way, but for the most part, the internet softened the accents of the younger generations.
Very true; his B'klyn accent was too strong and _perhaps_ influenced by movies. Talking with relatives back in B'klyn, I hear the much softer version of the now "stereotypical" accent. (I've since lost mine, I've been told.) He did nail Manhattan and Long Island! 😄
3:57 - "This is the Minneapolis police..." that has GOT to be a reference The Replacements "Stink" album. Props, Fred.
faunaflage yes!!!