Questlove Gets A Kick Out Of Fred Armisen’s Apparently Spot-On Drumming Impressions

In recent years, Fred Armisen (previously the drummer for punk band Trenchmouth) has really leaned into music when it comes to his comedy. In 2018, for example, he released the comedy album Standup For Drummers. When he pops up on late-night TV, he tends to address similar topics, like he did on The Tonight Show yesterday, much to the delight of The Roots drummer Questlove.

On the show, Armisen had a bit in which he impersonated different types and eras of drummers. Taking to a kit set up on the stage, he began with an “Instagram drummer,” who he noted have a lot of “gimmicks” on their kits, which got an off-screen laugh from Quest as he explained it and played.

Armisen then went through how he drummed during different periods of his life, and while the astuteness and humor of the observations may be lost on non-drummers, Questlove got it, as he could be seen smiling and laughing and nodding in agreement at various points in the routine.

Elsewhere on the show, Armisen sat down for an interview with Jimmy Fallon, in which he showed off a not-so-magical magic trick as well as a number of different Spanish accents.

Check out the segment on The Tonight Show above.