Comedian Fred Armisen has might quite a name
for himself in the comedy world over the past
few years, with star turns on Saturday Night
Live, Portlandia, and Documentary Now!
Even an unforgettable appearance in Anchorman:
"You are going to eat that cat poop!"
"I will not eat cat poop."
Unfortunately for Armisen, however, it's not
just his comedy work that's gone viral.
Rumors of some shady behavior on his part
have been spreading like wildfire recently.
Here are the shady things everyone's just
ignoring about Fred Armisen.
Bad relationships
It's no secret that celebs frequently reveal
quite a bit when they get together to chat
with Howard Stern.
For his part, Armisen was brutally honest
when he went on The Howard Stern Show and
talked about his brief marriage to Mad Men
star Elisabeth Moss, saying: "I was a terrible
husband...I feel bad for everyone I've gone
out with."
That's understandable, since he also admitted
that he prefers to end relationships the passive
aggressive way.
Specifically, he told Stern:
"[It's] awful . . . you sort of withdraw and
you sort of get into all the things you think
make you weird, like 'I'm really into playing
XBOX . . [or my] record collection.'
You sort of disappear into the things that
you think are just your hobbies."
Another one of Armisen's exes, NYC-based artist
Alice Lancaster, also left their relationship
with less than warm feelings.
In fact, she went so far as to create a painting
that she titled "Portrait of a Sociopath."
Some people have speculated as to the painting's
subject.
We'll let you be the judge of who it looks
like.
Ouch.
No laughing matter
In 2012, Elisabeth Moss was asked about her
relationship with Armisen, and was brutally
honest about how Armisen's comedic antics
didn't translate so well when it came time
to negotiate a relationship.
In a revealing interview, she said:
"One of the greatest things I heard someone
say about him is, 'He's so great at doing
impersonations.
But the greatest impersonation he does is
that of a normal person.'
To me, that sums it up."
Ouch again.
And a little terrifying...
Ruined Portland
Armisen's show Portlandia made waves in October
2016.
The Portland bookstore where the show had
filmed a number of sketches posted on its
website that it was ending its relationship
with Armisen and his creative partner, Carrie
Brownstein.
Their beef?
They said that the show had caused ballooning
rent prices and an influx of out-of-towners,
effectively "ruining" their city.
The store ended their notice by saying: "Portlandia
is fueling mass displacement in Portland.
Fred and Carrie are on billboards and realtors
have gleefully begun using Portlandia's popularity
and insipid humor...to make displacing the
communities that made Portland a great place
in the first place something twee and whimsical
for the incoming technocrat hordes."
For his part, Armisen doesn't think his show
is to blame: "I think what's changing about
this city is what's changing about any city
that I live in…
every city I go to has more buildings going
up."
SNL controversy
In 2008, Armisen's impression for Saturday
Night Live of then-New York governor David
Patterson —who is legally blind— raised
some serious concerns that the show was making
fun of people with disabilities.
After the episode aired, Paterson's spokesman
had quite a bit to say: "The governor engages
in humor all the time, and he can certainly
take a joke…
However, this particular Saturday Night Live
skit unfortunately chose to ridicule people
with physical disabilities and imply that
disabled people are incapable of having jobs
with serious responsibilities."
Not a good look, Armisen.
Fantasy man
In a candid conversation with Marc Maron for
his WTF podcast, Armisen admitted his difficulty
maintaining serious relationships.
He referred specifically to his relationship
with Moss, saying:
"It's so exciting, and this is gonna sound
so shallow, but I get lost in fantasy a lot…the
fantasy of this person from Mad Men, you know,
great actress…It is like being starstruck,
and I was getting to know the other people
from the show and her and it was very, very
exciting, and I only got caught up in that
part of it."
Armisen went on to describe how getting beyond
the initial rush of a relationship creates
an issue for him, as he's forced to contend
with the totality of the other person.
"I have a problem with intimacy, where all
of a sudden, there's a real person there…It's
almost like an amnesia...It's almost like
waking up and going, 'Where am I?
Who is this person?
Why is this person looking at me directly
in the eye and having a conversation with
me?'"
With an attitude like that, it's likely that
"this person" won't be be sticking around
much longer.
"Is this a dream?"
"Is this a dream?"
"Is this a dream?"
"You're not supposed to answer."
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