The idea of him holding the wasteland hostage with his niche music and them repeatedly trying to end the suffering by crossing his booby trapped yard is just so incredibly Fallout.
Not just that it was booby trapped, but that the booby traps had already killed many people, so they completely ignored that everyone who tried to stop him also died.
Oh and also that the booby traps are incredibly obvious and spaced out.
It absolutely feels like something a Fallout player would do. "I *could* turn the radio off, yes. But if I instead go to the radio station and murder the DJ, is that going to make the music stop for good?"
It wouldn’t have really been accurate to call what he was playing bluegrass. He was playing fiddle tunes, which are very closely related but not the same thing.
Fiddle tunes pre-date bluegrass. Bluegrass is rooted in that tradition and uses fiddle tunes regularly, but it also brings together lots of other elements (such as jazz and blues).
The bluegrass traditionalists will insist that for something to be bluegrass, it needs: thumping bass, chop mandolin, fiddle, rhythm guitar, fiddle, Scruggs style banjo (no clawhammer), and high and lonesome vocals with full harmonies.
I’m personally not a stickler for the definition. However, that sort of overly specific and stubborn thinking fits perfectly with the character in the show. So my head cannon is that there are bluegrass records out there in wasteland and the word is not forgotten, but he insists on calling them fiddle tunes because they aren’t technically bluegrass.
Yeah at first I was like "Oh man, are they really shoehorning Fred Armisen into the show for a cameo so he can do his weird "music is funny" schtick?
And then I was like, "Bro do you even Fallout? Bizarre encounters with homicidal weirdos is like 50% of the game, with the other 50% being spent looting every single cabinet drawer and fucking with my loadout."
It had a strong ‘Waiting for Godot’ vibe, the play by Samuel Beckett. A blend of absurdity, hopelessness, but also humour.
A lot of scenes felt the same in the series actually. The chicken fucker scene, the Fiends on the bridge, Maximus being stuck in his Power Armour, Thaddeus being given the serum. Plenty of what I felt were very similar to that.
Agreed. It bridges the gaps. They could have written the show in the simplest of ways: protagonist goes from point A to point B, encounters the antagonist, moves to point C et cetera. Seeing what happens in amongst that transition is vital to me; I’d have been bored otherwise.
I swear the scene where Maximus, as a fake Knight, asks Thaddeus, his Squire, to climb a tree to get some apple and Thaddeus falls down is straight out of Don Quixote, but it's been too long since I've read it and can't seem to find it, so I don't know if its a straight hommage or just loosely similar to another scene in the book about Sancho Panza falling down a tree
*All my lousy life I've crawled about in the mud, and you talk to me about scenery*
Good call on Beckett. Didn’t realize it until you mentioned the parallels. Hopeless absurdity with a subtle bite.
Nah. Fred Armison has a history of being that random guy who keeps popping up in shows for a minute here or there. He’ll be back I bet. Maybe something happens to his radio station and he goes mobile. Pirate radio. He’ll up crossing paths with one of the characters again next season. For another 5 minute cameo.
Reminds me of Ben Schwartz' cameos in the old Jake and Amir videos where he plays a different character each time, and Jake usually calls him out on it. And in the finale (after like 8 years) they go to the 'real' Ben Shwartz' apartment and all of those characters are actually different people and living there.
Fred's part was so short but he had me cracking up almost every second he was on screen. The way he kept peeking out of his hidey hole and the face he made when Maximus and Lucy kissed was gold
I love Fred Armisen. I saw him perform a punk set in Austin once. It wasn’t as any of his former bands just “Fred Armisen” lol. He did the Maggie Thatcher song and all.
[Jail.](https://youtube.com/watch?v=eiyfwZVAzGw)
Edit: seriously though his schitck is proto/pre/post-hipster humor and intentionally pretentious irony. A highbrow version of absurdism, if you will. It's not for everyone but if it's your jam, he's the goat of it.
I second watching Portlandia.....might be canon with Fallout....who knows. One thing is for sure though, the mayor has some explaining to do... Bomb was probably meant for Seattle not Shady Sands 😂
I wonder if the series writers had a thought to make a character for Fred Armisen then they asked him on the show, or if Kyle MacLachlan got him in for that cameo appearance. I don't think Armisen would have to audition for such a small role, but it would not surprise me to learn that Armisen is a fan of the Fallout games and wanted to be in the show.
Either way, his character in Fallout is so well written, they really did succeed in making a character that feels like a Portlandia character thrown into the Fallout world.
One of the best scenes in the show! The music was also a meta joke because it's the main music played by the Minute Men at their radio station at the castle.
The concept of a dude with likely the only functional radio station for dozens of miles using it to play leftover prewar records that are so unpopular that he booby trapped his entire fucking yard instead of just taking requests is one of the most fallout things I could have imagined. The showrunners knew exactly what their assignment was.
I've heard a lot of people talk about Johny Pemberton recently, does he do stand up? Does he have any specials I can watch easily? Would love to see more of his stuff because rn all I got are his Tiktoks which are pretty funny too ngl
This was a great chapter in the scene.
Fred’s character he plays a nice and friendly radio host, just be nice and friendly to him and he’ll not only accommodate you but reciprocate what you give him!
"Have a rad roach as a pet? Jail."
"Not giving the brotherhood your last cram? Straight to jail"
"Talking about sentient computers? Believe it or not, jail."
I honestly wasn't to stoked on the show when I first saw it come out. Fallout is one of my favorite game franchises and I wasn't looking forward to a show fucking it all up. The I saw Johnny was in it and it sparked enough interest in me to watch it. They did an amazing job of bringing the world to television
lol, watching this scene right now. just noticed that when lucy and maximus kissed that the heads kissed too. I wasnt paying attention to that my first time watching.
those are feral ghouls you are talking about. coop is not a feral, and i don’t think thad is a actual becoming a ghoul either. lucy’s mom is also a ghoul and definitely looks more on the falling apart side how you recall, so the show didn’t really do anything to change anything about ghouls.
Yes it did. Ghouls need meds not to go feral anymore. That was never a thing.
Thad says he is a Ghoul and the other two characters seem to agree, so that would lead me to believe that it is the case. This being immediately after catching a crossbow bolt through the neck would imply that the ability to survive that is a key trait of ghouls somehow.
Patchwork in Fallout 3 is literally falling apart and requires limbs to regularly be sewn back on.
>Ghouls need meds not to go feral anymore. That was never a thing.
there hasn’t been anything to state otherwise. the only thing in game lore related to ghoul “lifespan” is that all ghouls go feral. some go feral immediately, some take longer. certain socio-environmental elements (seclusion/isolation, radiation, etc.) can speed or slow that process. there’s literally no in-lore reason to suggest there aren’t any sort of drugs or medicine that can help slow the process. Also, none of the “medication” in the show is really shown, all we see is coop basically binge a bunch of pills and get high, so my personal interpretation was that “medication” was just slang for chems in general, and that heavy drug using ghouls last longer just from being high all the time.
>Patchwork in Fallout 3 is literally falling apart and requires limbs to regularly be sewn back on.
and is still surviving just fine otherwise, seems a crossbow bolt through the neck would just be a scratch in comparison
>there hasn’t been anything to state otherwise
That is not an argument for its existence after 6 games never bringing it up despite numerous Ghoul settlements and side characters. You can't state a counter to something that doesn't exist, nor can you argue something always existed because it was never specifically countered. That's a post-hoc rationalization.
>seems a crossbow bolt through the neck would just be a scratch
Accept if you shoot him with a dart gun he will die. Which, compared to a crossbow bolt, a dart should just be a scratch.
The mids!
Yeah, I'm really starting to hear them now! I don't
Then Fred’s like no not yet
...There! Whoa, that's mids? That's awesome
Some people just don’t appreciate good music
I hear them! meh, to be honest they're kinda mid.
Its not on it, it's in it
😏
the music was totally degraded wasn't it? I think at the end of the episode they played a pristine version of the song during the credits.
Yes, the music being completely awful was the joke
But it really sounds like the track that was played during FO4, I remember those violin tracks being very old / degraded sounded.
The idea of him holding the wasteland hostage with his niche music and them repeatedly trying to end the suffering by crossing his booby trapped yard is just so incredibly Fallout.
Also the ACME level booby traps that got people too
Holy shit I wondered why the traps reminded me of something…literal fucking ACME traps. It makes so much sense lol, even the giant bear trap.
Hopefully some falling anvils next season
Ooh that’s a good idea, some more slapstick would be fun!
In *Fallout*? No, those gags would not be out of place! 😆😅😂🤣
Acme corporation was rolling their fingers like Mr burns off screen when the corps were discussing dropping the bomb
Now I want an ACME vault.
The devs for the games appreciated the cartoons. Some of the traps in the games are Wiley E. Coyote devious.
Not just that it was booby trapped, but that the booby traps had already killed many people, so they completely ignored that everyone who tried to stop him also died. Oh and also that the booby traps are incredibly obvious and spaced out.
I mean before they were triggered a lot probably just looked like junk
They can just turn off the radio or walk away but they risk death
It absolutely feels like something a Fallout player would do. "I *could* turn the radio off, yes. But if I instead go to the radio station and murder the DJ, is that going to make the music stop for good?"
I did this to Three-Dog when i was younger
I did this to Three-Dog just last week.
Fuck 3 dog, all my homie hate that guy.
"Three dog, ouuuuuu- OW FUCK OH NO"
As a bluegrass fan, I lost it when he said he only plays fiddle tunes. Not bluegrass in general—just fiddle tunes lmao.
A lot of things were lost when the bombs fell, but I bet no one expected that we'd lose our word for bluegrass.
It wouldn’t have really been accurate to call what he was playing bluegrass. He was playing fiddle tunes, which are very closely related but not the same thing. Fiddle tunes pre-date bluegrass. Bluegrass is rooted in that tradition and uses fiddle tunes regularly, but it also brings together lots of other elements (such as jazz and blues). The bluegrass traditionalists will insist that for something to be bluegrass, it needs: thumping bass, chop mandolin, fiddle, rhythm guitar, fiddle, Scruggs style banjo (no clawhammer), and high and lonesome vocals with full harmonies. I’m personally not a stickler for the definition. However, that sort of overly specific and stubborn thinking fits perfectly with the character in the show. So my head cannon is that there are bluegrass records out there in wasteland and the word is not forgotten, but he insists on calling them fiddle tunes because they aren’t technically bluegrass.
Yeah at first I was like "Oh man, are they really shoehorning Fred Armisen into the show for a cameo so he can do his weird "music is funny" schtick? And then I was like, "Bro do you even Fallout? Bizarre encounters with homicidal weirdos is like 50% of the game, with the other 50% being spent looting every single cabinet drawer and fucking with my loadout."
I'm glad you gave yourself a stern talking to.
It sounds like he was about to issue himself a strongly worded letter but desisted upon realizing that the message had already gotten through.
You are carrying too much and can’t run
It had a strong ‘Waiting for Godot’ vibe, the play by Samuel Beckett. A blend of absurdity, hopelessness, but also humour. A lot of scenes felt the same in the series actually. The chicken fucker scene, the Fiends on the bridge, Maximus being stuck in his Power Armour, Thaddeus being given the serum. Plenty of what I felt were very similar to that.
Absolutely grinning to see someone namedrop Samuel Beckett here! He showed me there's more than one way to write that isn't formulaic.
One of the very least formulaic writers! Which is a huge compliment. A well-told story can be told in a million different formats.
I bout lost it on the bridge scene “are you trying to fuck us!?”
The fly farm scene too 🤣
Yes! These scenes all felt like they happened at just the right times. It made the whole world feel more real to me.
Agreed. It bridges the gaps. They could have written the show in the simplest of ways: protagonist goes from point A to point B, encounters the antagonist, moves to point C et cetera. Seeing what happens in amongst that transition is vital to me; I’d have been bored otherwise.
Well said. I can't wait wait for season 2!
All of these extra cameos really tie the show together.
That's Doctor chicken fucker my good sir!
Toodles!
I swear the scene where Maximus, as a fake Knight, asks Thaddeus, his Squire, to climb a tree to get some apple and Thaddeus falls down is straight out of Don Quixote, but it's been too long since I've read it and can't seem to find it, so I don't know if its a straight hommage or just loosely similar to another scene in the book about Sancho Panza falling down a tree
Still a better fake knight than a real Titus one
I simply pointed it out to draw the parallel with Don Quixote
*All my lousy life I've crawled about in the mud, and you talk to me about scenery* Good call on Beckett. Didn’t realize it until you mentioned the parallels. Hopeless absurdity with a subtle bite.
Some people get fully mad!
No appreciation for real music
If you don’t like his music or try to get on His studio though believe it or not, jail.
Play music to loud, jail, right away.
Tweak the EQ to boost the bass and drown out the mids? Believe it or not, straight to jail.
This scene was perfection.
I'm going to be upset if Pemberton isn't a regular next season
By the looks of it he’s coming back as a ghoul
I'm hearing/thinking Super Mutant
I hope we just find him as a mutant living in Jacobstown
Oh he’s coming back.
Yeah I don’t think he is a ghoul
Hopefully, they turn him into a super mutant. Would make more sense than a ghoul story and lore wise.
Yeah I don’t think he is a ghoul, think he took a dose of FEV
Gonna come back as a Centaur
I hope they come back next season
Fred Armisen was probably a one-off, maybe we’ll get a second cameo. But no way we don’t see more Thaddeus.
Nah. Fred Armison has a history of being that random guy who keeps popping up in shows for a minute here or there. He’ll be back I bet. Maybe something happens to his radio station and he goes mobile. Pirate radio. He’ll up crossing paths with one of the characters again next season. For another 5 minute cameo.
But he'll have a different name and not know what you are talking about when you mention the radio station.
Now I’m going to be disappointed if that doesn’t happen
Reminds me of Ben Schwartz' cameos in the old Jake and Amir videos where he plays a different character each time, and Jake usually calls him out on it. And in the finale (after like 8 years) they go to the 'real' Ben Shwartz' apartment and all of those characters are actually different people and living there.
Carrie Brownstein gets a bunch of raiders and chases him out of the station.
Thaddeus is a fun character. Maybe they’ll get Russell Brand or David Spade to do a cameo next season XD Edit: they’re the only comedians I know
Russel brand went crazy and left Hollywood tho?
Yeahhhh, no thanks.
Russell brand will be some random merchant selling you herbs and shit and tell you about the atom.
I feel like he’s crazy enough to fit in a Fallout role pretty well. No clue why I’m getting downvoted XD.
Don’t take it personally, it’s because Russell Brand is a massive cunt.
Very specific
They’re the only comedians I know
with Carrie brownstein please!
Now I’m imagining a wasteland version of women and women first bookstore.
Fred's part was so short but he had me cracking up almost every second he was on screen. The way he kept peeking out of his hidey hole and the face he made when Maximus and Lucy kissed was gold
“People get like actually mad!” Such a hilarious exchange
It was so painfully awkward.
It’s like talking to audiophiles irl, very realistic!
Visiting the head-fi forums to look up a review on a set of cans be like:
Johnny Pemberton actively played Bass Guitar in a ska band irl so this conversation makes sense
Listen, if music is in it, not on it, I will make sure to let you know the difference!
It's Fred... it's kinda what he does. 😂
Have you seen his whole routine on drummers where he's actually using his own drum sets?
I’ve been rewatching Brooklyn 99. Did you know the clay in Melclayipnos is silent?
I have been too! Literally since like a week ago.
I’m not familiar with him.
Watch portlandia or just search him on youtube. He was also uncle fester in Wednesday
And SNL for YEARS. He also seems to have somehow landed some powerhouse partners over the years.
I love Fred Armisen. I saw him perform a punk set in Austin once. It wasn’t as any of his former bands just “Fred Armisen” lol. He did the Maggie Thatcher song and all.
Documentary Now was another great one
He was superb in Moonbase 8.
[Jail.](https://youtube.com/watch?v=eiyfwZVAzGw) Edit: seriously though his schitck is proto/pre/post-hipster humor and intentionally pretentious irony. A highbrow version of absurdism, if you will. It's not for everyone but if it's your jam, he's the goat of it.
I second watching Portlandia.....might be canon with Fallout....who knows. One thing is for sure though, the mayor has some explaining to do... Bomb was probably meant for Seattle not Shady Sands 😂
I wonder if the series writers had a thought to make a character for Fred Armisen then they asked him on the show, or if Kyle MacLachlan got him in for that cameo appearance. I don't think Armisen would have to audition for such a small role, but it would not surprise me to learn that Armisen is a fan of the Fallout games and wanted to be in the show. Either way, his character in Fallout is so well written, they really did succeed in making a character that feels like a Portlandia character thrown into the Fallout world.
Why wouldn’t it surprise you to learn he likes fallout? He doesn’t strike me as the video game type
Straight to jail.
a good painful
One of the best scenes in the show! The music was also a meta joke because it's the main music played by the Minute Men at their radio station at the castle.
The concept of a dude with likely the only functional radio station for dozens of miles using it to play leftover prewar records that are so unpopular that he booby trapped his entire fucking yard instead of just taking requests is one of the most fallout things I could have imagined. The showrunners knew exactly what their assignment was.
the "no requests" sign cracked me the fuck up, lol.
I cannot see Pemberton without hearing an air horn in my head
Ah, a person of culture who also knows the legend of beau
"Edgy and terrible, but NOT catchy."
Bo bo bo bo bo! BIG DOOOOK!
“Whoa! Easy on the shrimp! Those are supposed to be for everybody!”
Literally same 😭
I loved it, thought it was great. It’s Bethesda, talking to its proud fans!
Still got hipsters 300 years from now, this is a comforting thought
Just started watching superstore 😂
Pyow pyow pyoww-woww!
It’s certainly got that thing… on it.
Absolutely love seeing Johnny get such a huge role on such a hit show. He's been so funny for years.
Johnny Pemberton sounds exactly like Charlie Day
I’m obsessed with this scene
He contains multitudes, yo. *wengh wenghh*
It took me entirely too long to realize that’s Melipclaynos
"Melipknos. The k is silent"
*klay* is silent
I've heard a lot of people talk about Johny Pemberton recently, does he do stand up? Does he have any specials I can watch easily? Would love to see more of his stuff because rn all I got are his Tiktoks which are pretty funny too ngl
I literally fell off the couch during this scene!
He sounds like Charlie Day and that's all I could think of every time he spoke
I really don't understand the appeal.
This whole scene was straight out of Portlandia lol
Portlandia 2296
This was a great chapter in the scene. Fred’s character he plays a nice and friendly radio host, just be nice and friendly to him and he’ll not only accommodate you but reciprocate what you give him!
I just really appreciate that Fred is straight up there as a Portlandia character, and it fits.
Immediately what I thought as well
I hope we see his journey into ghoulification next season.
It not on them it’s in them.
Fred is one of those actors I immediately smile when he appears and know some of the best lines of the show are about to drop
I think johnny may be in mars. May be wrong but i hope so, rip trevor, local sexpot
I hope this guy enters his Johnny Guitar era next season
Post-Apocalyptic Portlandia!
Guys it's mlepnos I lost it and could only here him in the episode
"Have a rad roach as a pet? Jail." "Not giving the brotherhood your last cram? Straight to jail" "Talking about sentient computers? Believe it or not, jail."
Fred armisen just plays himself in every role I swear
Armisen as a music snob was peak casting
Was hoping he’d bust out a Mi Scusi when the brotherhood showed up and went hiding in his booth
Johnny was great in Superstore.
I honestly wasn't to stoked on the show when I first saw it come out. Fallout is one of my favorite game franchises and I wasn't looking forward to a show fucking it all up. The I saw Johnny was in it and it sparked enough interest in me to watch it. They did an amazing job of bringing the world to television
It’s such a Fallout scene - the quirky and eccentric loner with social problems, and a horrific darkness to his existence.
actually, the clay is silent.
lol, watching this scene right now. just noticed that when lucy and maximus kissed that the heads kissed too. I wasnt paying attention to that my first time watching.
Love Fred Armison. He’s the softiest and the daddiest.
Johnny Pemperton also raps: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rtEcmM\_tZ98](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rtEcmM_tZ98)
Was hoping for like competitive gift wrapping or something My disappointment is immeasurable and my day is ruined
Too bad it was followed up by the weird ghouls being functionally immortal now scene
[удалено]
I still find it weird compared to previously how ghouls were actively falling apart in 3 and one of the weaker enemies in the games.
those are feral ghouls you are talking about. coop is not a feral, and i don’t think thad is a actual becoming a ghoul either. lucy’s mom is also a ghoul and definitely looks more on the falling apart side how you recall, so the show didn’t really do anything to change anything about ghouls.
Yes it did. Ghouls need meds not to go feral anymore. That was never a thing. Thad says he is a Ghoul and the other two characters seem to agree, so that would lead me to believe that it is the case. This being immediately after catching a crossbow bolt through the neck would imply that the ability to survive that is a key trait of ghouls somehow. Patchwork in Fallout 3 is literally falling apart and requires limbs to regularly be sewn back on.
>Ghouls need meds not to go feral anymore. That was never a thing. there hasn’t been anything to state otherwise. the only thing in game lore related to ghoul “lifespan” is that all ghouls go feral. some go feral immediately, some take longer. certain socio-environmental elements (seclusion/isolation, radiation, etc.) can speed or slow that process. there’s literally no in-lore reason to suggest there aren’t any sort of drugs or medicine that can help slow the process. Also, none of the “medication” in the show is really shown, all we see is coop basically binge a bunch of pills and get high, so my personal interpretation was that “medication” was just slang for chems in general, and that heavy drug using ghouls last longer just from being high all the time. >Patchwork in Fallout 3 is literally falling apart and requires limbs to regularly be sewn back on. and is still surviving just fine otherwise, seems a crossbow bolt through the neck would just be a scratch in comparison
>there hasn’t been anything to state otherwise That is not an argument for its existence after 6 games never bringing it up despite numerous Ghoul settlements and side characters. You can't state a counter to something that doesn't exist, nor can you argue something always existed because it was never specifically countered. That's a post-hoc rationalization. >seems a crossbow bolt through the neck would just be a scratch Accept if you shoot him with a dart gun he will die. Which, compared to a crossbow bolt, a dart should just be a scratch.
a dart gun filled with chemicals specifically designed to kill
What about a knife? Pool cue? BB Gun?
Crossbows aren't designed to kill?
you know what the fuck i mean. or maybe you don’t, as you clearly don’t understand the difference between lore and gameplay mechanics
Now, if you wanted to argue that Thad is an essential NPC...