-And, Fred, it's actually been a wonderful week.
Not only were you here, but I got to see you
out in Los Angeles this past weekend.
We were at the Emmys together.
And I love catching up with you because --
And I hope you know I'm not just blowing smoke here.
You're the most fascinating man I know.
-Oh, thank you.
-You're welcome. You're a renaissance man.
You're a comedian. You're a musician.
You're a writer.
And one thing that people don't know about you
that we've been talking about this week
is that you are an art connoisseur.
-Yes, I love all art.
-And you're okay the term connoisseur?
That doesn't offend you? -I like it.
-Okay, great.
And, backstage, you were saying that you have
what you would describe as an art historian's knowledge
about every painting ever painted.
-Every painting.
-And that -- When I heard that --
Everything up until that point, I signed on off on,
but I was like, "Man, every painting."
So, this is a true thing.
You know everything about every painting.
-Yes. -At an art historian's level?
-More. Yes. -Okay.
Let's test it once again in our segment
"Fred Armisen, Art Aficionado."
[ Cheers and applause ] ♪♪
-Ooh.
-All right, so, there you go.
Fred, this is Vincent Van Gogh's 1885 masterpiece
"The Potato Eaters."
Fred, tell us about this classic painting.
-He had a lot of help with this one.
This was painted by his parents.
So, he assigned them -- He sort of gave them an assignment.
He's like, "You guys are my parents.
You know, I'm this famous artist.
And, for once, let's have you do something.
Why don't you depict our family?"
And they were like, "We're not really painters."
He's like, "I think you can do it."
So he gave them some coffee grounds.
And, at the breakfast table, he just had them do it,
and they came up with this.
Now, the problem is -- how do you move a painting
from a table onto a wall, onto to canvas?
Fascinating. So, they used gravity for this.
There's a sort of -- There's a method in which --
-To move -- Wait. They what? Sorry.
-So, they painted it -- -They painted it on the table?
-On the table.
-So they didn't paint it on a canvas.
-No. What did they know? I mean, you know...
So, he's like, "Okay, you guys are rookies.
Let's get to this."
-So did he basically walk back into the kitchen and go, "No!"
Like, did he realize right away?
-He had this relationship with them
where he was very gentle with them.
-Okay.
-So he had that reaction where he's like
[Gasps] and then he was like, "Okay.
What we're going to do is just --"
You know, he just slowed it all down.
He's like, "What we're going to do is --
we're going to try to move this onto a canvas."
And they did it with gravity. It's amazing.
With magnets -- There's a weight.
And kind of have it, like, stay on the table
and then move the entire table onto the wall.
-So, wait.
So, you're basically -- I'm sorry.
You make this sound scientific.
They just hung the table on the wall.
-They hung the table on the wall.
If that's the term you want to use.
Look, as an art historian,
there's, like -- So, there's some technical words
that we use for hanging things up on the wall.
-What is an example of one of those technical words
that you just used?
-There's, like, a wall metal, which means --
Like, where you would use nail, we use, like, a wall --
-Also, I'm not an art historian, but the first thing
you said was, you know, he was very famous.
But I think, famously, Van Gogh wasn't famous
till, like, after his death.
-That's what his publicist -- His publicist at the time
was like, "We need to make this thing --"
They were like, "You know, you're penniless."
But, no, that not the case. -Gotcha. And what -- I'm sorry.
Again, I want you to know I am apologizing
for my ignorance in even asking.
What were his parents' names?
-Maria and Mari-o.
-Sorry. So not Mario. -No, no, no. Mari-o. Yeah.
-Give it up for Fred Armisen, everybody.
[ Cheers and applause ]
Mari-o Van Gogh. -Yes.
-Mari-o Van Gogh. -Yes.