The Last Gang In Town, A Mockumentary About The Clash, Featuring Fred Armisen as Punk Rocker Ian Rubbish

In “The Clash: The Last Gang in Town“, a short mockumentary by Funny or Die, Fred Armisen plays Ian Rubbish, an aging punk rocker who inserts himself into the history of The Clash. While interviewing Clash alums Mick Jones and Paul Simonon, Ian tries to both impress and one-up. Mick and Paul very graciously play along.

In the punk movement, lots of groups come about. The Pistols. The Clash. Ian Rubbish and the Bizarros. Clash, y’know, they write a lot about politics and we tried to do the same. What we did with The Clash is if they would say something political, we would say something like, “We agree with The Clash”, or “What they said”…we all all influenced each other. When I hear The Clash, I can hear Ian Rubbish in their music. In a way they did a sort of past tense copying of us.

The best moment comes when Ian jams with Mick and Paul. Amazing. Which probably explains why Fred will be going on to be the 8G Band Leader for Late Night with Seth Meyers.

Lori Dorn
Lori Dorn

Lori is a Laughing Squid Contributing Editor based in New York City who has been writing blog posts for over a decade. She also enjoys making jewelry, playing guitar, taking photos and mixing craft cocktails.