--- title: Fred Armisen masters 10 New York accents: viral video description: Fred Armisen performs different New York accents as suggested by an audience at a charity fundraiser. canonical: https://time.com/3602081/fred-armisen-new-york-city-accents/ author: Eliza Berman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-11-24T15:23:13.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:14:46.613Z og:title: Watch Fred Armisen Master 10 Different New York Accents og:description: Fred Armisen performs different New York accents as suggested by an audience at a charity fundraiser. og:url: https://time.com/3602081/fred-armisen-new-york-city-accents/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc352a87b299ce55f/69876a87e20a875affa838ce/fred-armisen.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Fred Armisen og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Watch Fred Armisen Master 10 Different New York Accents twitter:description: Fred Armisen performs different New York accents as suggested by an audience at a charity fundraiser. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc352a87b299ce55f/69876a87e20a875affa838ce/fred-armisen.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Watch Fred Armisen Master 10 Different New York Accents  by [Eliza Berman](https://time.com/author/eliza-berman/)  ## Eliza Berman Berman is a senior editor at TIME. Nov 24, 2014 3:23 PM UTC  Fred Armisen attends the 2014 Museum Gala at American Museum of Natural History in New York City on Nov. 20, 2014 in New York City. Fred Armisen attends the 2014 Museum Gala at American Museum of Natural History in New York City on Nov. 20, 2014 in New York City.Jamie McCarthy—Getty Images  by [Eliza Berman](https://time.com/author/eliza-berman/)  ## Eliza Berman Berman is a senior editor at TIME. Nov 24, 2014 3:23 PM UTC New York City’s residents speak as many as [800 languages](http://www.economist.com/node/21528592), but they also speak English in almost as many accents. Or if not quite as many, every neighborhood, at least, boasts its own nuanced version of the New York accent. And Fred Armisen, master of impressions, has mastered them all. At a fundraiser for Doctors Without Borders, the _Saturday Night Live_ alumnus performed impressions of different New York accents based on audience suggestions, tackling the West Village, Astoria and the Bronx, among others. He also took an anthropological perspective on the accents’ origins. Upper West Siders, for example, are “more appreciative of the things that are around New York,” whereas residents of the Rockaways are “trying to prove something.” He took his biggest jab at the corner of New York where he himself was raised: Long Island. “They’re trying to prove that they’re not dumb,” he stutters, making ample use of arm gestures. “They’re already being defensive about being made fun of.” And just like that, Armisen reveals the genesis of his career as a comedian: a childhood marked by Long Island-induced insecurity. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3602081/fred-armisen-new-york-city-accents/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3602081/fred-armisen-new-york-city-accents/"},"headline":"Watch Fred Armisen Master 10 Different New York Accents","datePublished":"2014-11-24T15:23:13.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:14:46.613Z","description":"Yes, there is shrugging involved.","url":"https://time.com/3602081/fred-armisen-new-york-city-accents/","keywords":["Newsfeed","viral","New York","linguistics","doctors without borders"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc352a87b299ce55f/69876a87e20a875affa838ce/fred-armisen.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Eliza Berman","jobTitle":"Berman is a senior editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/eliza-berman/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc352a87b299ce55f/69876a87e20a875affa838ce/fred-armisen.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Fred Armisen","caption":"Fred Armisen","creditText":"Jamie McCarthy—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3602081/fred-armisen-new-york-city-accents/","name":"Watch Fred Armisen Master 10 Different New York Accents"}}]}] ```