A happily defiant Ron Funches will not recant the whole "OutKast is better than The Beatles" thing
Aux Features Ron Funches
Anyone who’s ever been delighted by the lilting cadence of Ron Funches’ indefatigably hilarious stand-up knows that the comedian, actor, and current philosophical shark-man isn’t hear to pick a fight. Still, the ever-sunny host of the new, weed-centric cooking show spinoff series Chopped 420 wasn’t backing down on Monday’s edition of The Late Late Show With James Corden, telling his Trolls World Tour co-star Corden that his recent, controversial tweet is “100 percent” true.
The offending-to-some tweet reads as follows:
When society admits OutKast is better than The Beatles then we can truly start healing.
— Funch (@RonFunches) April 4, 2021
That’s some strong stuff from the usually soothing host of the Gettin’ Better With Ron Funches podcast, especially for white Baby Boomers who have no idea who Ron Funches, Big Boi, or Andre 3000 are. And that’s before the ensuing uproar was only exacerbated by the official OutKast Twitter account retweeting Funches’ claim, complete with that shocked eyes emoji. Make of that what you will, but Funches, noting that Andre 3000 himself reached out to the comic after his bold public stance, was not backpedaling in the face of some disproportionate outrage about a personal music opinion. He also rebuffed Corden’s suggestion that Andre had contacted Funches through such pedestrian means as a DM, explaining that, as everyone knows, Andre 3000 only communicates through messenger owls. (As to Andre’s promise of a thank you gift in the mail, Ron could only hope that his reward takes the form of “a handmade flute that doesn’t work.”)
And Funches is not kidding (about OutKast, or the flute thing), reflecting on his tweet and sighing, “How can someone be so young and so poignant?” But the comedian did go on to back up his assessment of the relative merits of two bands he quite likes by saying of OutKast, “Some of the things that I grew up, and some of the things that I value aren’t necessarily given the same amount of worth, and I think that OutKast and the things that they’ve done, for the music industry, how they’ve moved the entire rap industry to Atlanta, how they changed it from like rapping about drugs, to rapping about art, rapping about your life.” Plus, Funches added as an afterthought, “Erykah Badu over Yoko Ono all day.”
Regardless of where one falls on the OutKast-Beatles beef, Funches went on to show all the ways in which he is truly living his best life. Or maybe, as he told Corden, his reward for a previous, really spectacular life, as not only is the recently married comic and actor deeply happy with his whole family situation, he’s about to rent out an entire, COVID-abandoned movie theater for a private showing of the new Mortal Kombat movie in honor of his beloved son Malcolm’s 18th birthday. Funches also showed off the Ron Funches-branded Autism Acceptance Month Pumas he designed to honor Malcom, noting happily, “I got cut from JV basketball!” And then there’s Chopped 420, where Ron Funches gets to taste cannabis-infused delicacies cooked by some of the finest chefs in the world and get paid for it, and we’re beginning to see how Funches might worry that he’s actually in some sort of Matrix pod having a virtual reality ideal life. Still, if you check the schedule, Chopped 420 premieres today on Discovery +, so it seems like we’re at least all in the same Ron Funches illusory paradise. Could be much worse.
110 Comments
I’m not a huge Outkast fan, but I also actively dislike The Beatles, so this seems fine to me.
Edge alert. You must be like, totally above that Beatles trash. How mysterious. We’re all very, very impressed.
I mean, he’s right. When everybody that think the beatles are better are dead, the world will be a different place. Couple decades left, probably ^^
Eh, I like them both but at the moment Moon Hooch is best!
Outkast could write “I Want to Hold Your Hand” but the Beatles could never write “B.O.B.”
I mean, if you wanna get specific, do you think Outkast could have written “Because” or “A Day in the Life”?It’s a rhetorical question. These kinds of comparisons are silly and barely make sense.
Yes. Absolutely yes.
Honestly, yeah. They probably could.
I think Outkast’s version of “Because” would be amazing. You’re right the comparisons are silly. Outkast has the advantage of being modern and having 60 years or so of pop music to build off of while the beatles’ predecessors were all fairly close in the rearview mirror. Both broke new ground and established themselves as institutions.
Oh yeah, they could probably do a very exciting, creative version of that song. No argument here!Exactly, the cultural circumstances are just wildly different. The comparison ultimately doesn’t do either of them justice.
Way to steal literally the first reply tweet, change the songs, and claim it as your own.
I love what he’s doing and the point he’s making. I just wish he’d picked a different artist than Outkast. Though perhaps the audacity of that specific choice is the point.
The man’s right. Let the healing commence.Here’s all you need to know about Ron Funches: the man is so goddamn likable that I instantly forgive him for his Ric Flair impression actually just being a Dusty Rhodes impression, which should be unforgivable, but it’s Ron Funches so it’s all OK.
Dawes or gtfo.
The Beatles are fantastic. Outkast are fantastic. Do we really have to exalt one and diminish the other? Thoughts and discussions like this one always give me headaches. What purpose does this really serve?
Comedy?
True. I’ll give you that one. But that’s kinda the case with most if not all topics.
To highlight how we lend more cultural capital to the creative output of white people than POC? Even as a white guy who owns several Beatles records and zero Outkast records, I’m interested in the thesis, and would totally read a longform treatise further making the case.
Fair enough. I agree with everything you said. I guess I’m just annoyed by the latest batch of people who think it’s edgy to act like the Beatles weren’t great (or like they ever even gave em a serious listen) and I don’t want to give them any more license.At the same time, people who think the Beatles are somehow above Outkast in terms of greatness should all go fuck themselves.I think trying to declare a winner is an impossible task, though, both acts were incredibly idiosynchratic and operating by their own set of rules. You simply can’t put em in the same ring.
Fair, but that’s totally not what Funches was trying to do. It’s mostly just proof that Twitter is a garbage platform that’s terrible for conveying complex thoughts (although fine for comedians to deliver punchlines with enough depth to inspire thinkpieces).
The Beatles are great, and were a significant act in several important ways.That said, they’re the definition of a “rated” band. They’ve never not been widely fellated by the press since their breakthrough (outliers being what they are). Gets to a point where it’s like, “Enough already.”To your point, though, one can elevate *without* denigrating, and I’d argue that it’s of greater value to remove comparison entirely (though I get Funches’s point). OutKast’s output speaks for itself, but a “Town crier” on those points couldn’t hurt.
But yeah, like…for example, ain’t no one has to compare Prince to anyone. He’s fucking PRINCE. Same principle applies.
I fucking agree with everything you just said!
Pardon me while I go fuck myself.
Please do.
Or you could just listen to some Outkast music and see if you enjoy it.
What I like or don’t like isn’t the point, and I hardly have the background to be an arbiter on what’s superior (plus, there’s no shortage of beardy white dudes with musical opinions, if that’s what you’re looking for). Also, not that I have no exposure to Outkast (Speakerboxx/The Love Below meant that few people have no exposure to them), and not to say that I dislike them, just the idea of a longer, impassioned defense of their importance sounds interesting.
Okay, okay: Chuck Berry is better than the Beatles. Happy?
You’re groveling. It’s suspect.
In this same vein, I agree, but there are better fights to pick than OutKast who had several huge hits before slowly fading away. They were never the cultural phenomenon that the Beatles were. I would put Beyonce up there with them for cultural dominance.
Outkast literally changed how hiphop was made and received, pushing it out to a MUCH larger audience and putting Atlanta (which now dominates the hip hop charts) on the map. They are not NOT influential. And they didn’t fade away, they just sort of stopped making music after Speakerboxx/Love Beyond.
while i agree both are great and any band/artist can be more important to someone that any possible objective take.
one is older and was about at a key time. (Outkast have clearly had a big impact too.)
i think the debate works better in terms of picking acts of the same era to get there overall impact.
The Beatles have been all over the musical landscape like a pillowcase for the last 50 years. Dare to suggest there are other artists as interesting, important or compelling and you get the Boomers all lathered up. It’s not only good fun, it’s necessary.
Every year that passes, fewer and fewer people gargle the balls of the fucking Beatles and that’s a good thing for music and culture.
But every year that passes, many people still fall in love with and appreciate the excellent music of the fucking Beatles and that’s no coincidence.I’m pretty sure 3stacks is a big fan, actually.I certainly didn’t know there was still any thrill and subversiveness left in making boomers mad at this point.
The Beatles are great and hugely influential, but many people are conditioned to fall in love with the Beatles.
Such a dumb take.Yeah, The Beatles, a top 50 artist on Spotify (streaming for youths) so surely only Boomers get lathered up by them.
The Beatles will always be historically important and, like jazz, attract some new fans over time, but their time in the spotlight is rapidly fading.
The Abbey Road remix was the 12th best selling album of 2020.They’re the only legacy act in the top 50 of Spotify in the world.They’re about to have another revival when the Peter Jackson documentary comes out and Let It Be/Get Back gets another revaluation. They’re not going anywhere anytime soon.
#SAD.Really though, Beatles fans are like gun owners – they can’t have just one! Gotta get one in every color and every edition.
It’s mostly a joke and he’s using it as an excuse to make a bunch of other jokes. Don’t overthink it. In a sense this is light-hearted trolling; people who respond to it too much in earnest have already missed the point.
You know what? I just now got my blaze on and I suddenly realize that you are absolutely right and I was tripping. It’s cool. I love the Beatles. But Outkast are definitely underappreciated in comparison. As Ringo Starr always says, peace and love everybody!
Yeah I too hate comparisons like better etc.Like it’s okay for people to say The Beatles are like our Beethoven or Mozart. They’re a standard that lasts through time, even if isn’t for everyone. It should up to others to elevate other artists to say “but don’t forget these contemporaries (or like OutKast later on)”Like there’s enough landscape for it all to exist, just make the space.
Sorry Mr Perkins, he is for reeeeeal. Never meant to make Twitter cry, he can’t apologise – it’d be a lie.
I’ve only ever heard “Hey Ya!” so, much as I’d like to get involved in yet another pointless generation-war shouting match, I’m gonna sit this one out.That said, speaking of the Beatles, I’ve had a bit of a mini-project going on where I listen to everything they released in order(ish) and I’m up to their mid-’70s solo stuff. And for real, up to that point George Harrison had the more consistently better solo career by miles. Even his mid-late ‘70s “I’m just kind of phoning it in for contractual purposes” stuff is still pretty entertaining, if a bit beset by saxophones of all things. By contrast, most of John Lennon’s solo triumphs can fit comfortably on a best-of disc and there’s a reason “Wings are the band the Beatles could have been!” was an opinion put in the mouth of Alan Partridge.
100% agree about the ex-Beatles solo careers. Still, Wings was not consistent, but when they hit they hit good
Fair point (and good example BTW). I should point out in the interests of complete fairness I’m not wholly anti-Wings. Band On The Run is one of my all-time favourite albums and hand on heart, I actually like some of the “let’s let some of the other band members have a song on the album so it doesn’t totally look like we’re just a Paul supporting band” tracks.But still. There is a lot of cruft, and I can never resist an opportunity for an Alan Partridge reference.
McCartney is a pop god and Harrison was fantastic at developing the musicality, but god were they wasted on the Beatles. The Beatles only functioned as an incubator for those two to develop themselves further. Like Disney to today’s pop stars.
Lennon and McCartney were/are great, but magical together, and even better with George Harrison.George Harrison was severely under-appreciated while he was in The Beatles and showed his top tier greatness even more so afterwards. I completely agree with your assessment.
My take is that Ringo is an above average drummer that somehow landed in a band with 3 of the best songwriters of the 20th century
If you haven’t heard it, I’m very partial to the Blanks’ (the “Ted the lawyer” band from Scrubs) acoustic cover of Hey Ya – really highlights the more poignant elements in the lyrics. That being said, the original is great too – Outkast has a special place in my heart, because it’s the first concert I ever went to.
I actually have heard that version, and I think I coincidentally got it from the Apple Music Store just the other day (and I agree that it’s got a really lovely melancholy edge to it), but thank you for the recommendation! TBH I’ve been meaning to check out Outkast a bit more, so maybe this article is a good reason for it.
Ron Funches is delightful! and always worth watching , …but uurrgh a James Cordon interview. Its like finding fifty dollars in the street but its covered in a massive turd.
Replacing Craig Ferguson with James Cordon was a sign that CBS had totally given up.
I take it Cordon makes you feel bleu.
The beatles have a handful of good songs. But beyond that, they’re terribly overrated. There are dozens of bands that are better than the beatles, although OutKast is not one of them.
I 1,000% agree, but I’ve also been known to drunkenly tweet THE MONKEES ARE BETTER THAN THE BEATLES FIGHT ME BITCH more than once, so… has anyone ever proposed carving John, Paul, George, and Ringo into a mountainside to offset toxic racism?* Because you can sign a petition to add Big Boi and Andre 3000 to Stone Mountain and I am totally, non-ironically in favor of that.*I’m not being sarcastic and sincerely asking. There’s racism in the UK too, it could have happened!
“Ew! You like The Monkees?”“You know they don’t write their own songs.”“They don’t even play their own instruments.”
I once tweeted that The Monkees were a better band than Led Zepplin. Then I just sat back and watched the world burn.
Anyone who’s ever been delighted by the lilting cadence of Ron Funches’ indefatigably hilarious stand-up knows that the comedian, actor, and current philosophical shark-man isn’t hear to pick a fight.No one should be hear to pick a fight.
especially for white Baby Boomers who have no idea who…I hate/ don’t hate to be the one to bring this up, but Stanktonia was 21 years ago. I’m willing to bet anyone with a TikTok following is also saying, “Who?”
Yeah, the slightly snotty boomer-baiting is a bit much there. It’s not like OutKast are exactly the band of the current generation or anything.
Well, the Boomers had a good long run but it’s Gen X’s turn to live in denial about being old and out of touch.
I think right now people are so caught up in wanting to blame various generations for things that they forget that time passes. Like blaming millennials for spreading COVID at spring break when the youngest of them is like 25, or saying that baby boomers don’t know who Outkast is now like it’s shocking, since they didn’t know who Outkast was when they came out, either.
it’s Gen X’s turn to live in denial about being old and out of touch.Do we have to? I’ve been doing just fine staying out of it so far.
Even 21 years ago consuming music was a completely different landscape. It occurred to me watching the Bee Gees doc on HBO that popularity to the point of ubiquity is basically a thing of the past for musicians. The Bee Gees at one point had 7 songs on the Billboard top 20. Even Outkast, for as popular as they were, only have two platinum albums. When was the last time that someone had that level of hype like Beatlemania, Michael Jackson or Madonna, maybe?On the same token, if a 20 years old listed off the popular artist with their demographic, I’d also respond “who?”
Ariana Grande had three singles in the Billboard top 5 not that long ago. I think Bieber and The Weeknd and a few others have also had multiple singles in the top 10 in recent years. It still happens, but the songs don’t seem to have the legs that big hits had before streaming took over the charts.
Yeah, but streaming stats are not the same as point of purchase/shipping stats. 30-40 years ago to have a hit meant everyone young and old had at least heard the song because radio was the primary way to discover music. My parents weren’t necessarily fans but they knew who Madonna and Michael Jackson were.
Drake also stays dominating the charts (I think he recently had 3 releases in the top three spots on the Billboard charts).
Drake
Also ironic given he cites outkast as bringing rap away from drugs and toward art and life. There are a lot of rappers who existed before 1998 who would be very confused by that claim
The Beatles would be fans of OutKast. I wouldn’t be surprised if Macca is
When Donald Glover suggested that Migos was better than the Beatles, that was absolutely ridiculous. Outkast though? Funches is right.
I care about and enjoy OutKast marginally more. Victory: OutKast.
Not really a fan of either, but I understand why they have their fans.Beatles were just right guys/right place/right time to a certain extent though, right?
Yeah, but between The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, they are both terrible bands that I have never understood how anyone could listen to under the age of 60. I mean, back then they only had two bands, so I get it.
OK, edgelord.
I would never imagine that what I wrote could be construed as shocking or scandalous to anyone worth arguing with. I grew up in a time where these, together with the Beach Boys were already “oldies”, and I’m not particularly young. Sure, I’m right here, balanced on a razor!
You said the Beatles and Stones are “terrible bands”. That is objectively ridiculous. You don’t like them? Fine, everyone has different tastes. But not understanding ho anyone under 60 could listen to them? C’mon, man.
That’s fair. I don’t think hardly anyone who didn’t grow up with that music would come to it if the bands were not insisted on by the likes of Rolling Stone Magazine, and other rock classicists. Maybe that’s true of a lot of music, but I don’t think they would have much appeal in a vacuum.
Young people discover and love them every day. Just because they’ve been around forever isn’t a negative. They’re simply SO much better than the rock bands of today. (Never mind trash like Outkast.)
Edgy, pandering hot-takes aside, this is why music sucks. No one is interested in what the music sounds like. The fashion, the genre, the era, the social politics, everything but the actual sound is considered to be music today. I love both bands. Outkast would admit the Beatles is by far the more important group. Don’t argue if you didn’t purchase and listen to all of Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik and ATLiens in the 90’s, know who DF is, AND listen to Abbey Road, White Album, and Revolver.Dont start with the Black vs White angle on this topic if you like Ron Funches because he is “cute and cuddly”. He is a person and a comedian. Let’s show the man a little respect. Yes I am a POC and a musician.
This has nothing to do with the topic at hand but with so many people likely to read the comments here I thought I’d spread the good word:https://www.nme.com/news/music/ted-nugent-has-caught-covid-19-after-calling-it-not-a-real-pandemic-2924035Oh, and fuck The Beatles.
I don’t know about all that, but I’ll concede that Andre Benjamin is a much better actor than any Beatle, alive or dead.
There’s an Organized Noise documentary on Netflix that is worth watching. They really did change the game.
Atlanta’s dominance in hip hop of late is largely due to Outkast’s influence. One of the biggest rappers of these days (Future) was a member of the Dungeon Family, after all.
I did not know that, as I pretty much stopped listening to new hip hop in about 2000.
And you call yourself a DJ???
lol the name dates back significantly further
To paraphrase Zhou Enlai: too early to tell, right? (And yes internet I KNOW he probably wasn’t talking about the actual French Revolution so it’s not nearly as sagacious a thing as it seems, but then I’m not even being a little bit sagacious, so it works out in the end).
Some of the things that I grew up, and some of the things that I value aren’t necessarily given the same amount of worthI’m absolutely with Funches in feeling this way. Oh, and OMD is the greatest band to come out of Merseyside.
I like OMD, but I’d only have them third on the Wirral. The Coral would be second but I’ll let you work out who I’d have first for yourself.
I always love Funches’ comedy. I’d heard him say some anti-vax stuff a while back, which was a huge bummer, but he’s publicly stated he got the Covid vaccine, so maybe he’s come around on that? (fingers crossed)
What anti-vax stuff did he say?
Some stuff about vaccines causing autism – he has a kid with autism, so at some point he’d been sucked into the anti-vax stuff some parents in those circles ascribe to. But, hopefully not anymore (?)
Ah. Yeah I hope so. I really like him.
I’ve never liked The Beatles. Not now or 30 years ago (the farthest I go back). So I’ve got no problem absorbing this instantly. OutKast is better than The Beatles.
The most pointless hill I am ready to die on is that the Beatles are in fact under-rated.But I do also kind of see the relative worth argument as having some validity, especially when the Beatles were heavily influenced by black artists. (Incidentally they also refused to play in segregated theatres in the South, which was a big deal at the time.)
who used looped tracks first?
Do y’all remember that Andre 3000 had a cartoon in which he taught a bunch of kids about the power of music.
Clearly there are a lot of you celebrating 4/20 early. The Beatles are timeless and immortal. Their songs will be played, sung and remembered centuries hence. You can’t say the same for “Hey Ya” or any of Outkast’s other bullshit.
It’s a good traffic driver for him and his personal branding. I also think Outkast is amazing but was functionally a dead end for music, the Beatles remained the heart of modern pop until the 2000s when electronica finally pushed them fully out of the system. None of these opinions are wrong, I’m not obligated to agree with him or diminish him.
How is hip hop, which currently dominates the charts, a dead end for music? Outkast put Atlanta on the map, and the majority of chart topping rappers are from Atlanta BECAUSE of Outkast’s influence. Hell, Future came up as a part of the Dungeon Family with Outkast and Goodie Mob and them.
I don’t want you out of the greys but fuck it…Not understanding how current Hip Hop doesn’t sound like OutKast but assuming Hip Hop is what I referencing is why I loathe your pathetic existence. ^_^
Do you honestly think that someone has to sound like an artist to be influenced by them? You said Outkast was a musical dead end, I mentioned that they are the ones who started everything you are seeing happening now in hop hop, and that one of the top rappers of the last 10 years came up literally recording music with them in their studio throughout the 90s and early 2000s. In what way were they a dead end musically if they heavily influenced modern Atlanta hip hop (which has dominated rap and pop charts for about 5-10 years now) unless you consider hip hop a dead end?You seem really angry, bud.
Nah, I just took you out of the greys to make you backpedal and you did.Thanks, i’m done with you. Have the last word, fuckup.
I…didn’t backpedal at all. You are pretending that the last 10-15 years of hip hop don’t exist to claim that Outkast was a musical dead end, and that’s what I called out. But sure, you “won” this one, weirdo.
Why should he recant something that’s entirely correct?
i love ron funches and this is the cutest goddamn thing he sells;
Erykah Badu over Yoko Ono all day.Now, that’s maybe the least controversial thing you could possibly say.