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Zach Galifianakis, Ted Danson Spoof the National’s ‘Mistaken for Strangers’

The National Mistaken for Strangers Zach Galifianakis Ted Danson Funny of Die

The relationship between filmmaker Tom Berninger and his brother, singer Matt Berninger, was at the heart of the rock doc that former SPIN profile subjects the National released last year. As Funny or Die would have it, the natural next step after that Mistaken for Strangers‘ home video release is to bring that tense fraternal relationship to Broadway, with some help from Ted Danson and Zach Galifianakis.

Given the established chemistry between those two actors (they starred together in HBO’s Bored to Death), the Berninger brothers onstensibly decided that Danson and Galifianakis would be good fits to play Matt and Tom respectively. But the transition to the stage doesn’t go off entirely without a hitch, Danson has some trouble learning how to walk on top of a crowd and Galifianakis has to learn how to properly hold a microphone cable. Galifianakis says this project was exciting enough to draw him away from a Broadway production of Shrek, but that honestly sounds like a more realistic theater production anyway. Watch the clip above.