John Lennon or Paul McCartney? It's a question that has haunted mankind throughout all of human history, starting from the days of Plato droning on about the vibes of "Plastic Ono Band" and Aristotle arguing passionately for the superiority of "Hey Jude." Scared Goose Productions posed the question to 550 artists, musicians, actors and celebrities over the last decade, and have now released a video of all their responses.
Here are some of the famous names asked:
Robert DeNiro, Katy Perry, Lady GaGa, Kevin Spacey, Morgan Freeman, Kevin Smith, Benedict Cumberbatch, Kendrick Lamar, Selena Gomez, Justin Bieber, Priyanka Chopra, The 1975, The Goo Goo Dolls, Big Sean, Carrie Underwood, New Kids on the Block, Fall Out Boy, Pete Townshend, Scott Weiland, Sam Smith, Bridgit Mendler, Sylvester Stallone, Kevin Hart, Robbie Robertson, Lights, David Byrne and many more.
Here is the final tally of responses:
Lennon: 282
McCartney: 196
No answer: 50
Ringo Starr: 4
George Harrison: 15
Jimi Hendrix: 1
Lou Reed: 1
Keith Richards: 1
Oasis: 1
Some important observations: Adam Levine of Maroon 5 blew off the question; Australians (including Baz Luhrmann, Ben Lee, and the lead singer of Wolfmother) are very indecisive; Bo Diddley doesn't get The Beatles ("I don't understand what they're doing. Never have"); several yuksters made jokes about Vladimir Lenin; actress Caitlin Gerard voted for "Lemon;" Jack McBrayer is in awe of McCartney; Johnny Rotten chose Lennon, but "I've met McCartney and liked him, so that's a puzzlement;" Will.i.am is the worst ("McCartney with Lennon glasses"); and a special shoutout to Hungarian American director Nimrod Antal who went with "Oasis," which is objectively the correct answer.
As for Gothamist staffers: Jen Carlson is Team Lennon; Rebecca Fishbein and Jake Dobkin went with George Harrison; a very confused Lauren Evans went with "McJagger;" John Del Signore went with Jon Fishman; and I personally go with McCartney. They're both wonderful of course, but at the end of the day, only one of them had the immortal kiss-off, "Fuck off, Kojak."
