Paul is dead!

In director Danny Boyle’s clever new comedy, “Yesterday,” that famous hoax is actually sorta true. A man wakes up after a bike accident during a blackout to discover a world where all submarines are gray, blackbirds sing in the afternoon and all you need is cash — The Beatles never happened.

If you’re a Fab Four fan like I am, that setup itself sends you into an existential tizzy. But it makes for a likable, quirky movie that’s British writer Richard Curtis’ (“Bridget Jones’ Diary”) best work in years.

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The banged-up biker is Jack (Himesh Patel), a struggling musician who performs original songs nobody wants to hear at small music festivals and local watering holes in England. If Elton John could pack a pub in “Rocketman,” Jack can just as easily clear one out.

When Jack leaves the hospital with his platonic pal and manager Ellie (Lily James), the pair meets up with friends by the sea. Jack whips out his guitar and starts to sing: “Yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away . . .” The group stares in awe at their sad sack friend. “When did YOU write that?!” Ellie asks, shocked.

“Paul McCartney wrote it. The Beatles,” Jack shoots back. Duh. “It’s the greatest song ever written.”

“It’s no Coldplay,” another friend replies.

Jack races home and does a Google search of “John Paul George and Ringo.” It takes him to the Pope John Paul’s Wikipedia page. Facing a moral (and monetary) dilemma, Jack frantically writes down every Beatles lyric he can remember and begins performing the songs as his own at bars.

One day, a small-time producer hears his set, they record a demo and Jack’s abruptly tossed into superstardom. The world bows to his genius. How could one man write all these glorious songs? He’s a modern-day Shakespeare!

Sure. And I’m Eleanor Rigby.

Besides Jack’s own imposter syndrome, the film’s conflict comes from a couple of others who still remember The Beatles after the blackout. Will they expose him as a fraud? And there’s also his hidden love.

The best parts of the film are the early scenes, like when Jack attempts to impress his parents with his latest composition, “Let it Be,” only to be constantly interrupted. Or when Ed Sheeran shows up unexpectedly in his tiny kitchen.

When Jack arrives in Hollywood, “Yesterday” misguidedly turns into a broad satire, with his agent Debra (Kate McKinnon) dropping f-bombs and falling into a litany of showbiz clichés. McKinnon, while funny, overplays like she’s in a totally different movie from everybody else. “Dodgeball,” maybe.

But Patel has an everyman appeal that keeps the movie from ever becoming too glitzy. He rattles off Curtis’ many dry quips with ease. And, oh, those terrific Beatles songs.

How soul-satisfying it is for a movie to so strongly believe that if “Help!” was written tomorrow, it would be as popular as “Havana.”