L-R - Jorma Taccone, Andy Samberg, Akiva Schaffer

It’s time we put some respect on the name y’all. Akiva Schaffer, Jorma Taccone, and Andy Samberg.

It seems to me like most people who are aware of The Lonely Island kind of look down on their work nowadays. It’s safe to say they were enormous in the late 2000’s and that the three of them have tremendous careers now as a result of the skyrocketing fame they achieved during this time. But what I want to discuss isn’t their success, but rather their bonafide influence and their creative genius. Because that, my friends, has evidently been swept under the rug over the last almost 20 years and I will not stand for it. In short, I consider The Lonely Island to be among the greatest comedy troupes of all time. Their story to fame is unreal, their comedic wit is entirely unique and translates to both music and visual media, and (my biggest point I want to make) their musical ability is severely under appreciated, even by them. Their impact on comedy is something we’re still seeing today and it’s time we start thanking them for it. There’s a lot to discuss so strap in.

I have lots of pride when artists I love are from the Bay Area, which is another reason I get so excited to talk about The Lonely Island. For those of you that don’t know, Jorm, Andy, and Kiv are childhood best friends that grew up in Berkeley. Their neighborhood record store is the first place I ever bought a vinyl. The idea for their character Ras Trent came from a person they briefly met the Phoenix Theater in Petaluma, the first venue I ever performed live at. Not super important information, I just think its super cool. What is important to note though is that the creative bond between these three began at a young age. After high school they all moved away to college, reconnected once they graduated, and moved to LA together to pursue comedy. After some years of working on various small projects and shooting comedy videos of their own in their spare time, they got a gig writing for the 2005 MTV Movie Awards, which led to host Jimmy Fallon recommending the trio to Lorne Michaels for Saturday Night Live. Andy joins the cast, Jorm and Kiv become writers. BAM!

That’s game over right there. Not only is SNL about to change their lives forever, but the three of them are about to change A) the trajectory and format of SNL for the foreseeable future, and B) the entire comedic landscape of youth culture through the dawning age of the internet. This era of SNL is the best there ever was, by the way. Okay, yes I’m biased because I grew up with it. But the cast? Fred Armisen, Bill Hader, Jason Sudekis, Kristen Wiig, Maya Rudolph, Will Forte, Amy Pohler, Seth Meyers, even Chris Parnell and Tina Fey for one more season. COME ON! It takes the group some time to build momentum as SNL’s work culture seems to be very competitive. One day, the group decides to shoot a video on their own, bypassing the typical pitching process of SNL. Taking matters into their own hands, they shot a video called “Lettuce” where Andy and Will Forte have a serious conversation while aggressively eating massive heads of lettuce like they were apples. After this video made it to air on SNL, they decided this method of doing things might work best for them. After all, this is pretty much what they did before joining SNL anyways. You might think we have a ways to go before the group really take off. Well guess what the next Lonely Island video to air on SNL was. That’s right. LAZY SUNDAY.

Now I won’t go into major depth about the content of their hit songs like “Lazy Sunday,” I’ll just give brief synopsizes for those who don’t know the songs. Because chances are you do. “Lazy Sunday” is a song that resembles 90’s hip-hop (like much of their future work) where Andy and Chris Parnell rap back and forth aggressively about going to see The Chronicles of Narnia in theaters. The joke: every detail they shout at you is monotonous (choosing a navigation service, their snack choices, etc.) and the story itself isn’t worth being told at all. It’s a great premise, but what makes the song phenomenal is how excellent the music is (get used to hearing this a lot moving forward). The beat courtesy of Jorm is hard hitting, dynamic, and at this point absolutely iconic. It sounds like it could have been made for Nas or Jay-Z. So great. But it’s not just the beat. Andy and Chris Parnell are rapping for real. Okay, maybe Andy a little more than Chris, but Chris is hilarious and couldn’t be replaced by anyone else here. The big thing we learn here is that Andy can actually rap. He’s got good rhymes and his delivery is shockingly authentic. As the group have said on their podcast with Seth Meyers multiple times, the jokes they write are always funniest when delivered with the upmost sincerity. This is key to understanding the humor and appeal of The Lonely Island, especially once things become more outlandish.

“Lazy Sunday” changed everything. For the group, for SNL, for comedy as whole in the 21st century. It was put on YouTube the day after it aired and became an internet sensation, being the first video YouTube become viral and bringing tons of new people to the website. THESE GUYS PUT YOUTUBE ON. I’m not even exaggerating. Through their work at SNL during the beginning of internet culture, they can be seen as innovators of short-form online content. After the success of “Lazy Sunday” two things happened. 1) Andy Samberg became a star overnight. 2) Lorne Michaels created a new laminated label for SNL’s weekly schedule that would stick around for years to come. It said “SNL Digital Short.” If you see this before an SNL sketch, this just means “The Lonely Island, sponsored by Saturday Night Live.” Essentially, the group was now tasked with creating a video every week for SNL. They saw little oversight in their creative process, continuing to bypass pitch meetings as Lorne Michaels would have a hard time understanding the jokes from the pitches and preferred they just make them and show him after (this process would later be parodied in the “Laser Cats” series from the group). After only six or so months at SNL and these three were told “not only can you stick to the format you are used to making things in, but you can also make what you want without consulting with Lorne first because he trusts your vision.” The trio might not entirely view it this way, I obviously wasn’t there to tell you the sentiments behind the move. But as an audience member that’s how it reads. And to me that’s impressive as hell.

Things start moving quite quickly for The Lonely Island from here on out. They continue making awesome songs, now with prominent guest features Like Natalie Portman and Justin Timberlake. These songs, particularly “Dick in a Box” with Timberlake, continue to heighten the celebrity status of Samberg and the demand for more comedy songs from him and his two bandmates, who at this point are still pretty much entirely behind the scenes as SNL needed the shorts to feature cast members. While they continue killing it at SNL, Lorne Michaels unburies an old feature-length screenplay that was intended for Will Ferrell and fights to get the film made with The Lonely Island at the helm of it, a fight he won. He was able to give the trio creative control of the film and encouraged them to make it their way. They started shooting in the summer after their first season of SNL. It was released a year later. That film is Hot Rod.

Before we get into Hot Rod, I need to quickly interject and speak more about Lorne Michaels. Because everything I’ve spoken about thus far and everything I will speak about from here forward regarding The Lonely Island, we owe it all to Lorne. I don’t know how to sugarcoat it; he’s a fucking genius. I feel like he has a third eye for comedy. His intuition has birthed so many comedic icons from every generation, from Bill Murray to Eddie Murphy, from Adam Sandler to Will Ferrell. We’ve known this about Lorne. But it impresses me how he seemed to not always understand the comedy of The Lonely Island and he still believed in them so much. Like he was aware that it might not resonate with him as much but that it would likely resonate really strongly within younger age groups. He gave these three unknown comics a platform the size of the Earth to just be themselves and make what they wanted because he knew it would change the landscape of comedy forever. And he was so right. Thank you Lorne.

Anyways, Hot Rod. One of my favorite movies of all time. If you have’t seen it, stop what you’re doing right now and go watch it. It’s about an aspiring stuntman with no skill or experience holding a fundraising event where he will attempt to jump 15 school busses on his shitty moped in order to fund his stepdad’s open heart surgery, not because he wants to save his stepdad’s life but because he wants to kick his ass in a fair fight before he dies. The cast includes Andy, Jorm, Danny McBride, Bill Hader, Isla Fisher, Will Arnett, and Chris Parnell all at the top of their games. Yeah, it’s a comedic masterpiece. The movie is utterly stupid, in the upmost creative fashion. Released in 2007, it has also been seen as an influential piece of media that helped inform a new age of internet comedy. I love every second of this movie and I consider it one of The Lonely Island’s two crowning achievements. What is the second one you might ask?

It’s now 2008. The songs from SNL were so successful that the trio got signed to a major fucking record label. Now they aren’t making songs and videos every week to release on SNL. They are now an actual music group that needs to make music to sell records. They are now officially The Lonely Island. Now, Jorm and Kiv get to rap and appear in videos. Now, the budget for the videos comes from the record label and the production value skyrockets, and they STILL get to air them on SNL. Now, they are getting beats from professional music producers and artists. The quality of everything has now improved exponentially. The result of this monumental shift is Incredibad, the groups first studio album, their second crowning achievement, and the greatest musical comedy album of all time. That’s right, read it again.

Incredibad was proof that the quality of “Lazy Sunday” and “Dick in a Box” could be matched by the group. Over and over again. “I’m on a Boat” with T-Pain, “Like a Boss,” “Jizz in my Pants,” If you’re my age, then you know these songs. Doesn’t matter where you were at the time, who your friends were, what you were interested in. These songs were unavoidable. I’m here to tell you that these songs are STILL awesome. Like really awesome. Particularly “I’m on a Boat” and “Like a Boss.” Both of these songs have more fantastic fucking rapping on them. Kiv is a big behind-the-scenes guy in Hollywood, but his most recognizable role in anything is probably “I’m on a Boat,” where he raps his fucking ass off. Listen to his third verse on the song, like COME ON! It’s so fire! He’s so aggressive while relentlessly cementing the fact that he is on a boat and that it’s super sick. Another great example of how their delivery being so passionate and real makes the song not only more enjoyable as a song but way funnier also. The song was nominated for a Grammy in a hip-hop category for fuck’s sake (a fact that the group was not happy about). Whether or not it should have competed in that category against real hip-hop music, its goes to show that the song has serious musical appeal that extends beyond the jokes. After a certain amount of listens, you forget that it’s even funny because it’s so good. I don’t think “Like a Boss” is remembered in the same way, but I think it should be. I love how it starts of like the other songs we discussed, monotonous and unexciting in concept, and slowly becomes completely unhinged and absurd. A hilarious song bookended by skits framing the whole song as a questionable performance review. And once again, the idea is sold by absolute killer rapping from Andy. Pure intensity and passion as he raps about sucking his own dick and fucking a giant fish in a sewer.

These songs are among the many highlights on Incredibad, which is comprised about 50% comedy hip-hop and 50% comedy in skits and miscellaneous other genres. My favorite cuts are the rap songs for the most part because I think they’re so shockingly authentic to the genre. They’re very much the Tenacious D of hip-hop in my eyes, except I would argue even better. It’s important to note that the trio are genuinely major hip-hop heads that know a lot about the genre. So when they make these comedy rap songs, they really are trying to pay homage to lots of their favorite rap music rather than lampoon it or make a farce of it. I think their rapping abilities and beat selection (creation at times when it comes to Jorm) prove this to be true. They can make you bop your head and get hyped to songs where they panic over someone calling them wack (“Who Said We’re Wack?”) or songs where they have an orgy with an alien to repopulate its planet (“Incredibad”). Its such an anomaly to have an album that is simultaneously such a joke and somehow so sincere. I really don’t think there is a single skip on this album. It brings me back to when I was a kid discovering these songs. I’m very happy the songs have aged so well and I can continue to enjoy them as an adult. You should listen to the whole album, but if you don’t, at least listen to the songs I mentioned. And “Ras Trent.” Also watch the video for “Ras Trent.” Might be the funniest song on the album, honestly.

Incredibad seemed like a major success to me at the time. I don’t know how it faired in terms of album sales or anything like that. But you could go down the tracklist and point out like six sings at least that were huge at the time, so I think culturally it was a major success regardless of sales. At this point all that was left for The Lonely Island to do was continuing doing what they did best. Their second album Turtleneck & Chain from 2011 is an admirable follow-up to Incredibad. Not as prefect or as influential, and with a bit less of an old-school hip-hop vibe than before, which I consider to be a major part of the Lonely Island sound. But there’s still tons of great songs on this album. They are at their best when they are rapping about how fucked up their dicks are on “We’re Back!” and gradually but intensely coming out of the closet together on the hilarious “No Homo.” But a really unsuspecting highlight on Turtleneck & Chain is the song “Attracted to Us.” I probably shouldn’t be so surprised considering it features and is produced by one of my favorite musicians of all time, that of course being Beck. The reason its so surprising to me is that A) its not a rap song, its an electro-pop song, and B) while it is a funny song about how shy they are despite every kind of girl you could think of being attracted to them, what captivates me about the song the most is how catchy and high energy it is. They have done a good job with other genres before (“Dick in a Box,” “Boombox” with Julian Casablancas for example) but “Attracted to Us” sees the trio succeeding majorly in a different musical lane and with a different style of vocal delivery that I may have subconsciously knocked when I wrote my song “Astral Sports.” It’s the most infectious thing the group has ever made, I could listen to it on repeat for days.

The trio’s music career has seemingly become secondary since the release of Turtleneck & Chain. The group has a third studio album called The Wack Album that was released in 2013 after the trio had all left SNL. Not that I think it’s correlated to that, but I don’t think too much of The Wack Album. Not too much to say about it. Other noteworthy projects from the group would be their second full-length film Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping from 2016 and their Netflix special The Unauthorized Bash Brother’s Experience from 2019, along with soundtrack albums for both. I have to rewatch both, but I liked both quite a bit from what I remember. The Unauthorized Bash Brother’s Experience was particularly experimental and kinda strange from what I remember, which is pretty atypical for The Lonely Island. And I know the group speaks of Popstar very highly. I get the impression it’s one of their favorite projects they’ve worked on, so I would definitely check that one out as well. In addition to these projects, they also have done lots of producing for film and TV over the last few years, including the movie Palm Springs starring Andy and the shows Pen15 and I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson. That’s right, they are behind I Think You Should Leave also. Lastly, they released some songs for SNL 50 as Digital Shorts last year, the most memorable being “Sushi Glory Hole,” a hilarious song where two men struggle to pitch to investors a DoorDash-like service that provides high grade nigiri through glory holes in public bathrooms. It’s great and the rapping is awesome as always.

Nowadays the group all seem to be doing their own things professionally for the most part. Kiv just directed the Naked Gun reboot that is getting rave reviews, which I am dying to watch. Jorm recently directed an action thriller film titled Over Your Dead Body starring Jason Segel and Timothy Olyphant. I can’t wait for more information about that to be released. Andy has been making and starring in a Comedy Central cartoon called Digman! since 2023 and has also been starring in some more serious films such as Lee and The Roses. While it may seem like the group hasn’t been in touch, fear not child. They all have a podcast together with Seth Meyers that’s creatively titled The Lonely Island and Seth Meyers Podcast. This podcast has been my life the past month or so and is likely why I’m here writing about them today. Seth Meyers basically mediates a conversation between the group about every Digital Short the trio made for SNL as well as other projects the trio has worked on. They go into so much detail about how each project was made, their thoughts behind them, fun facts, non-fun facts, you name it. It’s honestly where I learned a lot of the stuff I shared in this article. It feels like a real full circle moment hearing them talk about all their projects almost two decades later. They seem like such modest dudes and I love hearing them open the flood gates of SNL memories with fellow ex-cast member Seth, who offers a lot of insight as well as he was a head writer on the show for years. The dudes all have lots of love for each other and it’s a wonderful thing to witness. If I’ve hooked you with this article at all, I’d definitely check out the podcast next.

*The Lonely Island and Seth Meyers Podcast*

With everything we’ve discussed — the mega hits, the musical prowess, the comedic brilliance, the fully integrated multimedia projects at the dawn of YouTube — can we all finally admit that these dudes ushered in a new era of comedy? Like seriously imagine a world without The Lonely Island. It’d be just sad, and a lot less funny in the way we know it today. On top of funny, these guys have made so many bangers that go unrecognized as forgotten comedy hits. It’s time we start adding them to our playlists again and show these songs the respect they deserve. Incredibad is a 10/10 album and Hot Rod is probably in my top five favorite movies ever made. The Lonely Island’s legacy is no question, it’s fact and we should all be on our knees thanking them for their contributions to culture every day.

I’M TIRED OF THE DISRESPECT: The Lonely Island

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I’M TIRED OF THE DISRESPECT: The Lonely Island

Playboi Carti: Can we listen in good conscience?

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