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The Lonely Island
The Lonely Island is an American comedy trio formed by Andy Samberg, Jorma Taccone, and Akiva Schaffer in Berkeley, California in 2001. They have written for and starred in the American TV program Saturday Night Live (SNL).
The three first met in junior high. After graduating from college, they regrouped and moved to Los Angeles, where they struggled to find work and began making short films, combining absurdist comedy and occasionally music. Among the first performers to post their material on the Internet, they involved themselves with Channel 101, a non-profit monthly short film festival. Their popularity at the screenings led to unsuccessful pilot deals with Fox and Comedy Central and a writing job for the 2005 MTV Movie Awards. Subsequently, that show's host, Jimmy Fallon, recommended them to Lorne Michaels, the creator of Saturday Night Live.
The group was hired for SNL in 2005, with all three as writers and Samberg as a featured player. Bypassing the traditional process of pitching, they recorded their own material independently and submitted it to the program. Their second sketch to air, "Lazy Sunday", became an internet sensation, the first of many viral videos they produced while at SNL. They led their own division at the program — SNL Digital Shorts — which led to numerous viral videos, including "Jizz in My Pants", "Dick in a Box", "I'm on a Boat", "Like a Boss", "Motherlover", "I Just Had Sex", "Jack Sparrow", and "YOLO". Their musical comedic work has comprised four full studio albums: Incredibad (2009), Turtleneck & Chain (2011), The Wack Album (2013), and The Unauthorized Bash Brothers Experience (2019), along with a soundtrack album for their 2016 film Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping. The three retired from SNL in the early 2010s, but occasionally make guest appearances.
The troupe has written, directed and starred in two feature-length films, Hot Rod, released in 2007, and Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping, co-produced by Judd Apatow and released in 2016. The group also produced the 2020 film Palm Springs, starring Samberg and Cristin Milioti.
The Lonely Island first formed at Willard Junior High School in Berkeley, California, in the early 1990s. Schaffer and Taccone first met in seventh grade Spanish class, and the group later expanded to include Samberg, a year behind the two. The trio belonged to a large group of friends interested in skateboarding. Each had plans to pursue the arts following their graduation from Berkeley High School, but they split apart, attending different colleges. Taccone attended the University of California, Los Angeles to study theatre, while Schaffer and Samberg both attended the University of California, Santa Cruz as film students. Samberg later transferred to New York University's Tisch School of the Arts in his sophomore year, with the three communicating over the phone during this period. Following college, the trio regrouped in Berkeley to decide their future. Their two options — either stay in Berkeley and begin making short films or move to Los Angeles, "get real jobs," and eventually begin making films —ended in a compromise.
In September 2000, they moved to Los Angeles and created their website, which would host short films. They named themselves The Lonely Island, after the "modest, low-rent" L.A. apartment that they shared with roommates Chester Tam and Matt Bettinelli-Olpin. The latter was a musician, and their late nights together often led to the trio making comedic rap songs, which they began to upload online. Their videos were produced via borrowed equipment and edited on a single PowerMac, and they were first uploaded to websites such as iFilm and Heavy.com. Their first "fake rap" song, "Ka-Blamo!", was uploaded in September 2001. They released their work under Creative Commons licenses, which allowed anyone to distribute their content (such as blogs and peer-to-peer networks), perhaps leading to wider audiences. In December 2001, they produced a pilot for a television series titled The Lonely Island; the first episode involved the three becoming addicted to teeth whitening products. The video gained the trio agents, and it was notable for a scene in which they mug an elderly woman. During the shoot, actor Kiefer Sutherland, not realizing it was a video, stopped and tried to intervene. Their agents requested they convert their shorts to VHS tape because they did not have high-speed internet at the time.
We would come home every night after having some drinks and challenge ourselves. Like: 'It's only midnight. By 2am, let's have this video done.' It would be the shittiest 8mm camcorder effort, and we would know it wasn't going anywhere, but we were consciously training ourselves. If one of us had got a killer assistant job to a director or something, we wouldn't have done that.
Unable to secure full-time positions, the trio took temporary jobs; one season, they worked at Fox Television over the holidays, tying ribbons around metal snowflakes the studio gifted to their employees. Eventually, Schaffer worked as an assistant at a movie poster company, while Taccone and Samberg became production assistants on Spin City. In 2003, they produced a second pilot for a The Lonely Island series. The film premiered at the Comedy Central Stage in Los Angeles, the cable network's proving ground for new talent. The network purchased the series, but further scripts did not move forward. They became involved with Super Midnight Movie Club, a club hosted by screenwriters Dan Harmon and Rob Schrab, which evolved into Channel 101, a non-profit hosting monthly short film festivals. Their first submission, Ignition TV Buzz Countdown, was voted back after its premiere, but ended after two episodes. Their second Channel 101 series, The 'Bu, is a parody of Fox's The O.C. and was enormously successful at the screenings, running for eight episodes. It was pivotal in their early successes, demonstrating to television executives their popularity among tastemakers and a younger audience. Samberg's former producer at Spin City passed along the trio's demo reel to the United Talent Agency, which would lead them to their first major television deal.
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The Lonely Island
The Lonely Island is an American comedy trio formed by Andy Samberg, Jorma Taccone, and Akiva Schaffer in Berkeley, California in 2001. They have written for and starred in the American TV program Saturday Night Live (SNL).
The three first met in junior high. After graduating from college, they regrouped and moved to Los Angeles, where they struggled to find work and began making short films, combining absurdist comedy and occasionally music. Among the first performers to post their material on the Internet, they involved themselves with Channel 101, a non-profit monthly short film festival. Their popularity at the screenings led to unsuccessful pilot deals with Fox and Comedy Central and a writing job for the 2005 MTV Movie Awards. Subsequently, that show's host, Jimmy Fallon, recommended them to Lorne Michaels, the creator of Saturday Night Live.
The group was hired for SNL in 2005, with all three as writers and Samberg as a featured player. Bypassing the traditional process of pitching, they recorded their own material independently and submitted it to the program. Their second sketch to air, "Lazy Sunday", became an internet sensation, the first of many viral videos they produced while at SNL. They led their own division at the program — SNL Digital Shorts — which led to numerous viral videos, including "Jizz in My Pants", "Dick in a Box", "I'm on a Boat", "Like a Boss", "Motherlover", "I Just Had Sex", "Jack Sparrow", and "YOLO". Their musical comedic work has comprised four full studio albums: Incredibad (2009), Turtleneck & Chain (2011), The Wack Album (2013), and The Unauthorized Bash Brothers Experience (2019), along with a soundtrack album for their 2016 film Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping. The three retired from SNL in the early 2010s, but occasionally make guest appearances.
The troupe has written, directed and starred in two feature-length films, Hot Rod, released in 2007, and Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping, co-produced by Judd Apatow and released in 2016. The group also produced the 2020 film Palm Springs, starring Samberg and Cristin Milioti.
The Lonely Island first formed at Willard Junior High School in Berkeley, California, in the early 1990s. Schaffer and Taccone first met in seventh grade Spanish class, and the group later expanded to include Samberg, a year behind the two. The trio belonged to a large group of friends interested in skateboarding. Each had plans to pursue the arts following their graduation from Berkeley High School, but they split apart, attending different colleges. Taccone attended the University of California, Los Angeles to study theatre, while Schaffer and Samberg both attended the University of California, Santa Cruz as film students. Samberg later transferred to New York University's Tisch School of the Arts in his sophomore year, with the three communicating over the phone during this period. Following college, the trio regrouped in Berkeley to decide their future. Their two options — either stay in Berkeley and begin making short films or move to Los Angeles, "get real jobs," and eventually begin making films —ended in a compromise.
In September 2000, they moved to Los Angeles and created their website, which would host short films. They named themselves The Lonely Island, after the "modest, low-rent" L.A. apartment that they shared with roommates Chester Tam and Matt Bettinelli-Olpin. The latter was a musician, and their late nights together often led to the trio making comedic rap songs, which they began to upload online. Their videos were produced via borrowed equipment and edited on a single PowerMac, and they were first uploaded to websites such as iFilm and Heavy.com. Their first "fake rap" song, "Ka-Blamo!", was uploaded in September 2001. They released their work under Creative Commons licenses, which allowed anyone to distribute their content (such as blogs and peer-to-peer networks), perhaps leading to wider audiences. In December 2001, they produced a pilot for a television series titled The Lonely Island; the first episode involved the three becoming addicted to teeth whitening products. The video gained the trio agents, and it was notable for a scene in which they mug an elderly woman. During the shoot, actor Kiefer Sutherland, not realizing it was a video, stopped and tried to intervene. Their agents requested they convert their shorts to VHS tape because they did not have high-speed internet at the time.
We would come home every night after having some drinks and challenge ourselves. Like: 'It's only midnight. By 2am, let's have this video done.' It would be the shittiest 8mm camcorder effort, and we would know it wasn't going anywhere, but we were consciously training ourselves. If one of us had got a killer assistant job to a director or something, we wouldn't have done that.
Unable to secure full-time positions, the trio took temporary jobs; one season, they worked at Fox Television over the holidays, tying ribbons around metal snowflakes the studio gifted to their employees. Eventually, Schaffer worked as an assistant at a movie poster company, while Taccone and Samberg became production assistants on Spin City. In 2003, they produced a second pilot for a The Lonely Island series. The film premiered at the Comedy Central Stage in Los Angeles, the cable network's proving ground for new talent. The network purchased the series, but further scripts did not move forward. They became involved with Super Midnight Movie Club, a club hosted by screenwriters Dan Harmon and Rob Schrab, which evolved into Channel 101, a non-profit hosting monthly short film festivals. Their first submission, Ignition TV Buzz Countdown, was voted back after its premiere, but ended after two episodes. Their second Channel 101 series, The 'Bu, is a parody of Fox's The O.C. and was enormously successful at the screenings, running for eight episodes. It was pivotal in their early successes, demonstrating to television executives their popularity among tastemakers and a younger audience. Samberg's former producer at Spin City passed along the trio's demo reel to the United Talent Agency, which would lead them to their first major television deal.