The Lonely Island
The Lonely Island is an American comedy trio including Andy Samberg, Jorma Taccone, and Akiva Schaffer. They are from Berkeley, California, but are now based in New York City. They work for Saturday Night Live. They are known for songs such as "I'm On A Boat", "Like a Boss", "Jizz in My Pants", "Dick in a Box", and "Lazy Sunday". They have three albums called Incredibad, Turtleneck and Chain and The Wack Album.
The Lonely Island | |
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| Background information | |
| Origin | Berkeley, California |
| Genres | Hip hop, comedy |
| Years active | 2001–present |
| Labels | Universal Republic |
| Members | Andy Samberg Akiva Schaffer Jorma Taccone |
| Website | thelonelyisland |
Background
changeThe three members of the Lonely Island (Andy Samberg, Akiva Schaffer, and Jorma Taccone) all grew up in Berkeley, California, and met in junior high school. The three friends moved to Los Angeles and rented an apartment, which they called the Lonely Island.
Saturday Night Live
changeWith increasing recognition, the trio was invited to write parts of the 2005 MTV Movie Awards, which Jimmy Fallon was hosting. Impressed with their material, he brought them to the attention of Lorne Michaels, the producer of Saturday Night Live, who agreed to see them.
Samberg auditioned for the show. He was the only member of TLI who had also been doing stand-up comedy in his free time He was called back for a second audition a few weeks later and was invited to be a cast member; Schaffer and Taccone were invited to join the writing staff based on their work in the trio. Since their arrival on SNL, the group has written some of the most popular bits in recent SNL history, most notably, the SNL Digital Shorts.
MacGruber
changeThe group also made the skit "MacGruber", in which Will Forte plays a MacGyver parody as the main character. In every episode, MacGruber is trapped with his helpers, played by Kristen Wiig (originally Maya Rudolph) and a third person, usually the episode's host and occasionally Richard Dean Anderson as MacGyver, in a room with a bomb that is about to explode.
MacGruber starts asking for simple objects to make something to stop the bomb, but he is later distracted by something (usually involving his personal life) that makes him run out of time. Every skit ends with the bomb and place where they are in exploding. All of the skits are directed by Taccone (except for 2 episodes which were directed by writer John Solomon).
Incredibad
changeThe Lonely Island released their first album, Incredibad, on February 10, 2009, on Universal Republic Records. Many of the songs on the album debuted on Saturday Night Live as SNL Digital Shorts. The album also includes a DVD featuring some of the digital shorts.
Collaborators on the album include T-Pain, Norah Jones, Jack Black, E-40, Julian Casablancas of The Strokes, Sly & Robbie, DJ Nu-Mark, J-Zone, Natalie Portman, Chris Parnell, and Justin Timberlake.