The Lonely Island
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The Lonely Island is a group of filmmakers founded in 2001 by Akiva Schaffer, Jorma Taccone, and Andy Samberg (aka The Dudes). The group was originally from Los Angeles, California but now resides in New York. The Lonely Island has created numerous comedic films, shorts, parody songs, and music videos. They have written shorts for the popular television show Saturday Night Live, most notably "Lazy Sunday" and "Dick in a Box". They have made three full-length television pilots, all of which were rejected. The group operates a web site under the same name that showcases their collaborations. The site also includes a blog from second-tier member Chester Tam, often referred to as Chez (pronounced CHAY). The blog, titled Chez Chat, gives humorous summaries of the site's updates.
The three core members currently work together as writers on Saturday Night Live. Recently, the group premiered their first feature film, Hot Rod.[1]
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[edit] Members
The three core members of The Lonely Island (Andy Samberg, Akiva Schaffer, and Jorma Taccone) all grew up in Berkeley, California and met in junior high school. After high school, they went in separate directions before forming The Lonely Island in 2001.
- Andy Samberg majored in film at University of California, Santa Cruz and has been the most publicly active member of the group. He is a current cast member on SNL, and has appeared on Premium Blend and had a cameo on Arrested Development. Samberg also made guest appearances on Late Night with Conan O'Brien and The Late Show with David Letterman since joining SNL. He is the lead actor in Hot Rod.
- Akiva Schaffer attended New York University (NYU) film school and is primarily the director of the group. He also directed four music videos for the indie rock group We Are Scientists as well as Eagles of Death Metal's "I Want You So Hard (Boy's Bad News)." On SNL, he has primarily worked as a writer but has found success in directing filmed shorts for the show. Schaffer directed Hot Rod.
- Jorma Taccone earned a degree in theater from University of California, Los Angeles. Outside of the Lonely Island, Taccone has worked as a model for the World Series of Poker. Taccone is currently a writer on SNL and is one of the stars of Hot Rod.
The "honorary" fourth member of the Lonely Island is Chester Tam. He operates the Chez Chat and Chez-Vids section of the Lonely Island Web site.
The "honorary" fifth member of the Lonely Island is Jonah Goldstein, who has appeared in many of the team's short films, particularly those of Chester Tam.
Many of the group's friends often star in movies or help out on their podcast. Some include Kal Penn, Asa Taccone and Brandon Routh.
[edit] Notable productions
Their first project was a low-budget sitcom titled The Lonely Island, containing two episodes: "White Power", in which three friends get addicted to tooth whitener. This episode includes a guest appearance by Kiefer Sutherland (although it was completely by accident); and "Regarding Ardy", in which Andy breaks his pinky and Akiva and Jorma try to find him a new one. "Regarding Ardy" featured cameo appearances by Brooke Shields and Kal Penn.
Their shorter sketches include "The Legend of Anders Pants", "Perfecto", "The Backseatsman", and a parody of Vanilla Sky. They also made a parody of The O.C. titled The ’Bu, starring the Dudes, Sarah Chalke, and an animated talking squirrel named Frazzles (voiced by Taccone). The Lonely Island produced eight episodes of The ’Bu for the competition web site Channel 101. The eighth episode is an apology for not being able to make the show due to filming the "Awesometown" pilot. The show still managed to get the necessary votes to stay on Channel 101's Prime Time and had three more episodes produced by other members of the Channel 101 family, including Chester Tam, Channel 101 Creators Dan Harmon and Rob Schrab, and Dave Hartman. Totaling 11 episodes with the three non-TLI produced, it is currently the second longest running show in channel 101 history, beating Dan Harmon's Laser Fart by one episode, and following Tyler Spiers Classroom.
They have also made numerous hip-hop songs and videos under the name Incredibad. Incredibad produced such songs as "Ka-Blamo", "Just 2 Guyz", and "Stork Patrol". The beats were composed by Taccone and his brother Asa using the computer program Reason, running on a Power Mac G5.
Independently Jorma and Akiva made "Wait (You Guys)" as the Bing Bong Brothers, a spoof of the Ying Yang Twins’s "Wait (The Whisper Song)". Many believe this to be the predecessor to the SNL Digital Shorts, as it was the last TLI update before the first Digital Short, "Lettuce", appeared on SNL.
[edit] Awesometown
The Lonely Island was hired by Fox to create its most recent pilot, Awesometown. It was a low-budget sketch comedy program that showcased numerous new and old sketches. However, it was rejected. Another pilot was made for MTV, which was also rejected due to its content. The MTV version is labeled on the Lonely Island Web site as "more the Dudes' style".
The Fox pilot is more of an SNL-type variety show, complete with studio audience; one on-stage sketch (remade months later on SNL); and monologues. The MTV pilot had a similar style to The Andy Milonakis Show, with more sketches (old and new) and no studio audience. Besides Jack Black (as a celebrity guest), the MTV pilot featured Kal Penn, who pushes Jorma with force after being annoyed by Jorma's walk, and Sarah Chalke, as the lead female Pamela Fenton in "The 'Bu" who is also found in "Scrubs."
The Fox pilot was produced by Phil Lord and Chris Miller, two of the three creators of Clone High. The MTV pilot was produced and created by the Lonely Island itself.
[edit] SNL Digital Shorts
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For more details on this topic, see SNL Digital Shorts.
The group is responsible for producing Saturday Night Live's Digital Shorts. Several of these shorts have skyrocketed to Internet fame, including such content as Lazy Sunday, A Day in the Life of Natalie Portman, and Dick in a Box. Their often vulgar style was toned down somewhat in order to suit SNL.
[edit] External links
- The Lonely Island official Web site
- Chez Chat Chester’s blog for the Lonely Island
- [2] Chester's video section
- The Lonely Island Revs Up Hot Rod Premiere.com
