Why is lonely island famous

To learn more or opt-out, read our Cookie Policy. If you're watching a comedy music video that has you laughing and shielding your computer screen from your co-workers, there's a very good chance it's the work of the Lonely Island. The trio — made up of Andy Samberg, Akiva Schaffer, and Jorma Taccone — is best known for the incredibly popular "digital shorts" they wrote and performed for Saturday Night Live. Songs like 's "Lazy Sunday" a cocky ode to relaxing on the weekends and 's "Dick in a Box" exactly what it sounds like, featuring Justin Timberlake became an SNL staple, and have racked up millions of hits online.

But with Popstar — the group's second feature film, after 's Hot Rod — the Lonely Island parlay their knack for creating punchy music videos into a truly weird and very funny pop mockumentary.

They wrote the script together, with Taccone and Schaffer co-directing. Samberg stars as "Conner4Real," a Justin Bieber—adjacent pop sensation whose very public meltdown becomes a national fixation.

The movie is enthusiastically silly and, as Conner grapples with fame, even a little touching. I spoke with Samberg, Taccone, and Schaffer on the phone this week to talk about Popstar , what it takes to be famous in , and whether the Mona Lisa is really all that great. The interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity. Caroline Framke: So how long has this movie been in the works, and what made Popstar the next thing you wanted to do together? Andy Samberg: We were wanting to make a movie that we could write comedy music for for a while.

We were debating a few different ideas, and one of them was the idea of making our version of a pop documentary, because we liked the big, bright feel of them, in terms of the comedy. And Akiva had a meeting with Judd Apatow, who had the exact same idea. Caroline Framke : One thing I really liked about Popstar — and that strikes me as deceptively hard to pull of — is that it includes a lot of smart songs that are supposed to be actively terrible in the reality of the movie. How do you approach writing bad songs while still being funny?

Akiva Schaffer: It's actually kind of freeing to have the context of [Conner4Real's] album doing badly and that people don't like the songs, because it kind of frees you up to do the silliest songs you can think of. And they don't have to be "bad," they just have to be … ill-advised. You know, "I'm so humble being so braggy about being humble," or any of the other ones with their various offensive or ridiculous premises. Caroline Framke : Being in a packed theater for "fuck me like Bin Laden" was definitely one of the better theater experiences I've had in a while.

How did that one come about? Like, "You remind me of my Jeep. Andy Samberg: Yeah, it was like, "What's the worst metaphor we could think of? Akiva Schaffer: We found it! We found the worst one! Objectively, that's the worst. C aroline F ramke : The visual of Conner performing t he song with a woman in a bin Laden costume definitely brought it to another level.

How did you create Conner's tour, with all its ridiculous background gags? Jorma Taccone: We just watched a ton of documentaries that all obviously had a ton of tour footage. We know what it takes to put on a live stage show from some of the live performances we've done, like the Emmys or the Oscars. So we knew we obviously wanted to have huge dance numbers, choreography, the band onstage, the screens … there's a ton that goes into a huge tour like that. There was a lot of planning in that, to make sure it looked as real as possible, while [still] being ridiculous.

C aroline F ramke : Your background dancers at the very least accomplished that. Jorma Taccone: Yeah, there's some really funny costume stuff that breezes by, so maybe on a second viewing you'd notice even more, like all of the dancers dressed as Mona Lisa in picture frames.

There's a lot of ridiculous detail in the background. Andy Samberg: We've been shocked at how many people tell us they genuinely connect to that song. That's a work of art that changed the history of art! C aroline F ramke : It seem s like every other minute in Popstar there's a different cameo.

Who did you know you definitely wanted to include when you started? Andy Samberg: A lot of people were! Top Videos. Top Articles. By Billboard Staff. Copied to clipboard. Click to copy. Artist Mentioned. Check them out below. Adam Levine, Kendrick Lamar Everyone's favorite hashtag gets the theme song it deserves. We have The O. And so Shia LaBeouf enters looking for them both, before Dave shoots Eric in the stomach again to the same music. In , the Lonely Island released Hot Rod, a film starring Andy Samberg as an amateur stuntman who wants to raise money for his ill stepfather so that he can beat the shit out of him.

But it has a huge cult following who want a sequel ; something Taccone and star Will Forte are keen on making happen. After over a decade of service to comedy and music, after two films that their fans failed to go and see, The Lonely Island released Popstar, a send-up of popstar culture. It was their most ambitious project, and their best received; it was well-reviewed , and yet, nobody went to see it.

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