Ardy, Jorm and Kiv: The Lonely Island

Although digital shorts on Saturday Night Live are nothing new, The Lonely Island boys, Andy Samberg, Jorma Taccone and Akiva Schaffer, have reintroduced this comedic medium. Even though the boys were hired by Lorne Michaels in 2005, The Lonely Island had already been a well-established entity of the internet video world.
The boys met in middle school in Berkeley, California and followed each other into college at Berkely and NYU. While in school, they started to make videos and posted them online (before the YouTube craze). They dabbled in music videos, webisodes, and even long-form videos. My favorite is their first long-form video called, "White Power". No, it's not a racist video. Okay, maybe a little. But it is a video about how the guys experience the addictive effects of teeth whitener. In this video, there is a music video entitled, "Ka-Blamo!". I spent my sophomore year of high school trying to watch every video they had ever made. If you liked "White Power" then you'll like "The 'Bu" which is the Lonely Island's response to "The O.C" or "Regarding Ardy" which involves Andy/Ardy breaking his pinkie finger while Jorm and Kiv plan to cut off someone else's so he can get a pinkie transplant. Yes.
The dudes, as they sometimes call themselves, joined SNL in 2005 per request by Jimmy Fallon, since they co-wrote the MTV Movie Awards for that year. Fallon recommended the guys to Lorne Michaels and were signed soon after.
You're probably wondering why you haven't heard of Jorma Taccone or Akiva Schaffer. This is because they were hired as writers of SNL rather than featured players. Akiva is also known for directing the digital shorts. Jorma officially quit SNL in 2010, but still plays a part in the creation of such comedic shorts.
The dudes started making digital shorts but went unnoticed for the most part. However, when they aired "Lazy Sunday", all hell broke loose. The internet went bat-shit crazy. These short, funny videos were essentially made for the internet. As they became more popular, the frequency of Andy and The Lonely Island's digital shorts increased and led to more success. Due to their success, they were allowed the freedom to make basically whatever they wanted to, as long as it was funny. In the video below, Andy sings a horribly, raunchy song about his real-life brother-in-law, Roy.


In 2009, the boys' life-long dream came true: they released a comedy album. They entitled it, "Incredibad" and it featured songs and raps that are effing hilarious. This album includes collaborations with T-Pain, Justin Timberlake, Norah Jones, Jack Black, E-40 and Julian Casablancas of The Strokes. Also, it should be noted that I bought it the day it came out. Dedication.
They recently released another album, "Turtleneck and Chain" in May of 2011. This album has collabs with Nicki Minaj, Santigold, Beck, Rihanna, Snoop Dogg, Justin Timberlake and Akon. Insanity. Many of the songs on their albums have either once been videos or have been made into videos after the fact.

Their sense of humor might not be for everyone because it is extremely immature. Andy, Jorma and Akiva are fully aware of this fact but do what they love so who can complain about that I guess, right?

Last thing: Hot Rod. If you haven't seen it, rent it. Watch the commentary by The Lonely Island. Hilarious.