Interview: Andy Samberg, Jorma Taccone, and Akiva Schaffer of The Lonely Island

Posted by: Paul Little // March 17, 2009 @ 5:39am

Filed under: Interviews

The Lonely Island -- the comedy collective featuring Saturday Night Live star Andy Samberg and SNL writers Jorma Taccone and Akiva Schaffer -- recently released an album featuring a mix of songs that were at one point SNL Digital Shorts and a host of new tracks (many with guest vocals from stars like Jack Black and Norah Jones). That album, Incredibad, surprised many by debuting at #13 on the Billboard charts a few weeks back, but for the many who watch SNL every week hoping to check out their latest work and helped make their videos the most-watched on YouTube, it wasn't much of a surprise at all.

ShowbizMonkeys.com has featured The Lonely Island a lot over the last couple years, which is why it's so great to see them on top of the comedy world. Besides the new record, Samberg can be seen in the comedy I Love You, Man (coming out this week) and Taccone will be in this summer's action comedy Land of the Lost with Will Ferrell. Yet despite their recent success, these three friends who met in Junior High and started making comedy videos and posting them on TheLonelyIsland.com back in 2001 are still as nice and down-to-earth as anyone.

After interviews with Samberg in 2007 and Taccone (and Lonely Island collaborator Chester Tam) in early 2008, I finally had the chance to talk to all three of them at once. In the audio clip below, the Dudes explain their thoughts on the album's early success, what classic Lonely Island track everyone should check out, and why if you're reading this right now, you can't be a "fan" of ShowbizMonkeys.com.

Tags: The Lonely Island, Andy Samberg, Jorma Taccone, Akiva Schaffer, Incredibad, Saturday Night Live, SNL, Digital Shorts, I Love You, Man, Land of the Lost

1 Comment Posted

jaheyer says...

You can really tell that these guys have known each other for a very long time. I still think some of their stuff works and some doesn't - just like this interview ...