GQ Interview with Andy Samberg & TLI

We've shown the photos, and now let's check out the interview!

The GQ&A: The Lonely Island


Okay, okay, the three wise men of viral-video comedy aren't actually releasing a Christmas album—they're just having a little fun in these photos. We chatted with the be-sweatered comedy trio about their special year, Michael Bolton, and their friendship.



Five years ago, Andy Samberg, Akiva Schaffer, and Jorma Taccone (33, 33, and 34, respectively) resuscitated a comatose Saturday Night Live with three simple moves. (One, cut a hole in a box...) GQ spoke to the comedy trio about their roots, friendship with Weird Al, and what to throw on the ground, when it comes time to throw things to the ground. Or we just spoke to Akiva. Their voices all sound the same. It's impossible to tell.

···

GQ: It's going to be really hard for me to determine who's talking.
Jorma Taccone: We'll try to say our names before.
Andy Samberg: You'll know Kiv's baby when you hear her.



GQ: So, you guys have known each other since what, the seventh grade?
Jorma: Too long. This is Jorma. We met in junior high in Berkeley, California at Willard Junior High—I was in Spanish class with Kiv when we were 13 years old. How old were we, Kiv? 13?
Akiva Schaffer: Seventh grade, I was 11, 12?
Jorma: No, were we really? 12, I guess. 12. Holy *. And then we met Andy a year later, because we all went to the same junior high.

GQ: Do you remember exactly how you first became friends?
Jorma: I remember seeing Kiv in particular, because he had a Tony Hawk skater haircut, and I was pretty into that kind of thing.
Andy Samberg: I remember admiring them from afar. This is Andy.

GQ: That's pretty astounding, right? I mean, just most people's seventh grade friends turn out to work at the local gas station; you guys found your soulmates when you were 13.
Akiva: Yeah, we reflect on that often.
Jorma: We do.
Andy: We had other friends too, who might work at gas stations.
Jorma: That was Akiva.
Akiva: That was Andy.
Jorma: Oh man, this is going to be the worst.

GQ: How did the name Lonely Island come about?
Jorm: Kiv?
Akiva: So we were all living together in an apartment on Olympic Boulevard in LA, which is a very busy street. And Jorma, being the theater major, decided to bring home a VHS copy of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, but then it just sat there long enough that me and Andy were actually the ones that watched it, and of course it's a great movie: Elizabeth Taylor and Paul Newman. But still, I wanted to still make fun of Jorm for being so theatrical, so I wrote like a one-act spoof play, I guess you'd call it? A Tennessee Williams-style one, where I was going to have Jorma have to refer to our home as an island in the sea of traffic—the lonely island—and be very dramatic about it. Then we started calling the apartment the Lonely Island when we were out, as in: "Want to go back to the Lonely Island?" And our first videos were all in the apartment, the little experimental videos that we were just kind of doing. So they were always set in the apartment, we named the videos the Lonely Island.

GQ: Nice. I really love Turtleneck & Chain. It's great.
Akiva: Like, as a style, or the album?

GQ: Both, I guess. The first song, "We're Back," has a lot of pe*is-not-working-right outposturing each other. And that kind of seems to be a common trope with you guys. Is there a reason?
Andy: Calling it a trope seems to give that joke more—
Akiva: More credence.
Andy: More credence than maybe it deserves.

GQ:Well there's "Ji* in My Pants" of course and "I Just Had Sex," which has a line about lasting only 30 seconds...
Akiva: Okay it's fair to say penile inadequacy is definitely a trend in our stuff, yeah.

GQ: Is that for any reason?
Jorma: We're pretty big into self-deprecation.
Andy: And self-mutilation, am I right, Jorm?
Jorma: Nail on the head, Andy.
Akiva: We're really good at sex. We might be the best ever.
Akiva: That was Andy talking.
Andy: No that was Akiva talking!
Jorma: Spread it around. Be sure to spread that around.
Akiva: I mean, except for the times when we're terrible. Then we're not good. So like, when it's on it's on, you know what I mean?
Jorma: Like Donkey Kong.
Andy: We set the expectations really low in our songs.

GQ: Did you write Jack Sparrow with Michael Bolton in mind?
Andy: He was definitely the first person we wanted for it, yes. We came up with the premise for the song and then I believe Kiv said that the perfect person to do the hook would be Michael Bolton. And then we were basically relentless and didn't sleep until we got him to do it.

GQ: How did you convince him?
Jorma: On the first call he said he wanted to do it, and then it took another handful of calls to actually—
Akiva: There were lyrics he was uncomfortable with.
Jorma: Yes.
Akiva: It was really our charming personalities that put him over the top, though.
Jorma: We broke bread.

GQ: Wait, what were the lyrics that he was uncomfortable with?
Andy: Uh, we can't say that.
Jorma: They were terrible.

GQ: Have you guys ever heard from anyone who was mad you parodied them?
Akiva: I don't think so.
Andy: No, I'm sure they just curse in private.
Jorma: I bet President Mahmoud probably wasn't too keen on his video.
Andy: Oh, yeah. Ahmadinejad, I can say on the record, was probably not psyched on that video.
Jorma: He keeps emailing and emailing.
Andy: His Twitter feed was going crazy that whole day.
Jorma: Yeah. Little does he know, we barely check our email.
Andy: "I thought we were cool!"

GQ: Have you ever met Weird Al?
Akiva: Absolutely.
Jorma: Yeah, we're in definite communication. He sent us a bunch of gear recently.
Akiva: I was emailing with Weird Al last night, no joke.

GQ: Really? About what?
Jorma: It was I, actually.
Akiva: They had a special on Comedy Central of him performing live—
Jorma: He didn't send it to me, Kiv. I'm looking at the Blu-ray now. Is it Comedy Central?
Akiva: Yes.
Jorma: The Al-pocalypse tour, right?
Andy: I don't have kids yet, but I'm pretty sure he's going to perform my future son's bris.


Read More http://www.gq.com/style/wear-it-now/201112/lonely-island-interview-winter-graphic-sweaters#ixzz1gTISqPPi

Thanks to SamJae and X-tina Smith for the scoop!

Enjoy!

Andy Samberg & TLI - MSN Music Interview

Growing up in Berkeley, Calif., Andy Samberg, Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone loved comedy, and they loved hip-hop. They joined forces as best friends in junior high school, working up their first skits as the 1990s dawned. Over time, though, it would be their music parodies that drew the most attention, starting with their first video, 2000's "Ka-Blamo," which they have left online, says Samberg, "as an inspiration to show people that even if you start off kind of in the middle, you can work out the kinks." After they were selected to join the writing team (and, in Samberg's case, the cast) of "Saturday Night Live," 2005's Narnia-and-cupcakes jam "Lazy Sunday" not only altered their own lives, but also opened the world's eyes to the power of YouTube.

Under the name the Lonely Island, in 2009 the trio released the "Incredibad" album, which collected the songs they had debuted on "SNL," including Natalie Portman's magnificently profane "Natalie's Rap" and the viral super-smash "D--- in a Box" with Justin Timberlake (which has one of the greatest Wikipedia descriptions of all time: "The song is about giving gift-wrapped genitalia as a Christmas present to one's girlfriend"). The album was one of the 10 best-selling hip-hop releases of the year. More preposterous, "I'm on a Boat," featuring T-Pain, was nominated for a Grammy for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration ("The official statement on that is 'We were surprised,'" says Samberg).

Now the Lonely Island return with "Turtleneck & Chain," a new album with a few songs familiar as "SNL" "Digital Shorts" and a bunch of others made specifically for the project. Guests range from Snoop Dogg to Beck to, on the set's most absurd moment, Michael Bolton wailing about his favorite new movies as the hook to an R&B slow jam.

Munching crudités in their record label's Manhattan offices, the Lonely Islanders offered some thoughts on their process and on the path that made them the latest in the grand tradition of such comedic musicians as Spinal Tap, Tenacious D and Adam Sandler. "Before we ever worked at "SNL," we had talked about how cool it would be to put out a comedy album," says Samberg. "And we definitely consider it comedy, not real music."

MSN Music: Have you guys always messed around with music?

Taccone: Really it was always comedy. None of us know how to play any instruments or anything. Then we kind of stumbled into doing songs the way we do them now when we were all living together in L.A. Our roommate was in a real band and had a little 8-track recorder, so we'd come home and mess around with that.

Schaffer: We started making comedy videos, but it was well before there were ways to post stuff, and before people were really able to stream video. There were only a few sites, and because bandwidth was so expensive, it was hard to get them to put up your stuff -- it was like applying to get into a film festival. So we would have to make VHS tapes, go to some plant and spend all our money to get like a hundred copies made.

When did you realize that music might be something that worked for you?

Schaffer: There was no real place for comedy music videos. "Weird Al" had a place because MTV used to play videos. Then MTV stopped playing videos, but the Internet didn't play them, either, so that's why the music video kind of died there, for everybody. So we turned it into a TV show idea -- which is still up online -- which was us trying to create a version of a sketch show.

Samberg: The "Flight of the Conchords" show actually ended up being almost exactly what we wanted to try to do, a story line about the three of us that would go in and out of songs. But right out of the gate, the joke songs were the most popular things we made.

Schaffer: The moment we realized it could be real was after we got "SNL," because then we had real jobs. Then we made "Lazy Sunday," and obviously that was many different things coming together, because that's also when we discovered that a thing called YouTube existed

Taccone: We made that the way we always made our videos: We borrowed a camera, we shot it ourselves, we recorded it in our office on a crappy little ProTools rig. So when it got popular, it was definitely surprising, because it was the same thing we had been doing but on a much smaller scale.

How does the process actually work with the guests? Do you think, "Rihanna is coming on the show, so let's come up with something for her," or do you have the Shy Ronnie bit and just wait for the right person you can put on it?

Schaffer: In that case, that's exactly what it was -- "Rihanna is the guest, she's going to be here anyway, so we gotta think of something."

Samberg: And we'd been told that she was up for it. But there are only three songs on the album that we made at the show, for the show -- "Ronnie & Clyde," "Threw It on the Ground" and "Motherlover" -- and all the rest of them we made this past summer, specifically for the album. So for all of those, it was on us to reach out to those guests.

So then how does the pitch go?

Taccone: It's just a lot of pleading and begging.

Samberg: Me and Akiva met Akon on the red carpet at the Grammys, and we're huge fans of his. He recognized us and was like, "Guys, I loved 'I'm on a boat,' I love your stuff!" And we were like, "Would you ever want to do one?," and he was like, "Yeah!" So then we went back to make the second record and we were constantly trying to come up with something for him.

Taccone: Every song we did, we were like, "Would Akon sound good on this? How about this one?" And then that beat on "I Just Had Sex" worked so well for him, it just sounded like an Akon song.

Schaffer: With someone who we know we're going to pitch to, we record the whole thing, including their parts, and it sounds much worse -- it's usually Andy doing the voice, Andy going, "A-kon!"

Tell me about Michael Bolton.

Samberg: We were writing that song, and as soon as we broke the premise, we thought, we need to get someone who can really belt it out for the chorus

Schaffer: And who you don't expect to do something silly, who's very earnest.

Samberg: There's a version with me doing all of his parts that's just awful to listen to.

Taccone: As soon as his name popped up, it never wavered. We just went after him as hard as we could, until finally he broke down and did it. You least expect it coming from him, to be that crazy.

Samberg: If there's something that you're not expecting from us, at this point, that's exciting. That song definitely makes us very happy.

Are there some songs, some musical trends, that are just beyond parody -- things that can't be made any more ridiculous than they already are?

Samberg: Like that Enrique Iglesias song "Tonight I'm F------ You." You listen to that and basically that's our song.

Taccone: And by the way, the guy who made the beat for that song is the same guy that made the beat for "I Just Had Sex," DJ Frank E, so the line is getting very close.

Samberg: It's an interesting conversation, because when you look at those two songs side-by-side, really the only thing that differentiates them is intent.

How do you get beyond the obvious joke of "Hey, it's white guys rapping?" In so many movies and TV shows, that's become such a played-out staple of comedy.

Samberg: We put as much detail and thought into it as possible, and we never once approached it from the perspective that the joke is that we're white guys rapping. But once you make something and put it out into the world, you can't control how other people interpret it. I've definitely encountered people who have said as much to me, and it always bums me out a little bit, but if it's making someone laugh, then that's great. I guarantee you there's stuff I think is really funny that the person who made it would think I like for the wrong reason.

Schaffer: But I would argue that if we weren't white, a lot of our songs would still be funny. I think "D--- in a Box" would still be funny; I think "I'm on a Boat" would be -- I hope they all would be. Certainly us being dorky and silly is part of it, and some people just use the word "white" as a way of saying "dorky and silly." All our songs are making fun of being macho and masculine, so we're certainly not saying that we're not lame. We are saying that we are lame.

From:
http://music.msn.com/music/article.aspx?news=645285

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I love Andy's answer to the white question. It really sums up the reality that you can't control how people perceive things.

What do you think?

Enjoy!

Andy Samberg - swims with the sharks (interview)

Andy Samberg gladly thrown to the sharks



It's been a busy year for funny guy Andy Samberg.

In May, the Berkeley, Calif., native and viral video sensation completed his sixth season on "Saturday Night Live." Then, he and his Lonely Island jokers, Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone, released a comedy rap album, "Turtleneck and Chain." And this summer at the cineplex, he can be seen in "Friends With Benefits," opposite Justin Timberlake and Mila Kunis, and in "What's Your Number?" (Sept. 30) with Anna Faris.

Now comes a really fin-tastic gig: Beginning Sunday, Samberg will host Discovery Channel's popular Shark Week celebration. More specifically, he'll serve as what the network calls its Chief Shark Officer (CSO).


Is he stoked? Absolutely.

"Everyone loves Shark Week," he says. "It's the Bill Cosby of weeklong television blocks dedicated to sea animals."

As CSO, Samberg will have his own special ("Shark City," 9 p.m. Thursday) and appear in a series of promo spots shot in the Bahamas, where he actually swam among the toothy creatures. Recently, he spoke to us from Massachusetts, where he was shooting yet another film - "I Hate You Dad" - alongside Adam Sandler.

Question: So, do any special perks come with the role of CSO?

Answer: I did get to fly for free to the Bahamas, but once I got there, I swam with some sharks, which kind of cancels the other out. Really, though, it's just a thrilling adventure being the face of Shark Week, aka the American dream.

Q: Were you worried about becoming human chum?

A: They were reef sharks, which tend to be relatively mellow. So the risk was pretty low. Still, there was part of me that wondered if our (film) crew had ever heard of Photoshop. Like, aren't we living in an era where we don't really have to do this? Can't we just fake it?

Q: So how did you get through it?

A: Really, I was just so focused on the camera and doing my thing that I didn't have time to worry. I was a lot less scared than maybe I should have been. I heard that, a few weeks later, there was an attack out there.

Q: Ever come across any sharks while growing up in Berkeley?

A: Not in the water, if you know what I mean. But I went to Berkeley High School and there was some pretty sharky behavior going on there.

Q: Do you think your role as Shark Week CSO will lead to future career opportunities?

A: I don't know about that, but I expect to get free tickets and food for life at every San Jose Sharks game. Please get on that right away and make the arrangements.

Read more here:
http://www.heraldonline.com/2011/07/28/3252928/andy-samberg-gladly-thrown-to.html#ixzz1TVbundbZ

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I like how Andy orders his interviewer to go get him Sharks tickets!

Enjoy!

Andy Samberg and TLI interview - The Times Magazine

The Times - Magazine. 23/04/11

TAKE THREE GEEKS, ADD SOME CHEAP SPECIAL EFFECTS AND A COUPLE HOLLYWOOD CELEBRITIES... NOW WATCH AS YOUR VIDEOS BECOME AND ONLINE PHENOMENON

Click for a bigger version:

How Lonely Island made the internet a funnier place.


In 2006, long before Natalie Portman was an Academy Award winner, she was known to the majority of the world as either Queen Amidala, the doe-eyed heroine of the blockbusting trilogy of Star Wars prequels, or as the precocious 12-year-old Mathilda in Léon. But not long after Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith was released, she guest-hosted an episode of Saturday Night Live during which she stared in a rap video portraying her as, variously, drug-addicted, violent, sexually aggressive and horrible to young star wars fans. It was called Natalie’s Rap.

As well as containing couplets that would make Eminem blush (really blush), it was properly, outrageously funny, the sort of thing that should have given her agent an aneurysm. You immediately wanted to show your friends and, thanks to the internet, you could: millions of people saw her screaming taste-defying lines (“All the kids looking up to me can suck my d***!/ It’s Portman motherf*****, drink till I’m sick!), which is exactly what she wanted.

“She wanted to do the raunchiest rap possible,” remembers Jorma Taccone, who along with fellow comedians Andy Samberg and Akiva Schaffer, was responsible for Natalie’s Rap. “We were really surprised. That’s not what you expected from her. But that’s what makes it funny.” “It made us laugh anyway,” says Samberg. “So we thought, yeah, let’s do it.”

Nothing could have exorcised the spectre of Queen Amadala faster. And if Portman’s career has subsequently blossomed, then that of Samberg, 33, Taccone, 34, and Schaffer, 33, operating as the Lonely Island, has exploded. In the ten years since the three began producing their crude, catchy comedy music videos, they have developed into the kind of pop-cultural force that simply hadn’t existed before.

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If Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg is the geeky king of online social networking, then the Lonely Island are his peers when it comes to the goofy viral videos we post on our Facebook walls and e-mail around the office. They have a deal with Universal Republic Records and have spawned a slew of imitators. They are probably responsible for the majority of rude songs being sung around the playgrounds of the Western world, but A-list celebrities queue up to work with them for free. Justin Timberlake is a regular collaborator. Norah Jones, Julian Casablancas of the Strokes and rapper Akon have all sung on Lonely Island tracks. Rihanna recently filmed a duet with a character, played by Samberg, who ends up wetting himself. Their videos have included cameos by Jessica Alba, Susan Sarandon, Will Ferrell, Blake Lively, Elijah Wood, John Waters and, for some reason, briefly, John McEnroe.

Attracting such names is not difficult. If, like Portman, they want to show people they have a sense of humour, then working with the Lonely Island is a guaranteed means of reaching the world. Consider these stats: if you visit their official YouTube channel, you will see that the Lonely Island’s music videosm with such wilfully juvenile titles as Jizz in my Pants and I Just Had Sex, have been viewed more than 450 million times - several million more views than, say, Beyoncé’s YouTube videos. Rap superstar Kanye West’s numbers are a good 100 million lower. Madonna flounders at only 190 million total views. Samberg, Schaffer and Taccone may now quite be the most watched artists on the web (Rihanna’s YouTube channel recently topped a billion views), but for three blokes who “sort of stumbled into doing music” by “getting drunk and messing around” with some recording equipment and deciding it would be “sort of fun to shoot a video”, it’s not bad going.

“Being in a successful online video is now the equivalent, for a celebrity, of going on a talk show,” explains Samberg, who, when we meet, sits with Schaffer and Taccone at a long table in a dimly lit room in Manhattan just south of Central Park. “And it’s possibly even more powerful, because it’s a piece of created work rather than just fluff. More and more celebrities are seeing what it does for other celebrities. We’re not going to take credit for those sorts of things. But if you look at people like Justin Timberlake or Natalie Portman, doing a video with us has helped them in terms of their careers. It gave them a chance to be seen in a different way, and let the public understand that they are smart people who know how to take the p*** out of themselves. It’s a chance to show the world they have a sense of humour.”

Around their record label’s offices, the wall are covered with posters of multimillion selling acts: Taylor Swift and Florence and the Machine peer down in artful pop-siren poses. In contrast, Samberg, Schaffer and Taccone are loitering, with their hands in their pockets, all in jeans, hi-top basketball sneakers and checkered shirts. They are here to promote their second album, Turtleneck & Chain - essentially a compelation of songs from their videos, plus new material and celebrity cameos, the follow-up to 2009’s Incredibad.

Celebrities sending themselves up is nothing new: Morecambe and Wise were masters of placing stars in unlikely contexts, and more recently, the Ricky Gervais sitcom Extras have the likes of Kate Winslet the opportunity to poke fun at themselves. What hadn’t existed before is a place where they could be unapologetically puerile: thousands may watch celebrities being admirably self-aware, but millions will watch them make willy jokes.

The Lonely Island acknowledge that convincing Justin Timberlake to sing and star in the video for D*** in a Box (in which he shows men how to gift-wrap their genitals and present them to women as a token of love) kick-started the celeb-cameo trend that others followed. Timberlake had enjoyed an early spoof rap song they produced for Saturday Night Live, and when they approached him with the idea and a sheet of lyrics (including crooned lines such as “A gift real special, so take off the top/Take a look inside it’s my d*** in a box”), they were surprised to find that he was more confident than anyone that it would be a success.

The song ended up winning the 2007 Creative Arts Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics. This was not a fluke: last year, they were nominated for a Grammy for thier song I’m on a Boat, which poked fun at the excess of videos featuring rappers aboard giant yachts.

“Our rule is always comedy comes first, music second,” says Samberg. “But we do try to make the music as good as we know how.”

Andy Samberg is, more than anyone, the public face of the Lonely Island. He is also a cast member on SNL, a job which he was offered after work with Schaffer and Taccone was noticed by the producers (Schaffer and Taccone write for the influential show). He stars in almost every Lonely Island video and played the lead in the 2007 film Hot Rod, about a wannabe stuntman.

“In America, Andy is much more famous than us because he is actually on Saturday Night Live.” explains Taccone. “We might get recognised in the street, but Andy has to deal much more with the actual press.”

Schaffer, bespectacled and skinny, is the quietest of the three. He appears in their videos the least, in part because he directs most of them. He is the one who is forced to have the occasional “awkward conversation” with stars making cameos about what it is they have to do. In the video for Mortherlover, for instance, Samberg and Timberlake duet about what a good idea it would be to sleep with each other’s mothers, played by Susan Sarandon and Patricia Clarkson. “I didn’t get them on the phone till midnight, we needed them for 9am the next day, and I was trying to explain why it was a good idea. I mean it certainly didn’t sound like a good idea... it sounded like it could be very embarrassing and bad. We don’t want people to feel they’ve been tricked into doing something. But at least people might have an idea of who we are now. It would have been much harder to convince Susan Sarandon to be in a video if we were kids making them at home.”

The trio became friends at high school in Berkeley, California, just outside San Francisco. Schaffer says that the thing that impressed him most about Samberg and Taccone was their gift for sarcasm.

Being “three scrawny little white guys in a very urban high school” meant that the notion of comedy as a defense mechanism was at least party true. “It was a survival technique for years,” explains Samberg. “Not that we were bullied or anything per se, but school was very cut-throat. It was just the way you’d traverse things socially.”

Each member of the Lonely Island has parents who were from New York and relocated to San Francisco’s Bay Area in the Seventies, drawn to it’s artistic and liberal reputation.”I wouldn’t go as far as to say our parents were hippies, but you’d probably get it from our two names: Jorma and Akiva are not common names in America,” Schaffer explains. Taccone was named after a guitarist in the Sixties psychedelic rock group Jefferson Airplane, while Samberg has a sister named Darrow after Clarence Darrow, the early-20th century American civil right lawyer.

Behind the knob gags, there remains a strong artsy pedigree. Samberg majored in experimental film at college, and is dating alternative-folk singer-songwriter Joanna Newsom. Taccone studied theatre and is married to playwright and actress Marielle Heller. And despite their Average Joe appeal, they were ambitious from the start when it came to forging a career in comedy. “We all wanted that,” Taccone admits. “So we made a decision to move to LA together to try it.”

This was around 2002. They shared an isolated apartment (they dubbed it “the Lonely Island”) and filmed themselves “goofing off, trying to do music videos, and trying to turn it into a medium that could be sold”. The problem was, there was no appetite for what they were producing. Schaffer showed the tape to a friend.

“He was like, ‘Great, but how can you make it into showbusiness with that?’ And he wasn’t wrong, because YouTube didn’t exist then and the internet barely supported video. I was like ‘Oh... you’re right.’ Even as recently as that, there were only television shows and movies.”

They produced a pilot for a comedy show called Awesometown, a song and sketch revue that, while funny, lacked the short, sharp, sugar-rush effectiveness of their later videos. It was through a job writing scripts for the MTV Movie Awards that the trio secured work on SNL. In 2005, the show screened a short music video they had made called Lazy Sunday, which featured two friends sternly rapping about their plans to see The Chronicles of Narnia at a local cinema. The SNL viewers loved it. Thanks to the advent of YouTube, which had launched earlier that year, a viral hit was spawned, which allowed them to go on to dominate a medium they had inadvertently stumbled upon.

“Everytime I go home for the holidays, no matter what the function, almost every dinner you go to usually ends up becoming a YouTube fest,” says Taccone. “The kids all go off into a room and show each other their favourite videos. And if you haven’t seen someone in a while, too, it’s a way to communicate.”

It is funny that, having risen to fame by poking fun at showbiz excess, the Lonely Island are today having to do all the promo required of any “real” pop group, with a platoon of PR’s in tow. Similarly, when asked if there was anything they would go back and change, there is a cautious pause, and Samberg mutters, “Don’t say anything crazy” - when saying crazy things is how they got where they are in the first place. That they will film themselves rapping about what their penises look like, but not risk elaborating on “a few things on the business end...” doesn’t seem quite right.

Still, for all the A-list appearances and tasteless humour, there is at heart something wholesome about the Lonely Island; about the fact that three friends from school have got to where they are, in part, due to the simple fact that people will always enjoy showing their friends things that will make them laugh.

“It’s become part of our culture - something you do with people you care about or share the same sense of humour with,” says Samberg, before the trio are shepherded out of the room by their PR’s. “I’ll see something and I’ll be like, ‘Oh my God, I can’t wait to see Jorma and show him this and watch him laugh at it.’ I’ll send him the link while we’re talking on the phone, and I’ll listen to him watch it because I know how much he’s going to enjoy it.”


It’s a sweet image. They all smile at each other a little bashfully before leaving to go and decide what, in the future, will be popping up in our inboxes and, let’s hope, making us laugh.

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Thanks to Freya for typing this up and sending us the photos!

What was your favorite part of this interview?

Enjoy!

Andy Samberg - Ryan Seacrest interview

Andy Samberg talks about the SNL season finale.

Thanks to Amy H for the scoop!

Audio here:



Or just the audio if the video above doesn't work for you:

http://www.kiisfm.com/cc-common/podcast/single_page.html?podcast=onair&selected_podcast=andy%2520samberg%2520051911.mp3



SNL’s funny guy Andy Samberg phoned in to “On Air with Ryan Seacrest” Thursday to chat upcoming SNL finale with Justin Timberlake and musical guest Lady Gaga.

As for how Andy and Justin come up with the hilarious material, (a la “D*** In A Box), Andy explains, “it’s kind of just lock the door and throw out every idea every one has and see what sticks.” Adding, “we’re stil sort of just right in the middle of it so I couldnt give you a spoiler even if I wanted to.”

Andy goes on to explain they then contemplate, “is it going to be a song or something else or more sketchy or impression, character based.” Furthering, “then we talk it down with him and everyone meets with him… wait until there are the main picks and then you decide what the show needs as well.”

As far as musical guest Lady Gaga goes, Samberg suggests the mother of all monsters may be doing more than just singing! Expressing, “I certainly hope so” as for if she’ll participate in the funny, adding, “she’s a born entertainer, she was ‘Born This Way’.”

Andy also says:

I'm glad I can help (about Michael Bolton). He came tough on that track, right?

I swam with sharks. Did you swin with hunks?

From:
http://ryanseacrest.com/2011/05/19/andy-samburg-reveals-snl-process-with-justin-timberlake-audio/

Enjoy!

Andy Samberg & TLI interview: Marx Brothers & Naysaying

Back in 2005, Saturday Night Live's relationship with the Internet changed forever when one of its short skits landed online. It was a music video about two guys catching a matinee showing of the first Chronicles of Narnia movie — in short, a "Lazy Sunday."



SNL had mostly been appreciated via the airwaves, but it was now getting massive play on the Web. Pulling in more than 7 million views, "Lazy Sunday" was an immediate viral sensation on YouTube — and, remember, this was back when YouTube didn't produce one of those every week.

The song was written by SNL cast member Andy Samberg (who appears in the video with former cast member Chris Parnell) and SNL writers Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone. Together, they're the comedy trio known as The Lonely Island, and their songs and music videos since "Lazy Sunday" have earned them an Emmy award (* in a Box; also nominated for Mother Lover and Shy Ronnie) and a Grammy nomination (I'm on a Boat). Now, they have a new album called Turtleneck & Chain.

The three first met as teenagers in Berkeley, Calif. Samberg tells Weekend Edition Sunday host Liane Hansen that they had one specific thing in common: "We all have parents from New York," he says. "We all sort of attribute our immediate kinship to sarcastic parents."

When they graduated from college, Samberg, Schaffer and Taccone decided to move to Los Angeles, where they started making comedy videos together and posting them online. In the process, they bonded over a shared love of some comedy greats: SNL forebears like Adam Sandler, Chris Farley and Mike Myers, as well as luminaries such as Steve Martin, Mel Brooks, the Monty Python troupe and the Marx Brothers.

"We definitely went through a Marx Brothers phase when we were living in L.A.," Samberg says. "We watched a bunch of old Marx Brothers movies and decided that every time we told a joke that all three appreciated, we would shake each other's hands and go, 'Very nice! Thank you! Congratulations!' "

The members of The Lonely Island agree that they've succeeded as a team in part because they almost always find the same things funny — and when they don't, they keep it from getting in the way.

"In general, if one person doesn't get it and is like, 'I don't know why you guys think that's so funny,' they just need to leave the room and let the other two keep pushing forward with it, rather than naysaying until it slows down," Schaffer says.

"There's no time in comedy for naysaying," Samberg adds.

Since the trio often crafts jokes by reducing an idea to the absurd, there's another important factor to their success: never taking themselves too seriously.

"I think self-deprecation is a big part of our humor," Taccone says. "I still occasionally die laughing just thinking that my name is Jorma. Like, that's really funny."

From:
http://www.npr.org/2011/05/08/136056357/the-lonely-island-the-hottest-thing-in-fake-hip-hop?sc=fb&cc=fp

Thanks to Anony for the scoop!

So the two big tidbits here are:

(1) Andy Samberg & TLI are students of Marx Brothers (gotta love the brothers), as well as Adam Sandler, Chris Farley, Mike Meyers on SNL (who wasn't? they were awesome), Steve Martin, Mel Brooks, and Monty Python.

(2) The dudes discuss their ideas, and if two out of three think it's funny, they go for it. If the third one doesn't get the humor of it, then he just leaves and lets the other two do their thing.

Enjoy!

Andy Samberg & TLI interview and pics - Time Out New York magazine

The Dudes have taken over the Time Out New York summer preview issue.

Your summer is about to get a whole lot funnier. The mother-lovin’ music-comedy crew is back with a new album, a ton of hot guest stars and some bright ideas about how to spend your season.



Akiva Schaffer, Jorma Taccone and Andy Samberg of the Lonely Island

“Throw your $# into it!” yells the photographer, across a floor spattered with ketchup and mustard. The Lonely Island boys duly lean into an enormous tray of hot dogs before retiring to change into tutus and, later, to smear ice cream over their faces. Such is life in America’s hottest comedy troupe.

Headed by Andy Samberg—whose dad watches the shoot from the sidelines, saying sweetly, “Andy was never shy”—the trio brought life back to Saturday Night Live when they joined in 2005 and reanimated the comedy-music meme. (2006’s “$$%# in a Box” video racked several zillion YouTube views long before the Gregory Brothers got their Auto-Tuning hands on Antoine Dodson.)



Two years later (following several movie roles, a debut record that sold 350,000 copies, and a Grammy nom for the single “I’m on a Boat,” which went platinum), Samberg and his childhood pals Jorma Taccone and Akiva Schaffer are set to release their second album, Turtleneck & Chain, which features collaborators Nicki Minaj, Rihanna, Beck, Snoop Dogg and even Michael Bolton. Obviously, these are gents with enormous cultural acumen and a lot of experience in having a good time. Who better to steer you through your perfect summer?

It’s nearly summer. Are you guys tanners?

Andy Samberg: We don’t really leave the building. But I also just don’t like baking in the sun. And now what with all the depleting ozone layers…
Jorma Taccone: Thank you for getting that in there. I went to the doctor recently and she actually prescribed that I go out for ten minutes a day, I’m so depleted on vitamin D.
Akiva Schaffer: I take a lot of ladies’ vitamins, because I never buy my own and that’s what’s in the house. More iron…
Samberg: I wear a lot of ladies’ underwear for the same reason. If you want me to not wear it then wash my underwear!

What’s your favorite thing to do in the summer?

Samberg: Get a coconut frozie fruit little Popsicle. You can get it at any bodega.
Schaffer: One of the great things about living in a big city is that there are specialized ice cream places where there are just Popsicles and stuff. You know the special Popsicle place [Popbar]? The whole place was just Popsicles, and they were beautifully set up almost like the jewelry section at Barneys. A glass case and each one is perfectly lit.

You have some intense fans. Even back at a 2009 signing session for Incredibad with Paul Rudd, the kids were already going nuts.

Samberg: For us it’s always weird, because we’re comedy. You certainly never think, when you’re making songs about ji$$ and di$$$, that teenagers will scream for it.
Schaffer: It’s also because we’ve been near actual pop stars that they would scream for.
Samberg: I think they think if they cheer loud enough that Justin and Rihanna will appear.

Kristen Schaal introduced you at the Comedy Awards in April as “the little Orson Welleses of the Internet”—do you see yourselves as pioneers of the comedy-song meme?

Samberg: To me, the only thing that’s unique about us is that we’ve done it with modern popular music, which is saying hip-hop and R&B. There have been joke rap songs since rap existed. We love Al Yankovic; he’s our hero. But we’re more in the Tenacious D category in that we make original songs. It’s not just direct spoof. Hip-hop is what we grew up listening to and loving.
Schaffer: And if we do poke fun a little at the grandeur, we’re doing it from a place of love.
Taccone: When we came out with “Lazy Sunday,” the greatest compliment I heard was that ?uestlove had it on his iPod.

You use a lot of rude words in your songs. With great power comes great responsibility…

Taccone: A friend of my family had an eight-year-old kid who heard “Ji$$ in My Pants.” He had to ask his mom what it was, and she had to explain all of sex to him. So she thanks me routinely.

Did you feel sheepish, using mom and fu$$ in the same sentence in “Motherlover”?

Samberg: Well, Jorma’s mom was not into it; my mom really loved it.
Taccone: My mom loved “D$$$ in a Box,” thought it was great, and then really was not into “Motherlover.” Bizarrely. She found her limit.
Samberg: My mom thought it was a good message: that moms are sexy, that moms have sexuality too.
Taccone: She hasn’t been paying attention to what’s been happening online for the last ten years. [Laughs]
Samberg: [Nods] She does not troll MILF sites.

The guest list on Turtleneck & Chain is crazy. Did you have a list of fantasy collaborators, like Michael Bolton?

Schaffer: Bolton was our first choice for [the Pirates of the Caribbean–inspired track] “Jack Sparrow,” always. We worked very hard to make it happen.

How did Nicki Minaj get involved?

Schaffer: It was just through hearing her music, the way anybody does. It was in the summer before she blew up.
Samberg: It was a satisfying feeling of foresight on our part that we had asked her to do it in summertime before she got booked on the show. Like, yeah, told you she was great!
Taccone: She plays a good sexy nerd.

Does anyone ever say no to your requests? Have you asked for Kanye?

Schaffer: There have not been specific songs, but we always put the feelers out to Kanye. We always say, “We’re making an album and whenever you’re ready.” And that goes for now as well.
Samberg: I’ll say this now about anyone ever who we’ve asked and they’ve said no: You just have to want to. And there’s nothing wrong with not wanting to. People have so much to lose, and in certain people’s eyes, not as much to gain.
Schaffer: Yeah, he doesn’t need to be more famous or reinvent himself. He would just have to think it would be a fun thing to do.

Ever feel that you’re co-opting an urban genre?

Samberg: I hope we’re never co-opting it. We want it to feel like we’re celebrating it.
Taccone: I think we make a point of saying this is fake rap, we don’t consider this real rap.
Schaffer: It’s not like Elvis, taking the music and white-ifying it and replaying it. We’re paying respect to it.
Samberg: We always say that the joke isn’t that it’s rap; we use rap to tell the joke. And one of the other reasons is that none of us can sing or play any instruments.

Turtleneck & Chain is out Tuesday 10.

From:
http://newyork.timeout.com/things-to-do/this-week-in-new-york/1300285/interview-the-lonely-island

Wow! LOL

Thanks to Anony for the scoop!

Here's my favorite quote:

Akiva Schaffer: I take a lot of ladies’ vitamins, because I never buy my own and that’s what’s in the house. More iron…
Samberg: I wear a lot of ladies’ underwear for the same reason. If you want me to not wear it then wash my underwear!

I think it's interesting that the interviewer said Andy is the leader. I think Andy has become more of a leader because he got hired as the face to put on SNL. However, Akiva is the leader in that he directs their stuff. Jorma is the leader of a lot of their early comedy direction they went in (Just 2 Guyz, My Pants, and general angry raps which is what Chronicles of Narnia came from), and he has since started directing as well. Andy doesn't really put all that many projects together himself. He goes with the flow more than the other two do. So I think it's an interesting mix where all three bring their skills and there isn't really a leader (I would say Akiva if I had to).

Wow, I can't believe Andy just dissed Elvis like that. It's true but a little harsh. What do you think?

And who do you think is the "leader"? Is it Andy? And what did you think of this interview? What's your favorite part?

Enjoy!

Andy Samberg - Wired Interview

Q&A with Andy Samberg, Viral Video King

Thanks to Freya for the scoop! After you get past the interviewer's setup, this is an AWESOME interview! Andy talks shop about YouTube frustrations, Jay Pharoah, his SNL inspirations, how viral videos on the Web work, and more! Kudos go out to the interviewer, Chris Hardwick.

Pillow talk with Saturday Night Live's Andy Samberg:



OK, sure, the Internet represents the largest paradigm shift since the Industrial Revolution. And it toppled totalitarian regimes, crippled the music business, and neutered the porn industry. But it has also completely changed the landscape of comedy.

The unceremonious pop that signified the end of the 1980s took with it dozens of televised stand-up shows, their brick backdrops crumbling into metaphoric rubble. In the ’90s, a comedian would tour, and if that person were lucky, he might get a deal for a sitcom that would either never get made or enjoy a swift cancellation.

And then: broadband. YouTube turned all of civilization into a reality show. I can barely remember a time before its voyeurism, nut shots, kitten yawns, and sad-larious shenanigans made the TV show I host, Web Soup, possible.

But it’s not just video. Like all comedians, I have a podcast. Mine is called the Nerdist, and starting it was my single best career decision ever. Doing a weekly show let me burrow into a niche and connect with like-minded nerds. Plus, it has done more to increase attendance at my live shows than all of my TV projects combined. Sketch comics, once constrained to Saturday Night Live, now have entire channels, entire sites, devoted to them. As a result, comedians, in addition to barely handling the pressures of being hilarious all the time, also have to understand marketing, delivery systems, and social media.

Few comics do this better than SNL’s Andy Samberg. His group, the Lonely Island (with Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone), has been making web videos since 2000—to the tune of 440 million YouTube views. If you’ve enjoyed the Chronic-WHAT-cles of Narnia, been On a Boat, or presented your Di$$ in a Box to a young lady, thank these guys.

Samberg and I sat down in New York for an in-depth discussion about comedy on the digital stage—and what it means when performers can become known commodities in a matter of hours. Get ready for serious talk about the business of web comedy (mainly because Wired made me cut out all the va$ina jokes).

Hardwick: You guys really were pioneers on the Internet. The stats on your YouTube channel are insane: 65 videos, 894,000 subscribers, 440 million views. [Man]!

Samberg: People like jokes about ji$$.

Lonely Islanders: (from left) Akiva Schaffer, Andy Samberg, and Jorma Taccone...



Hardwick: Clearly. But do you actually make money with the YouTube channel, or is it more about awareness?

Samberg: We’re trying to make it more the former. So far it’s been really good for awareness.

Hardwick: Why do you think it’s so hard to spin YouTube into cash?

Samberg: Well, we started through NBC and SNL, and weirdly, when the stakes and production value get higher, it is less profitable. If you want to make YouTube your sole place to make money, you have to strike a balance between spending less and producing more. Because the more you produce, the more followers you gain. It’s a more intimate relationship between the creator and the viewers than on TV.

Hardwick: When I started doing my podcast a year ago, I said it just has to be consistent every week. But that’s harder when you’re making videos.

Samberg: It’s especially hard because we’re already making videos every week at SNL. And we can’t put those on YouTube, because NBC Universal has their deal with Hulu and NBC.com. For us it started when we did “Lazy Sunday” with Chris Parnell. It was on YouTube immediately, because no one had really heard of YouTube yet. It became a big thing, but then it got yanked off. When we did the one with Natalie Portman, the same thing happened. We did “Di$$ in a Box,” and the same thing happened. It got really frustrating, because we knew there was an audience beyond the show. So for our songs and music videos, with the involvement of Lorne Michaels and NBC, we struck the record deal. That’s why videos like “Ji$$ in My Pants” and “I’m on a Boat” live on YouTube and have those gigantic view counts.

Hardwick: When did you first think, oh, comedy is a thing I would like to do?

Samberg: I was 8 years old. I would sneak into the TV room and watch SNL.

Hardwick: Which cast?

Samberg: Lovitz, Carvey, Hartman, Jan Hooks—that era. The only time it ever dropped off a little for me was the beginning of the Ferrell-Oteri-Shannon era. But then I got into that really hot as well. It was just that, you know, in your first two years of college you stop watching SNL a little bit, because you’re going out, and there was no TiVo then. Akiva and I were recording SNL on VHS until 2004.

Hardwick: Wait, are you saying you weren’t able to just consume media whenever you wanted?

Samberg: That was the case. When we met Ferrell and Fred Armisen and Will Forte, we were like, “We watched your sketches on VHS over and over till we memorized them.” They said, “That was like last week.” All I could say was, “I know, but they weren’t online.”

Hardwick: OK, that’s one way the Internet has changed comedy: access. What else do you think has changed?

Samberg: I don’t think that the actual quality or content has changed. It’s just that now there’s another way for you to find it. Like one of SNL’s new cast members, Jay Pharoah, is a killer impressionist. And he was basically found on the Internet. I mean, I know he did stand-up and stuff, but they told us, like, “Oh yeah, they’re considering this guy. Take a look at his YouTube video.” It was literally just him in his bedroom doing a bunch of impressions. And he was super-talented. You can get discovered a new way now is really my only point. You know, one of the common misconceptions about the Lonely Island is that we were discovered on the Internet. We actually weren’t. A hand-off of a VHS tape is how we got agents, and working on the MTV Movie Awards with Jimmy Fallon and producers Mike Shoemaker and Steve Higgins is how we got recommended to SNL.

Hardwick: What was your audition for SNL like?

Samberg: It was very silly. You’re supposed to do impressions and characters, and I basically had none. So I did a lot of stand-up and tried to show how I was a dumbass.

Hardwick: Did you have music?

Samberg: I recorded a song and played it before I did one character, and it did not work. It was a perfect way of describing how I’ve managed to work at the show, which is like, well, let me just show you what I mean by doing this video with my friends.

Hardwick: So who came up with the idea of framing you guys as the makers of viral videos? Because digital shorts are essentially the smart way to hybridize Internet and television.

Samberg: The producers, Higgins and Shoemaker, told us they were always looking for pretape material to change over the sets and costumes. We went out with Will Forte and did the first digital short, which was “Lettuce,” basically a very dramatic conversation conducted while really vigorously eating giant heads of lettuce. We brought it in, showed it to them, and they said, “Yeah, maybe.” They put it in dress, it got laughs. Then they put it on air. For them, it was incredibly cost-effective, and it filled that gap. So then we did the second one, “Peyote,” which didn’t air that week because it was too similar to “Lettuce” but aired toward the end of the season. And then the third one was “Lazy Sunday.” After that, they were like, “Yeah, keep making them.”

Hardwick: “Lazy Sunday” is so much fun to watch, but something you don’t get on the Internet is the experience of listening to the SNL audience go fu$$ing berserk.

Samberg: It’s crazy, man. Watching the shorts in the studio when they work is the most exhilarating feeling I think I’ve ever had in comedy. I’ve had some really good nights of stand-up, and I’ve had some really great moments live at SNL. But I still haven’t had a feeling comparable to right after “Di$$ in a Box” ended.

Hardwick: It crushed. And you won an Emmy. The only problem that you may have is dudes running up with their di$$s in boxes, saying, “Hey, remember when you did this thing?”

Samberg: I’ve had one, but it was not his actual di$$. One Halloween a guy saw me in a bar and was like, “Dude, check it out!” He lifted up the box and there was a giant dildo in it. And I was like, “Yeah, you’re not showing this to people, right? You’re going to get arrested.”

Hardwick: Which is worse: something that doesn’t work online or doesn’t work on television?

Samberg: It hurts more for me when it doesn’t work on SNL, just because you can hear it not working. On YouTube it’s a low view count, but you know that it’s still finding people who like it. I mean, there’s certainly the thing with SNL that our favorite sketches are always the last two of the night, the ones that were super-crazy-balls, that the audience was silent through. I think it’s important to do whatever’s making you laugh that week, you know, instead of always trying to make the biggest thing ever.

Hardwick: Between that and the time constraints, I wonder whether SNL is the most Internet-like show on television.

Samberg: It’s certainly geared naturally to the Internet, because it’s so modular. The things that work on the show are allowed to have this great afterlife online. Like, there’s this Nintendo Wii sketch that they did a few seasons ago with Alec Baldwin, where it looked like they were jerking off. It was really late in the show. We all loved it, the crowd really went for it, but it was an end-of-the-show kind of a sketch. And that was one of the most viewed sketches on Hulu.

Hardwick: Does the fact that the sum total of human comedy is available at all times force you to be a little more competitive?

Samberg: There are a lot of people trying to do comedy. People are going to have the same ideas. But there’s so much content being produced that even if something is really popular, there’s only so much of a cycle that an Internet video can have. I think it gets shorter and shorter because there’s more and more content. Even things that people love—when something reaches a certain level of success online, everyone turns on it.

Hardwick: Do you think that the trappings of traditional media make online comedy less funny?

Samberg: When we do the music videos now, it’s the most we spend. Which is kind of ironic, because in the beginning it was like, look how cool we can make it for cheap. But you know, we have a record deal, so we’re trying to compete with the biggest videos. Such a huge part of our joke is having it feel like modern pop or modern rap or modern whatever genre. But a huge part of that is mimicking the style of the videos, the excitement and glossiness. We learned that on “Ji$$” and “Boat” especially.

Hardwick: We got so Charlie Rose there for a second. “When you were working on ‘Ji$$’—”

Samberg: Oh, man, that was like the episode of Inside the Actor’s Studio with Dave Chappelle, when James Lipton plays a clip from Half Baked and says, “That was a remarkable piece of acting.” Chappelle just dies laughing. That was my favorite thing ever. There’s no way to talk about comedy seriously without sounding like a di$$head.


From:
http://www.wired.com/magazine/2011/04/ff_samberg_qa/

====================

Once again thanks go out to Freya and Juliette for the scoop!

Well, in the beginning, the interviewer failed to mention one important thing... Andy Samberg & TLI were so successful on YouTube BECAUSE of television and SNL, not the other way around. Both are important, but YouTube is not a replacement, and TV offers a lot more money and "stability". Fortunately, that became clearer when Andy told him in the actual interview. Either the interviewer wrote the intro before he interviewed Andy, or he simply wasn't listening to Andy or care about what Andy said. Weird.

This was a GREAT interview.

Learn anything new in this interview?

Enjoy!

Andy Samberg and TLI - Filter interview

Here is some text from the Filter interview that The Lonely Island did:

Andy: Also, we don’t sleep, because sleep is the cousin of death. But we do nap. Which is kind of like the great-nephew of death.

Akiva: Nap is the cousin of life.

Andy: What happens if naps and sleep have a baby together; is that the Antichrist?

Akiva: I think that’s puking, right? Puking is the son of naps and sleep.

Can you explain each of your roles in the group? Is that even possible?

Akiva: It’s very easy, I can just tell you. Just rent Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel and you’ll basically have it right there. In fairness, you could just watch the first movie as well, but The Squeakquel is kind of the Empire Strikes Back of the Chipmunk movies.

Andy: The impending triad.

Akiva: In case you need more explained, I’m clearly Simon. And then the little fat one, Jorm, is obviously Theodore. The hunky lead, the arrogant, cocky jerk stealing the spotlight, who’s clearly Alvin, is Andy.

Jorma: He even has a big A on his chest. For “Adultery.”

Andy: In a lot of ways, I like to think Lorne Michaels is Dave.

Jorma: I don’t think that me being the fat one is really a personality trait.

Andy: No, the sweet, fat one.

Jorma: Thank you! Thank you for that adjective.

Andy: I also really don’t want to wash over the fact that we all believe the A on Alvin’s sweatshirt is for “Adultery.”

Jorma: You find that out in the movie.

Andy: The classic tale of The Squeakquel.


What is it like to direct and be directed by your best friends?

Jorma: Awful.

Andy: I love it.

Jorma: What’s funny is that I think there’s very little difference in what we do now from what we did when we had no money and nobody helping us. It’s just that there’s a lot more super-skilled people around doing all the jobs we used to do, like making props. When it comes down to it, it’s just the three of us fucking around and trying to make comedy.

Andy: The honest answer is it’s great, because we have a shorthand with each other, we don’t have to babysit each other’s feelings, we can just say, “No, that’s wrong, do it this way,” and it gets done a lot faster and better.

Akiva: There’s no tiptoeing.


==================

Thanks to Anony for finding this interview! Let us know if anybody finds more of it!

Enjoy!

Andy Samberg's Glamour interview (Feb 2011) version 2

Okay. Here is our second version of this article. I figured it's different enough just to post it again. This scoop comes from Anony. Thanks Anony!

Why Funny Guys Like Andy Samberg Always Win...

Because they’ve got the nerve to wear green hot pants! Meet Andy Samberg, star of Saturday Night Live, pal of Justin Timberlake and (did ya know?) singer in the band Lonely Island. Like he needs to be in a band to get chicks.

by Amy Spencer



So what was it like working with the models on the shoot?


They were lovely. I felt bad for them because it was chilly. I felt like a mother hen protecting my eggs.

You must have been pretty cold yourself. Tell us about the shorts.

I was petitioning for shorter. These were the shortest shorts we had, so I just rocked ‘em.

How do you feel about tight jeans on women?

I’m a fan. My high school years were during the nineties, and me and my friends often talk about how we got ripped off, because every generation but ours had a tight-jean phase. We had the TLC phase, where the ladies were wearing baggy Girbauds and loose overalls with one strap. Which, you know, is not without its charms. But we certainly never got that supertight, high-cut shorts, Dazed and Confused look.

How do you get your hair to do the things it does?

I’ve been training it since high school, so now each hair is like its own organism. I can do specific sweeps through with my hand.

What is the sexiest thing a woman can do?

Um, I guess sleep with me? I consider it a very sexy thing if a woman has sex with me.

What’s the sexiest thing a woman can wear?

Whatever Phoebe Cates was wearing in Gremlins. She had kind of a sweater-beret situation.

You’re friends with Justin Timberlake. What kind of attention do you get from girls when you’re out with him?

I could count the times I’ve been out with him on one hand. We hang out a lot of times when we’re working on stuff, but he gets plenty of attention.

When you’re not out with him, do you call each other?

We Skype each other constantly before we go out for an evening to make sure the other one thinks the other one has a good outfit on or something. He’s always Skyping me asking if I think he looks good in [his] jeans. [Laughs.]

Who is the funniest woman you’ve ever met?


That’s a tough one. I’ve worked with arguably some of the funniest women of all time—Amy Poehler, Maya Rudolph, Rachel Dratch, Tina Fey, Kristen Wiig—that’s an incredible list right there.

What is the sexiest thing a woman can say?

[Laughs.] God, I’m so bad with that. I would say, first off, never once in my life have I used the word sexy. So probably like, “The Jerk is my favorite movie,” something like that.

What’s the sexiest thing you do, and when do you feel the sexiest?

I have never done a sexy thing, and I have never felt sexy. [Laughs.] This conversation is the most times I’ve said the word sexy in my life.

You don’t need to say it again for four more years.

Oh, no, I’m going to say it constantly now. But I don’t truly believe that men can be sexy. The attempt of sexiness on a man’s part always ends in lameness.

If we spent the night at your house, what might we notice about your place in the morning?

Um…probably my exact replica of the Sistine Chapel that I have done on the ceiling?

I think we’re all going to want to spend the night at your house now, because that sounds spectacular.

Well, tell everyone they’re invited. We’ll have a big slumber party.


From:
http://us.glamour.com/sex-love-life/2011/01/why-funny-guys-like-andy-samberg-always-win
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What's Cuter: These Spring Outfits, or Saturday Night Live's Andy Samberg?

For our February 2011 Guy Issue, we sat down with one of the funniest dudes we know, Mr. Andy Samberg himself, to pick his brain about why the funny guy always wins. Then, we threw him into the ring with some gorgeous gals to show off some of spring's chicest looks (he didn't mind, trust us), and we couldn't figure out what we loved more—the 20 retro-cute outfits, or the even cuter guy rocking the short shorts. Decide for yourself (and peep some seriously sweet styles)!



Go red, white and sexy blue. Seventies influences are everywhere this spring, and 1976 bicentennial style looks very now.



Get something sharp and citrus. This isn’t the year for pales—whatever juicy color you like, pick its deepest form.



Be relaxed about retro. You want easy pieces that reference the past (like a belted bikini), not a costume.



Glam it up with some sparkle (or just try short shorts). With colors this intense, silver or gold (or both!) works as a neutral.



Grab some old-school denim. Think worn-in wash, slightly high-waisted and tight in the tush.

From:
http://www.glamour.com/fashion/blogs/slaves-to-fashion/2011/01/whats-cuter-these-spring-outfi.html

Thanks again to Anony for the scoop!

Enjoy!

Andy Samberg in Glamour magazine, February 2011

This interview has been painstakingly typed out from Rayanna Janae over at http://squintskywardandlisten.tumblr.com/ - Go check her shtuff out!!! With one further ado...

ADOOOOOO!

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Glamour: So what was it like working with the models on the shoot?

Andy: They were lovely. I felt bad for them because it was chilly. I felt like a mother hen protecting her eggs.

Glamour: You must have been pretty cold yourself. Tell us about the shorts.

A: I was petitioning for shorter. These were the shortest shorts we had, so I just rocked 'em.

G: How do you feel about tight jeans on women?

A: I'm a fan. My high school years were during the nineties, and me and my friends often talk about how we got ripped off, because every generation but our had a tight-jean phase. We had the TLC, where the ladies were wearing baggy Girbauds and loose overalls with one strap. Which, you know, is not without its charms. But we certainly never got that supertight, high cut short, Dazed and Confused look.

G: You've joked that you're a "text whore." What's the best and worst thing about texting in relationships?

Andy: The best thing is you're able to maintain a long-distance relationship much more hands on. Without getting into too much detail, that has definitely come in handy in my life. The worst is texting with someone who doesn't have the text "tone" as you. You gotta build your own text language together.

Part 1 here:
http://squintskywardandlisten.tumblr.com/post/2674864921



Glamour: How do you get your hair to do the things it does?

Andy: I've been training it since high school, so now each hair is its own little organism. I can do specific sweeps with my hand.

Glamour: What is the sexiest thing a woman can do?

Andy: Um, I guess sleep with me? I consider it a very sexy thing if a woman has sex with me.

G: What's the sexiest thing a woman can wear?

A: Whatever Phoebe Cates was wearing in Gremlins. She had kind of a sweater beret situation.

G: You're friends with Justin Timberlake. What kind of attention do you get from girls when you're out with him?

A: I could count the times I've been out with him on one hand. We hang out plenty of times when we're working on stuff, but he gets plenty of attention.

Glamour: When you're not out with him, do you call each other?

Andy: We Skype each other constantly before we go out for an evening to make sure the other one thinks the other one has a good outfit on or something. He's always Skyping me and asking if I think he looks good in his jeans. [Laughs]

G: Who is the funniest woman you've ever met?

A: That's a tough one. I've worked with arguably some of the funniest woman of all time -- Amy Poehler, Maya Rudolph, Rachel Dratch, Tina Fey, Kristen Wiig -- that's an incredible list there.

Part 2 from here:
http://squintskywardandlisten.tumblr.com/post/2674962897



Glamour: What is the sexiest thing a woman can say?

Andy: [Laughs] God, I'm so bad with that. I would say, first of, never once in my life have I used the word sexy. So probably like, "The Jerk is my favorite movie," something like that.

Glamour: What;s the sexiest thing you do, and when do you feel the sexiest?

Andy: I have never done a sexy thing, and I have never felt sexy. [Laughs.] This conversation is the most times I've said sexy in my entire life.

Glamour: You don't need to say it again for four more years.

Andy: Oh no, I'm going to say it constantly now. But I don't truly believe that men can be sexy. The attempt of sexiness on a man's part always ends in lameness.

G: If we spent the night at your house, what might we notice?

A: Um...probably my exact replica of the Sistine Chapel that I have done on my ceiling?

Glamour: I think we're all going to have to spend the night at your house now, because that sounds spectacular.

Andy: Well, tell everyone they're invited. We'll have a big slumber party. ~~

Part 3 from:
http://squintskywardandlisten.tumblr.com/post/2675037741

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Once again, thanks to Rayanna for the scoop and the legwork involved in getting these bits digital!

If you're looking to buy the magazine, it's this one:



Enjoy!