Digital Shorts and Beyond!

The Lonely Island, or "the dudes" as they call themselves, started off making small internet videos in college, before YouTube was ever a thing. They had been good friends since junior high and were always making each other laugh. It was a rough start for this comedy trio. They created a pilot for FOX called Awesometown that was rejected, and later pitched it to MTV who also rejected it. Speaking of trial and errors, after they got a job at SNL they also made a movie called Hot Rod that did not do very well. But I guess they had to start somewhere! Oh and I was going to post the Awesometown theme song, you know thinking it would be fine... Check it out on YouTube, it's not too appropriate for school.

It was after the three landed a writing job at the MTV awards that they finally caught a break. The host that year was Jimmy Fallon, who previously worked on Saturday Night Live. You probably see where I'm going here, Fallon thought the dudes had great talent and recommended them to Lorne Michael, the producer of SNL. With Fallon's reccomendation, a packet of sample writing sent in, and an audition from Andy, the Lonely Island began their mark on the famed comedy show. They began creating digital shorts, small videos that were previously taped and aired in the middle of the Saturday show. These became viral gold, mostly because of their short length and comedy ingenuity. Their first viral hit was "Lazy Sunday" and later came an even bigger hit that won them an Emmy. Because this is a school blog I'll just mention that it was something in a box.

As they began to make more and more of these shorts, more and more of them became music videos. It seemed as if they were more than just a comedy group, but what they call a "fake rap" group. After creating more songs that didn't air on SNL, compiling them with ones that did, they created their first comedy album called Incredibad. Last May they made another ablum called Turtleneck and Chain.

I'm not sure why I like them so much. The music is often obscene, but that's what makes them so likeable. They just do what is funny to them. They don't really care what other people think. If you've never seen a digital short or heard one of their songs, I would suggest checking out SNL someday. It's a really great show with really funny material. With the Lonely Island mixed in their, I think it will always have innovation and creativeness.