Lonely Island members worried everyone at “SNL” hated them after 'Lazy Sunday'
"Yes, everyone hated you," former "Saturday Night Live" head writer Seth Meyers jokes to the group on their new podcast.
For most comedians, finding success at Saturday Night Live can be a long slog of paying dues and finding the right sketches. In 2005, Andy Samberg, Akiva Schaffer, and Jorma Taccone — a.k.a. the Lonely Island — were almost instantly in the spotlight when "Lazy Sunday" became a hit in December of their first season.
The weird nature of their success — fueled partly by massive popularity on a new site called YouTube — led them to worry that everyone at SNL hated them for it. In fact, the members still worry about it, and even asked former SNL head writer Seth Meyers if it was true during an episode of their new podcast together, The Lonely Island & Seth Meyers Podcast.
"I was deeply jealous of how successful that was," Meyers admitted. "At the same time, I already loved you guys a ton. I found you to be great guys from the minute you started at [SNL]," the Late Night With Seth Meyers host said. "You had also made a really good-faith effort to do the show the way the show was done and then sort of found your way into the version that succeeded... With that said, let me answer that shorter: Yes, everyone hated you," he joked.
Earlier in the podcast episode, the group discussed how nervous they were to make "Lazy Sunday," even though they were doing comedic raps before joining the legendary sketch show. In particular, they worried about stepping on cast member Chris Parnell's toes, because he had been doing raps during "Weekend Update," which was, at that time, hosted by Meyers. They revealed that's why they asked Parnell to star in the digital short alongside Samberg.
"The interesting thing about being nervous about Parnell and his take on it," Meyers replied, "is Parnell was the kind of performer who would literally do whatever you asked him to do without hesitation."
Ironically, the Lonely Island crew also admitted to not liking joke raps or comedy songs in general.
"We knew that joke raps suck," Schaffer said. "That was one of the main debates we had the week of 'Lazy Sunday.' We were like, 'Should we try one? They suck, though. As an art form, they're bad and we don't wanna be responsible for making them more popular. We don't want people to think we think they're good. They're a cheat, and they're lame. Almost all musical comedy is.' Literally, we're saying these things out loud. When you see a comic pick up a guitar, unless they're Tenacious D, you have to be as good as Tenacious D to make it worth it. Otherwise, don't do it."
Taccone agreed. "It's weird that we're known for something we kind of hate," he said.
Samberg, who didn't speak up about his feelings on musical comedy, responded, "You don't hate that money, though, do you?"
Listen to the full episode of The Lonely Island and Seth Meyers Podcast discussing "Lazy Sunday" below.
Sign up for Entertainment Weekly's free daily newsletter to get breaking TV news, exclusive first looks, recaps, reviews, interviews with your favorite stars, and more.
Related content
Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly.