Top 10 Lonely Island! – A Retrospective on Humorous Guys

There are groups that will go down in history as perfect comic matchups. Broken Lizard… Tenacious D… The Kids in the Hall… Tim & Eric… the list goes on and on. One day I’ll make a top 10 for them too. However – today I wanted to focus the spotlight on The Lonely Island guys, and my Top 10 Sketches by them. For I certainly count them as one of the greatest forces of hilarity in my lifetime.

So now a mini-history lesson (probably with some glaring omissions) of these dynamos. Since their early days Andy Samberg has had a meteoric rise to stardom in SNL land with the digital shorts Jorm and Akiva continue to write/direct… Of course they made the less hilarious Hot Rod, but what are you going to do… The amount of goodness they have created is absolutely overwhelming. A real bio of these dudes after the top 10 list.

TOP 10 LONLEY ISLAND SKETCHES

This was really hard for me. There are some old sketches that didn’t make the cut, and you can catch them in the honorable mentions.

10. The Bu – Episode 1 – The Bu is an ongoing show they made. I couldn’t pick one specifically because there are so many gems throughout. The first one is a great introduction though, and definitely worth catching. There are some really awesome surprise guests throughout too.

9. Dick in a Box – SNL Digital Short – This was one of those game changers for The Lonely Island guys. Before this they were a favoriteo of SNL, but after this they were a force to be reckoned with.

8. Bing Bong Brothers – This is when Akiva and Jorma were in the shorts. One of my absolute favorites, and definitely one of the shorts I have watched the most. I did duets of this with Poptenner Jamie for quite awhile.

7. Lazy Sunday – SNL Digital Short – This short was the first Digital Short by the guys on SNL. It paved the way for all things Lonely Island. It still has a lot of the flavor from their older sketches like “Just 2 Guyz”.

6. Just 2 Guyz – Another Akiva and Jorma original. This is the tops right here for them. Favorite line has to be “Who invited Steve? That dude is a CU*T”

5. Natalie Raps – SNL Digital Short – Nothing is better than Natalie Portman being hard as shit. It’s everything you hope she actually is in real life.

4. The Legend of Anders Pants – This is in an older section of the Lonely Island site. Even older than there shorts. It’s called a Quickie. Man I love this sketch. Not sure why it’s not on youtube… maybe it is. Okay it is, and here you go -

3. The Heist (MP3) - Needs a video so badly I would do it in a heartbeat – http://thelonelyisland.com/music.html. This is my favorite track of all their songs. In lieu of a real video – Here are a couple of decent/pretty good tribute videos made by film students who love it as well.

2. People Getting Punched Right Before Eating – SNL Digital Short – Pure brilliance. Nothing is better than a Jovi Punch with a full recovery. The twist at the end makes it all the better.

1. Ka-Blamo! – The first Incredibad (Lonely Island’s band name) music video. This one is not just an oldie but goodie… but also the best. Its got the sound and vibe that they carry through all their sketches.

HONORABLE MENTIONS:

Nintendo – This was the one I saw first. I was hooked from here on out.

Space Olympics – It’s brilliant and hilarious. Cameo by our favorite olympic swimmer. This will definitely be in the ranking soon. It just needs to simmer for awhile. Plus I already posted about this once on Popten already.

Stork Patrol – Nuff said.

The Japanese Office – SNL Digital Short

Business Meeting with Rainn Wilson – SNL Digital Short – I actually somehow missed this one when it first came out. So I just recently saw it. It’s definitely growing on me. Maybe it’ll hit my Top 10 one day.

Mark Whalberg Talks to Animals – This caused such an upset, and it was pretty amazing to see it happen. I love it when they bring the people who they make fun of on the show to apologize. The fact that both Palin and Whalberg were on in one show is a testament to how many buttons SNL has been pushing this year.

Finally! If you want to know more about these guys here is a quick biography of them, their work, and their goodness.

The Lonely Island is a group of filmmakers founded in 2001 by Akiva Schaffer, Jorma Taccone, and Andy Samberg (aka The Dudes). The group was originally from Los Angeles, California but now reside in New York. The Lonely Island has created numerous comedic films, shorts, parody songs, and music videos. They have written shorts for the popular television show Saturday Night Live, most notably “Lazy Sunday” and “Dick in a Box“. They have made three full-length television pilots, all of which were rejected. The group operates a web site under the same name that showcases their collaborations. The site also includes a blog from second-tier member Chester Tam, often referred to as Chez (pronounced CHAY). The blog, titled Chez Chat, gives humorous summaries of the site’s updates.

• Andy Samberg majored in film at University of California, Santa Cruz and New York University (NYU) and has been the most publicly active member of the group. He is a current cast member on SNL, and has appeared on Premium Blend and had a cameo on Arrested Development. Samberg also made guest appearances on Late Night with Conan O’Brien and The Late Show with David Letterman since joining SNL. He is the lead actor in Hot Rod.
• Akiva Schaffer attended University of California, Santa Cruz film school and is primarily the director of the group. He also directed four music videos for the indie rock group We Are Scientists as well as Eagles of Death Metal‘s “I Want You So Hard (Boy’s Bad News).” On SNL, he works as a writer/director primarily known for directing the SNL Digital Shorts. Schaffer directed Hot Rod.
• Jorma Taccone earned a degree in theater from University of California, Los Angeles. Outside of the Lonely Island, Taccone has worked as a model for the World Series of Poker. Taccone is currently a writer on SNL and is one of the stars of Hot Rod.