The science of viral videos is shrouded in mystery; Weezer constructed a whole music video around flash-in-the-pan YouTube stars, who often find it’s hard to make lightning strike twice. On one hand, SNL’s Andy Samberg has a big leg up – the platform afforded by SNL. On the other, “viral” and “SNL” were hardly going hand-in-hand when Samberg joined the cast and quickly found that his niche was in reviving the forgotten revelation that not everything on SNL needed to be L.
The “SNL Digital Short” became the show’s first consistent piece of water cooler conversation in a long while. One of the first – and the one that really put Samberg on the map – was “Lazy Sunday,” a hip-hopped tribute to The Chronicles of Narnia starring Samberg and Chris Parnell. What a lot of people didn’t know at the time is that “Lazy Sunday” was co-written by Samberg’s future Lonely Island partners, Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone; Taccone was also responsible for the song’s menacing beat.
Schaffer and Taccone have started to get themselves featured as well, but Incredibad is a chance for them to find some equal footing, presenting the group’s Greatest Hits. The CD/DVD set will include lots that familiar not just to SNL fans but for people tapped into pop culture in general, as tracks like “Dick in a Box” and “Jizz in my Pants” have, well, penetrated the zeitgeist.
The DVD is included as a bonus and is indeed largely superfluous, since most of the videos are pretty easy to find. In true hip-hop style, their between-song skits are pretty terrible. But the songs hold up surprisingly well even without their corresponding videos. While it’s a little more fun to watch Natalie Portman freak out in a profanity-laden rap song (“Natalie’s Rap”) or to watch the dreadlocked “Ras Trent” react to suddenly finding himself no longer surrounded by white folks, the musicianship is high enough and the parodies accurate enough to hold up to repeat plays, even after you already know that they’re going to jizz in their pants when the checkout girl asks “Cash or credit?”
They’re best when moving through a range of styles rather than lingering in one; they seem most interested in hip-hop, whether playing up the white geek thing for parody purposes or embracing a more earnest sort of Beastie Boys devotion (see the title track). Two of the highlights are the now-classic “Lazy Sunday” and “I’m On A Boat” – the latter especially showing surprising replay value, a testament to Taccone’s trunk-rattling production, as well as one of the best-ever uses of T-Pain. The Auto-Tune hero isn’t the only guest who shines; Portman gleefully eviscerates her good-girl image (“I’ll sit right down on your face and take a shit!”). Justin Timberlake is great in “Dick In A Box” – which, along with his other gung-ho SNL appearances, probably went as far as “SexyBack” in washing off the square stink of his boy band past. And if you’re looking for cred, reggae legends Sly & Robbie produce the funny Rastafarian anthem “Ras Trent” – while Samberg’s ex-girlfriend, indie darling Joanna Newsom, sings in the background. Norah Jones, Julian Casablancas and Jack Black all make appearances as well, although on less notable tracks.
Now for the real challenge. Tenacious D made a huge splash with their debut, then made a delayed movie and follow-up soundtrack that tanked. Flight of the Conchords won over the world, but their second season has been comparatively lackluster – and the duo admitted having a hard time continuing to write funny songs. The Lonely Island have the advantage of not needing to thread songs into a coherent narrative like the Conchords do (and the D originally did). But, again, it’s hard to make comedic lightning strike twice.
In the meantime, Incredibad holds up well, and, unless you’re averse to the trio’s comedy to begin with, you may be surprised by how many times you’ll wind up listening to these well-tuned tales of shanty dorms, sea voyages and, of course, dicks in boxes.
The Lonely Island (feat. T-Pain) - "I'm On A Boat" [censored]
