Jacqueline Fernandez on Vogue Magazine June 2010
Showing posts with label Magazines. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Magazines. Show all posts
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Jacqueline Fernandez on Vogue Magazine June 2010 - Photos,Picture,Wallpaper
Jacqueline Fernandez on Vogue Magazine June 2010
Saturday, June 18, 2011
*Mallika Sherawat on Bunker Hill Magazine ,Picture,Wallpaper,Images
Mallika Sherawat on Bunker Hill Magazine
Thursday, June 16, 2011
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Lara Dutta On FHM Magazine Photos ,Photos,Wallpaper,Hot Photo Gallery,Picture Gallery
Lara Dutta FHM Magazine Photoshoot 2010
Monday, June 13, 2011
Saturday, April 23, 2011
Andy Samberg in The Times
Happy Easter Andy Samberg fans!
Freya reports that Andy Samberg is in The Times...
"Take three geeks, add some cheap special effects, and a couple of hollywood celebrities now watch as your videos become and online phenomenon.... How Lonely Island made the internet a funnier place"
Click here for the article:
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/public/sitesearch.do?querystring=lonely+island&p=tto&pf=all&bl=on
Freya says:
Enjoy!
Freya reports that Andy Samberg is in The Times...
My heart just skipped a beat! There I am flicking through my parents copy of The Times 'Magazine' supplement and there's Andy Samberg in Natalie Raps! I flick back a page and it's only a whole... article on them!
"Take three geeks, add some cheap special effects, and a couple of hollywood celebrities now watch as your videos become and online phenomenon.... How Lonely Island made the internet a funnier place"
Click here for the article:
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/public/sitesearch.do?querystring=lonely+island&p=tto&pf=all&bl=on
Freya says:
You can read it here but you have to pay to sign up. I'll see if I can get a snap of the picture and get round to typing it up at some point!
Enjoy!
Andy Samberg in The Times
Happy Easter Andy Samberg fans!
Freya reports that Andy Samberg is in The Times...
"Take three geeks, add some cheap special effects, and a couple of hollywood celebrities now watch as your videos become and online phenomenon.... How Lonely Island made the internet a funnier place"
Click here for the article:
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/public/sitesearch.do?querystring=lonely+island&p=tto&pf=all&bl=on
Freya says:
Enjoy!
Freya reports that Andy Samberg is in The Times...
My heart just skipped a beat! There I am flicking through my parents copy of The Times 'Magazine' supplement and there's Andy Samberg in Natalie Raps! I flick back a page and it's only a whole... article on them!
"Take three geeks, add some cheap special effects, and a couple of hollywood celebrities now watch as your videos become and online phenomenon.... How Lonely Island made the internet a funnier place"
Click here for the article:
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/public/sitesearch.do?querystring=lonely+island&p=tto&pf=all&bl=on
Freya says:
You can read it here but you have to pay to sign up. I'll see if I can get a snap of the picture and get round to typing it up at some point!
Enjoy!
Sunday, April 17, 2011
Andy Samberg video - behind the scenes of Wired photo shoot
Special thanks to Juliette for the scoop!
I Can Haz Andy Samberg?
A behind the scenes glimpse at SNL's viral video king prepping for the Wired photo shoot.
Enjoy!
I Can Haz Andy Samberg?
A behind the scenes glimpse at SNL's viral video king prepping for the Wired photo shoot.
Enjoy!
Andy Samberg video - behind the scenes of Wired photo shoot
Special thanks to Juliette for the scoop!
I Can Haz Andy Samberg?
A behind the scenes glimpse at SNL's viral video king prepping for the Wired photo shoot.
Enjoy!
I Can Haz Andy Samberg?
A behind the scenes glimpse at SNL's viral video king prepping for the Wired photo shoot.
Enjoy!
Friday, April 15, 2011
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!
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 - 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!
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!
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Andy Samberg & TLI - Filter photo shoot (video)
The Rise and Terrible, Terrible Fall of The Lonely Island (Behind-the-Scenes)
By now, we hope you've seen and enjoyed a sneak peek at the contents of Issue 43, but never fear: there's even more. Director/photographer Brantley Guiterrez, cinematographer Tracy Maurice and editor Ryan Adams filmed and put together this video of behind-the-scenes tomfoolery—featuring Elvis interaction, outtakes and make-up prep with Akiva, Jorma and Andy during the cover shoot. Check out the exclusive video below, and be sure to pick up a copy of FILTER 43 on stands and in stores Friday, March 4. Or, hey, better yet: grab yourself a subscription so you don't have to wait. This is from us to you.
From:
http://filtermagazine.com/index.php/media/entry/watch_the_rise_and_terrible_terrible_fall_of_the_lonely_island_behind-the-s/
Thanks to Freya for the scoop!
Enjoy!
By now, we hope you've seen and enjoyed a sneak peek at the contents of Issue 43, but never fear: there's even more. Director/photographer Brantley Guiterrez, cinematographer Tracy Maurice and editor Ryan Adams filmed and put together this video of behind-the-scenes tomfoolery—featuring Elvis interaction, outtakes and make-up prep with Akiva, Jorma and Andy during the cover shoot. Check out the exclusive video below, and be sure to pick up a copy of FILTER 43 on stands and in stores Friday, March 4. Or, hey, better yet: grab yourself a subscription so you don't have to wait. This is from us to you.
From:
http://filtermagazine.com/index.php/media/entry/watch_the_rise_and_terrible_terrible_fall_of_the_lonely_island_behind-the-s/
Thanks to Freya for the scoop!
Enjoy!
Andy Samberg & TLI - Filter photo shoot (video)
The Rise and Terrible, Terrible Fall of The Lonely Island (Behind-the-Scenes)
By now, we hope you've seen and enjoyed a sneak peek at the contents of Issue 43, but never fear: there's even more. Director/photographer Brantley Guiterrez, cinematographer Tracy Maurice and editor Ryan Adams filmed and put together this video of behind-the-scenes tomfoolery—featuring Elvis interaction, outtakes and make-up prep with Akiva, Jorma and Andy during the cover shoot. Check out the exclusive video below, and be sure to pick up a copy of FILTER 43 on stands and in stores Friday, March 4. Or, hey, better yet: grab yourself a subscription so you don't have to wait. This is from us to you.
From:
http://filtermagazine.com/index.php/media/entry/watch_the_rise_and_terrible_terrible_fall_of_the_lonely_island_behind-the-s/
Thanks to Freya for the scoop!
Enjoy!
By now, we hope you've seen and enjoyed a sneak peek at the contents of Issue 43, but never fear: there's even more. Director/photographer Brantley Guiterrez, cinematographer Tracy Maurice and editor Ryan Adams filmed and put together this video of behind-the-scenes tomfoolery—featuring Elvis interaction, outtakes and make-up prep with Akiva, Jorma and Andy during the cover shoot. Check out the exclusive video below, and be sure to pick up a copy of FILTER 43 on stands and in stores Friday, March 4. Or, hey, better yet: grab yourself a subscription so you don't have to wait. This is from us to you.
From:
http://filtermagazine.com/index.php/media/entry/watch_the_rise_and_terrible_terrible_fall_of_the_lonely_island_behind-the-s/
Thanks to Freya for the scoop!
Enjoy!
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Andy Samberg & TLI - Brantley Gutierrez photos for Filter
Posted February 19, 2011
From:
http://brantleygutierrez.tumblr.com/archive
==================
Thanks to Rayanna Janae for the scoop!
Enjoy!
Andy Samberg & TLI - Brantley Gutierrez photos for Filter
Posted February 19, 2011
From:
http://brantleygutierrez.tumblr.com/archive
==================
Thanks to Rayanna Janae for the scoop!
Enjoy!
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Andy Samberg & TLI in Filter Magazine
FILTER Issue 43
The Rise and Terrible, Terrible Fall of THE LONELY ISLAND
On stands March 04, 2011
What began as post-grad goofing by three best friends has launched the careers of these seriously funny—and Emmy-winning, Grammy-nominated—SNL dudes. Which is exactly why Akiva Schaffer, Jorma Taccone and Andy Samberg let us follow them around New York for an afternoon of highs, lows, and—hey, did you just hear that?—maybe a royal haunting or two in the not-so-normal lives of The Lonely Island. Graduating from their early days of online sketches to writing and acting gigs with Saturday Night Live, the dudes have redefined musical comedy with their SNL Digital Shorts, featuring guests appearances by everyone from Justin Timberlake to T-Pain, and singing about all facets of life from cupcakes to creepin’. Here, we discuss how the group delegates, the balance between friendship and work, what it’s like on Saturday evenings at 30 Rockefeller Center, and just a little bit about what it is that makes them so damn funny.
Also inside Issue 43: Our Tribute to landmark ’90s Britpop outfit Suede, whose rapid rise to fame and decline was punctuated with relationship tensions and drug use, but unified by an undeniable talent and extraordinary catalog. We talk history and discography with Brett Anderson and Mat Osman, while former Suede conspirators Justine Frischmann (of Elastica), drummer Mike Joyce (The Smiths) and producer Ed Buller weigh in on their time with the band—who are set for a comeback in 2011 after a near-decade-long absence. Elsewhere, we humanize the missing link of Paul with director Greg Mottola (including a weigh-in from frequent collaborator Bill Hader), whose films (Superbad, Adventureland) touch poignantly and hilariously on the bonds of friendship and beyond. We discuss methods of cinematic portraiture with filmmaker/artist Julian Schnabel, whose latest film, Miral, strikes deep political, religious and human themes. Additionally, we trace family lineage with songwriter Liam Finn, whose apple fell not far from the Crowded House tree; delve into the illustrated world of Kramers Ergot cartoonist Sammy Harkham; and go on a soul-searching daytrip around the streets of N.Y.C. with Lykke Li.
We hand out our Getting to Knows to The Boxer Rebellion, Smith Westerns, GAYNGS and The Naked and Famous and offer up a You Should Already Know with Mogwai; trip overseas to Hawaii with Sailor Jerry and Switzerland for the Heartland Festival; and Miss Polly Jean Harvey gives us a picturesque EndNote worth 1,000 ships to cap it all off.
From:
http://filtermagazine.com/index.php/magazine/filter_issue_43
==================
Thanks to Rayanna Janae for the scoop!
Enjoy!
The Rise and Terrible, Terrible Fall of THE LONELY ISLAND
On stands March 04, 2011
What began as post-grad goofing by three best friends has launched the careers of these seriously funny—and Emmy-winning, Grammy-nominated—SNL dudes. Which is exactly why Akiva Schaffer, Jorma Taccone and Andy Samberg let us follow them around New York for an afternoon of highs, lows, and—hey, did you just hear that?—maybe a royal haunting or two in the not-so-normal lives of The Lonely Island. Graduating from their early days of online sketches to writing and acting gigs with Saturday Night Live, the dudes have redefined musical comedy with their SNL Digital Shorts, featuring guests appearances by everyone from Justin Timberlake to T-Pain, and singing about all facets of life from cupcakes to creepin’. Here, we discuss how the group delegates, the balance between friendship and work, what it’s like on Saturday evenings at 30 Rockefeller Center, and just a little bit about what it is that makes them so damn funny.
Also inside Issue 43: Our Tribute to landmark ’90s Britpop outfit Suede, whose rapid rise to fame and decline was punctuated with relationship tensions and drug use, but unified by an undeniable talent and extraordinary catalog. We talk history and discography with Brett Anderson and Mat Osman, while former Suede conspirators Justine Frischmann (of Elastica), drummer Mike Joyce (The Smiths) and producer Ed Buller weigh in on their time with the band—who are set for a comeback in 2011 after a near-decade-long absence. Elsewhere, we humanize the missing link of Paul with director Greg Mottola (including a weigh-in from frequent collaborator Bill Hader), whose films (Superbad, Adventureland) touch poignantly and hilariously on the bonds of friendship and beyond. We discuss methods of cinematic portraiture with filmmaker/artist Julian Schnabel, whose latest film, Miral, strikes deep political, religious and human themes. Additionally, we trace family lineage with songwriter Liam Finn, whose apple fell not far from the Crowded House tree; delve into the illustrated world of Kramers Ergot cartoonist Sammy Harkham; and go on a soul-searching daytrip around the streets of N.Y.C. with Lykke Li.
We hand out our Getting to Knows to The Boxer Rebellion, Smith Westerns, GAYNGS and The Naked and Famous and offer up a You Should Already Know with Mogwai; trip overseas to Hawaii with Sailor Jerry and Switzerland for the Heartland Festival; and Miss Polly Jean Harvey gives us a picturesque EndNote worth 1,000 ships to cap it all off.
From:
http://filtermagazine.com/index.php/magazine/filter_issue_43
==================
Thanks to Rayanna Janae for the scoop!
Enjoy!
Andy Samberg & TLI in Filter Magazine
FILTER Issue 43
The Rise and Terrible, Terrible Fall of THE LONELY ISLAND
On stands March 04, 2011
What began as post-grad goofing by three best friends has launched the careers of these seriously funny—and Emmy-winning, Grammy-nominated—SNL dudes. Which is exactly why Akiva Schaffer, Jorma Taccone and Andy Samberg let us follow them around New York for an afternoon of highs, lows, and—hey, did you just hear that?—maybe a royal haunting or two in the not-so-normal lives of The Lonely Island. Graduating from their early days of online sketches to writing and acting gigs with Saturday Night Live, the dudes have redefined musical comedy with their SNL Digital Shorts, featuring guests appearances by everyone from Justin Timberlake to T-Pain, and singing about all facets of life from cupcakes to creepin’. Here, we discuss how the group delegates, the balance between friendship and work, what it’s like on Saturday evenings at 30 Rockefeller Center, and just a little bit about what it is that makes them so damn funny.
Also inside Issue 43: Our Tribute to landmark ’90s Britpop outfit Suede, whose rapid rise to fame and decline was punctuated with relationship tensions and drug use, but unified by an undeniable talent and extraordinary catalog. We talk history and discography with Brett Anderson and Mat Osman, while former Suede conspirators Justine Frischmann (of Elastica), drummer Mike Joyce (The Smiths) and producer Ed Buller weigh in on their time with the band—who are set for a comeback in 2011 after a near-decade-long absence. Elsewhere, we humanize the missing link of Paul with director Greg Mottola (including a weigh-in from frequent collaborator Bill Hader), whose films (Superbad, Adventureland) touch poignantly and hilariously on the bonds of friendship and beyond. We discuss methods of cinematic portraiture with filmmaker/artist Julian Schnabel, whose latest film, Miral, strikes deep political, religious and human themes. Additionally, we trace family lineage with songwriter Liam Finn, whose apple fell not far from the Crowded House tree; delve into the illustrated world of Kramers Ergot cartoonist Sammy Harkham; and go on a soul-searching daytrip around the streets of N.Y.C. with Lykke Li.
We hand out our Getting to Knows to The Boxer Rebellion, Smith Westerns, GAYNGS and The Naked and Famous and offer up a You Should Already Know with Mogwai; trip overseas to Hawaii with Sailor Jerry and Switzerland for the Heartland Festival; and Miss Polly Jean Harvey gives us a picturesque EndNote worth 1,000 ships to cap it all off.
From:
http://filtermagazine.com/index.php/magazine/filter_issue_43
==================
Thanks to Rayanna Janae for the scoop!
Enjoy!
The Rise and Terrible, Terrible Fall of THE LONELY ISLAND
On stands March 04, 2011
What began as post-grad goofing by three best friends has launched the careers of these seriously funny—and Emmy-winning, Grammy-nominated—SNL dudes. Which is exactly why Akiva Schaffer, Jorma Taccone and Andy Samberg let us follow them around New York for an afternoon of highs, lows, and—hey, did you just hear that?—maybe a royal haunting or two in the not-so-normal lives of The Lonely Island. Graduating from their early days of online sketches to writing and acting gigs with Saturday Night Live, the dudes have redefined musical comedy with their SNL Digital Shorts, featuring guests appearances by everyone from Justin Timberlake to T-Pain, and singing about all facets of life from cupcakes to creepin’. Here, we discuss how the group delegates, the balance between friendship and work, what it’s like on Saturday evenings at 30 Rockefeller Center, and just a little bit about what it is that makes them so damn funny.
Also inside Issue 43: Our Tribute to landmark ’90s Britpop outfit Suede, whose rapid rise to fame and decline was punctuated with relationship tensions and drug use, but unified by an undeniable talent and extraordinary catalog. We talk history and discography with Brett Anderson and Mat Osman, while former Suede conspirators Justine Frischmann (of Elastica), drummer Mike Joyce (The Smiths) and producer Ed Buller weigh in on their time with the band—who are set for a comeback in 2011 after a near-decade-long absence. Elsewhere, we humanize the missing link of Paul with director Greg Mottola (including a weigh-in from frequent collaborator Bill Hader), whose films (Superbad, Adventureland) touch poignantly and hilariously on the bonds of friendship and beyond. We discuss methods of cinematic portraiture with filmmaker/artist Julian Schnabel, whose latest film, Miral, strikes deep political, religious and human themes. Additionally, we trace family lineage with songwriter Liam Finn, whose apple fell not far from the Crowded House tree; delve into the illustrated world of Kramers Ergot cartoonist Sammy Harkham; and go on a soul-searching daytrip around the streets of N.Y.C. with Lykke Li.
We hand out our Getting to Knows to The Boxer Rebellion, Smith Westerns, GAYNGS and The Naked and Famous and offer up a You Should Already Know with Mogwai; trip overseas to Hawaii with Sailor Jerry and Switzerland for the Heartland Festival; and Miss Polly Jean Harvey gives us a picturesque EndNote worth 1,000 ships to cap it all off.
From:
http://filtermagazine.com/index.php/magazine/filter_issue_43
==================
Thanks to Rayanna Janae for the scoop!
Enjoy!
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Andy Samberg and TLI - are not Weird Al
This Ain’t Weird Al
The novelty song used to be popular, but it has never, ever been cool. Whether it was Allan Sherman making his 1963 hit “Hello Mudduh! Hello Fadduh!” or Weird Al Yankovic parodying Michael Jackson with “Eat It” in 1984, the comedian who made singalong spoofs was like the hip stand-up comic’s embarrassing country cousin. There were exceptions, of course, like the cerebral, political Tom Lehrer — but let’s just say that, in general, Lenny Bruce and George Carlin did not sing. The novelty song was an outlet for nerds, morning-show shock jocks and the kind of guys who put the word “weird” in front of their names. This might help explain why the era of the novelty song seemed to end right around the time that hip-hop came of age: the greatness of Weird Al’s “Straight Outta Lynwood” notwithstanding, the average funny-song singer was not cut out to spoof N.W.A.
The Lonely Island has changed all that. The group, consisting of Andy Samberg, Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone, who are familiar from their “Digital Shorts” on “Saturday Night Live,” has not only revived the novelty song, but they’ve done the unthinkable: they’ve made it cool. And catchy. They make novelty songs you can laugh at and also bob your head to.
Their 2005 breakthrough video, “Lazy Sunday,” was directed by Schaffer, with music written by Taccone on his Mac computer, and featured Samberg and Chris Parnell, who was then Samberg’s “S.N.L.” cast mate, as dweeb pals rapping over a gangsta backbeat about planning to see a matinee of “The Chronicles of Narnia.” It was an ingenious bit of high burlesque that became a YouTube sensation, drawing five million viewers in two months. In 2009, they released an album, “Incredibad,” which featured a single, “I’m on a Boat,” that was nominated for a Grammy. And “I Just Had Sex,” the first single from their next album (due to be released this spring) has more than 50 million YouTube views since its debut in December.
“We are so excited by the idea of songs being funny,” Taccone told me, “but it adds to the joke if they also sound good.” To that end, the Lonely Island’s songs aren’t punning parodies, but keen dissections of a genre’s cliches. A novelty hit like “Eat It” was really only funny if you were familiar with “Beat It,” but a song like “I’m on a Boat,” which features Samberg and Schaffer rapping aboard a yacht, lovingly spoofs every over-the-top hip-hop video. And if the boasts in “I’m on a Boat” are intentionally funny — has there ever been a better yachting-based taunt than “I got my swim trunks/And my flippy-floppies/I’m flipping burgers/You at Kinko’s, straight flipping copies”? — the song itself could pass as the best track in the Hot 97 rotation. (The auto-tuned refrain by a guest star, T-Pain, is, no joke, among his finest work.) The humorist Andy Borowitz compares the Lonely Island to the mock-metal band Spinal Tap, in that “the best Spinal Tap songs also work as lumbering heavy-metal songs.”
The group’s collaborations — they have performed with Akon, worked with the esteemed reggae producers Sly & Robbie and used beats by T-Minus, a producer for Nicki Minaj — also help smooth the racial politics of their music. Samberg, Schaffer and Taccone met in junior high school in Berkeley in the 1990s, where everyone listened to hip-hop. “It was a ton of N.W.A., Beastie Boys, the Ice Cube solo records,” says Samberg, who at 32 is a year younger than his partners. In their best songs, the joke is never directed at a specific performer; rather, it’s on them — these three white guys from the Bay Area, posturing like gangstas while rapping about cupcakes. In an age of uninspired pop and fragmented audiences, the Lonely Island’s most significant accomplishment is not reviving the spirit of Allan Sherman but simply rallying people around music that also happens to be funny. Even my parents, who think Kanye West is a Florida Key, have both heard — and laughed at — the Lonely Island single “Motherlover.” That’s no longer a novelty song: it’s more like a national anthem.
From:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/20/magazine/20Lonely-t.html?_r=1
=======================
Thanks to Victoria for the scoop!
Enjoy!
The novelty song used to be popular, but it has never, ever been cool. Whether it was Allan Sherman making his 1963 hit “Hello Mudduh! Hello Fadduh!” or Weird Al Yankovic parodying Michael Jackson with “Eat It” in 1984, the comedian who made singalong spoofs was like the hip stand-up comic’s embarrassing country cousin. There were exceptions, of course, like the cerebral, political Tom Lehrer — but let’s just say that, in general, Lenny Bruce and George Carlin did not sing. The novelty song was an outlet for nerds, morning-show shock jocks and the kind of guys who put the word “weird” in front of their names. This might help explain why the era of the novelty song seemed to end right around the time that hip-hop came of age: the greatness of Weird Al’s “Straight Outta Lynwood” notwithstanding, the average funny-song singer was not cut out to spoof N.W.A.
The Lonely Island has changed all that. The group, consisting of Andy Samberg, Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone, who are familiar from their “Digital Shorts” on “Saturday Night Live,” has not only revived the novelty song, but they’ve done the unthinkable: they’ve made it cool. And catchy. They make novelty songs you can laugh at and also bob your head to.
Their 2005 breakthrough video, “Lazy Sunday,” was directed by Schaffer, with music written by Taccone on his Mac computer, and featured Samberg and Chris Parnell, who was then Samberg’s “S.N.L.” cast mate, as dweeb pals rapping over a gangsta backbeat about planning to see a matinee of “The Chronicles of Narnia.” It was an ingenious bit of high burlesque that became a YouTube sensation, drawing five million viewers in two months. In 2009, they released an album, “Incredibad,” which featured a single, “I’m on a Boat,” that was nominated for a Grammy. And “I Just Had Sex,” the first single from their next album (due to be released this spring) has more than 50 million YouTube views since its debut in December.
“We are so excited by the idea of songs being funny,” Taccone told me, “but it adds to the joke if they also sound good.” To that end, the Lonely Island’s songs aren’t punning parodies, but keen dissections of a genre’s cliches. A novelty hit like “Eat It” was really only funny if you were familiar with “Beat It,” but a song like “I’m on a Boat,” which features Samberg and Schaffer rapping aboard a yacht, lovingly spoofs every over-the-top hip-hop video. And if the boasts in “I’m on a Boat” are intentionally funny — has there ever been a better yachting-based taunt than “I got my swim trunks/And my flippy-floppies/I’m flipping burgers/You at Kinko’s, straight flipping copies”? — the song itself could pass as the best track in the Hot 97 rotation. (The auto-tuned refrain by a guest star, T-Pain, is, no joke, among his finest work.) The humorist Andy Borowitz compares the Lonely Island to the mock-metal band Spinal Tap, in that “the best Spinal Tap songs also work as lumbering heavy-metal songs.”
The group’s collaborations — they have performed with Akon, worked with the esteemed reggae producers Sly & Robbie and used beats by T-Minus, a producer for Nicki Minaj — also help smooth the racial politics of their music. Samberg, Schaffer and Taccone met in junior high school in Berkeley in the 1990s, where everyone listened to hip-hop. “It was a ton of N.W.A., Beastie Boys, the Ice Cube solo records,” says Samberg, who at 32 is a year younger than his partners. In their best songs, the joke is never directed at a specific performer; rather, it’s on them — these three white guys from the Bay Area, posturing like gangstas while rapping about cupcakes. In an age of uninspired pop and fragmented audiences, the Lonely Island’s most significant accomplishment is not reviving the spirit of Allan Sherman but simply rallying people around music that also happens to be funny. Even my parents, who think Kanye West is a Florida Key, have both heard — and laughed at — the Lonely Island single “Motherlover.” That’s no longer a novelty song: it’s more like a national anthem.
From:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/20/magazine/20Lonely-t.html?_r=1
=======================
Thanks to Victoria for the scoop!
Enjoy!
Andy Samberg and TLI - are not Weird Al
This Ain’t Weird Al
The novelty song used to be popular, but it has never, ever been cool. Whether it was Allan Sherman making his 1963 hit “Hello Mudduh! Hello Fadduh!” or Weird Al Yankovic parodying Michael Jackson with “Eat It” in 1984, the comedian who made singalong spoofs was like the hip stand-up comic’s embarrassing country cousin. There were exceptions, of course, like the cerebral, political Tom Lehrer — but let’s just say that, in general, Lenny Bruce and George Carlin did not sing. The novelty song was an outlet for nerds, morning-show shock jocks and the kind of guys who put the word “weird” in front of their names. This might help explain why the era of the novelty song seemed to end right around the time that hip-hop came of age: the greatness of Weird Al’s “Straight Outta Lynwood” notwithstanding, the average funny-song singer was not cut out to spoof N.W.A.
The Lonely Island has changed all that. The group, consisting of Andy Samberg, Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone, who are familiar from their “Digital Shorts” on “Saturday Night Live,” has not only revived the novelty song, but they’ve done the unthinkable: they’ve made it cool. And catchy. They make novelty songs you can laugh at and also bob your head to.
Their 2005 breakthrough video, “Lazy Sunday,” was directed by Schaffer, with music written by Taccone on his Mac computer, and featured Samberg and Chris Parnell, who was then Samberg’s “S.N.L.” cast mate, as dweeb pals rapping over a gangsta backbeat about planning to see a matinee of “The Chronicles of Narnia.” It was an ingenious bit of high burlesque that became a YouTube sensation, drawing five million viewers in two months. In 2009, they released an album, “Incredibad,” which featured a single, “I’m on a Boat,” that was nominated for a Grammy. And “I Just Had Sex,” the first single from their next album (due to be released this spring) has more than 50 million YouTube views since its debut in December.
“We are so excited by the idea of songs being funny,” Taccone told me, “but it adds to the joke if they also sound good.” To that end, the Lonely Island’s songs aren’t punning parodies, but keen dissections of a genre’s cliches. A novelty hit like “Eat It” was really only funny if you were familiar with “Beat It,” but a song like “I’m on a Boat,” which features Samberg and Schaffer rapping aboard a yacht, lovingly spoofs every over-the-top hip-hop video. And if the boasts in “I’m on a Boat” are intentionally funny — has there ever been a better yachting-based taunt than “I got my swim trunks/And my flippy-floppies/I’m flipping burgers/You at Kinko’s, straight flipping copies”? — the song itself could pass as the best track in the Hot 97 rotation. (The auto-tuned refrain by a guest star, T-Pain, is, no joke, among his finest work.) The humorist Andy Borowitz compares the Lonely Island to the mock-metal band Spinal Tap, in that “the best Spinal Tap songs also work as lumbering heavy-metal songs.”
The group’s collaborations — they have performed with Akon, worked with the esteemed reggae producers Sly & Robbie and used beats by T-Minus, a producer for Nicki Minaj — also help smooth the racial politics of their music. Samberg, Schaffer and Taccone met in junior high school in Berkeley in the 1990s, where everyone listened to hip-hop. “It was a ton of N.W.A., Beastie Boys, the Ice Cube solo records,” says Samberg, who at 32 is a year younger than his partners. In their best songs, the joke is never directed at a specific performer; rather, it’s on them — these three white guys from the Bay Area, posturing like gangstas while rapping about cupcakes. In an age of uninspired pop and fragmented audiences, the Lonely Island’s most significant accomplishment is not reviving the spirit of Allan Sherman but simply rallying people around music that also happens to be funny. Even my parents, who think Kanye West is a Florida Key, have both heard — and laughed at — the Lonely Island single “Motherlover.” That’s no longer a novelty song: it’s more like a national anthem.
From:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/20/magazine/20Lonely-t.html?_r=1
=======================
Thanks to Victoria for the scoop!
Enjoy!
The novelty song used to be popular, but it has never, ever been cool. Whether it was Allan Sherman making his 1963 hit “Hello Mudduh! Hello Fadduh!” or Weird Al Yankovic parodying Michael Jackson with “Eat It” in 1984, the comedian who made singalong spoofs was like the hip stand-up comic’s embarrassing country cousin. There were exceptions, of course, like the cerebral, political Tom Lehrer — but let’s just say that, in general, Lenny Bruce and George Carlin did not sing. The novelty song was an outlet for nerds, morning-show shock jocks and the kind of guys who put the word “weird” in front of their names. This might help explain why the era of the novelty song seemed to end right around the time that hip-hop came of age: the greatness of Weird Al’s “Straight Outta Lynwood” notwithstanding, the average funny-song singer was not cut out to spoof N.W.A.
The Lonely Island has changed all that. The group, consisting of Andy Samberg, Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone, who are familiar from their “Digital Shorts” on “Saturday Night Live,” has not only revived the novelty song, but they’ve done the unthinkable: they’ve made it cool. And catchy. They make novelty songs you can laugh at and also bob your head to.
Their 2005 breakthrough video, “Lazy Sunday,” was directed by Schaffer, with music written by Taccone on his Mac computer, and featured Samberg and Chris Parnell, who was then Samberg’s “S.N.L.” cast mate, as dweeb pals rapping over a gangsta backbeat about planning to see a matinee of “The Chronicles of Narnia.” It was an ingenious bit of high burlesque that became a YouTube sensation, drawing five million viewers in two months. In 2009, they released an album, “Incredibad,” which featured a single, “I’m on a Boat,” that was nominated for a Grammy. And “I Just Had Sex,” the first single from their next album (due to be released this spring) has more than 50 million YouTube views since its debut in December.
“We are so excited by the idea of songs being funny,” Taccone told me, “but it adds to the joke if they also sound good.” To that end, the Lonely Island’s songs aren’t punning parodies, but keen dissections of a genre’s cliches. A novelty hit like “Eat It” was really only funny if you were familiar with “Beat It,” but a song like “I’m on a Boat,” which features Samberg and Schaffer rapping aboard a yacht, lovingly spoofs every over-the-top hip-hop video. And if the boasts in “I’m on a Boat” are intentionally funny — has there ever been a better yachting-based taunt than “I got my swim trunks/And my flippy-floppies/I’m flipping burgers/You at Kinko’s, straight flipping copies”? — the song itself could pass as the best track in the Hot 97 rotation. (The auto-tuned refrain by a guest star, T-Pain, is, no joke, among his finest work.) The humorist Andy Borowitz compares the Lonely Island to the mock-metal band Spinal Tap, in that “the best Spinal Tap songs also work as lumbering heavy-metal songs.”
The group’s collaborations — they have performed with Akon, worked with the esteemed reggae producers Sly & Robbie and used beats by T-Minus, a producer for Nicki Minaj — also help smooth the racial politics of their music. Samberg, Schaffer and Taccone met in junior high school in Berkeley in the 1990s, where everyone listened to hip-hop. “It was a ton of N.W.A., Beastie Boys, the Ice Cube solo records,” says Samberg, who at 32 is a year younger than his partners. In their best songs, the joke is never directed at a specific performer; rather, it’s on them — these three white guys from the Bay Area, posturing like gangstas while rapping about cupcakes. In an age of uninspired pop and fragmented audiences, the Lonely Island’s most significant accomplishment is not reviving the spirit of Allan Sherman but simply rallying people around music that also happens to be funny. Even my parents, who think Kanye West is a Florida Key, have both heard — and laughed at — the Lonely Island single “Motherlover.” That’s no longer a novelty song: it’s more like a national anthem.
From:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/20/magazine/20Lonely-t.html?_r=1
=======================
Thanks to Victoria for the scoop!
Enjoy!
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