The Lonely Island on Tour
Though The Lonely Island exploded into pop culture in 2005, it took the music and comedy trio 14 years — plus seven Saturday Night Live seasons, three uproarious LPs, and two movies — to get around to touring. Chalk that up to the successful careers of actor-writer-producers Andy Samberg, Akiva Schaffer, and Jorma Taccone, who have as a group been nominated for multiple Grammys, an Oscar, and a Creative Arts Emmy (which they won).
They earned all that by writing and performing such absurd yet undeniable rap anthems as "Dick in a Box" (featuring Justin Timberlake), "Lazy Sunday" (about going to see a Chronicles of Narnia movie), and "I Just Had Sex," in which autotune hook-master Akon coos those titular words with believable enthusiasm.
That they hadn't previously taken that act on the road is equally silly when you consider their talent and chemistry, honed over decades of friendship and collaborative work, not to mention their love of performance, props, ridiculous outfits, and surprising guest cameos. To wit, a 2018 warm-up show featured Michael Bolton in a pirate hat, singing along to "Jack Sparrow."
The Lonely Island Background
Friends since their junior high days in Berkeley, California, the three men who make up The Lonely Island moved into a cheap Los Angeles apartment in 2000 with plans to work in film. Between dead-end gigs, they managed to become pioneers in sharing comedic video shorts online and stumbled upon their true gift while recording joke rap songs with their musician roommate after-hours.
In 2005, the guys parlayed budding Internet stardom into a writing gig for the MTV Movie Awards and, as a result, a role on SNL where they'd head up their own Digital Shorts department.
Their run on the show was legendary, expanding SNL's reach into both viral clips and radio hits, while The Lonely Island created a series of star-studded music videos and LPs — from 2009's Incredibad (featuring T-Pain, Natalie Portman, and Jack Black, among others), to 2011's Turtleneck & Chain (Nicki Minaj, Snoop Dogg, Lady Gaga), to 2013's The Wack Album (Pharrell Williams, Kendrick Lamar, Hugh Jackman). The Lonely Island also eventually made it to Hollywood with 2016's Judd Apatow–produced mockumentary Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping, which poked fun at the music industry they unwittingly found themselves within.
