The Lonely Island (TLI) is an American comedy troupe composed of Akiva Schaffer, Jorma Taccone, and Andy Samberg, best known for its musical parodies. The group is from Berkeley, California, and is currently based in New York City. The group began creating live comedy skits in junior high school and continued to do so, expanding its repertoire to comedic shorts, music parody (both songs and videos), and one full-length television pilot, before coming to the attention of Lorne Michaels of Saturday Night Live (SNL). Once on the show, they wrote \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\"Lazy Sunday,\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\" a better-produced music parody video much like the group\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'s previous work. It became an instant Internet success, and led to the creation of similar digital shorts that also aired on Saturday Night Live. The Emmy-winning \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\"Dick in a Box\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\", \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\"Jizz in My Pants\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\", \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\"Like a Boss\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\" and the Grammy-nominated \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\"I\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'m on a Boat\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\" have subsequently had huge success both on the show and on the Internet and prompted the recording and release of an album, Incredibad, in which the group moves in a more musical direction. In August 2007, the group premiered its first feature film, Hot Rod. The Lonely Island Also known as Incredibad, the Dudes Origin Berkeley, California Genres Comedy hip hop, Comedy rock, nerdcore Years active 2001–present Labels Universal Republic Records Associated acts T-Pain, Justin Timberlake, Natalie Portman, Jack Black, E-40, Julian Casablancas, Seth Rogen, Norah Jones, Tenacious D, Rihanna Members Andy Samberg Akiva Schaffer Jorma Taccone \\\\\\\"I\\\\\\\'m on a Boat\\\\\\\" is a single from The Lonely Island\\\\\\\'s debut album Incredibad, which was also featured as a Saturday Night Live Digital Short. The song features R&B singer T-Pain. The song, produced by Wyshmaster, is a parody of many rap video cliches. The music video reached number one on YouTube in February 2009 and was number one on the U.S. iTunes music video chart. The song was nominated for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration at the 52nd Grammy Awards. The Lonely Island has also performed the song live on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon with The Roots filling in for T-Pain. The song is now confirmed to have gone gold. Music and lyrics The song features an aggressive delivery of the lyrics which are peppered with strong profanity throughout while making simple proclamations, ranging from the insane (\\\\\\\"I\\\\\\\'m gonna fly this boat to the moon somehow\\\\\\\") to the mundane (\\\\\\\"I\\\\\\\'ve got a nautical-themed pashmina afghan\\\\\\\") to the inane (\\\\\\\"This boat engine make noise\\\\\\\"). The song makes allusions to various events, people and other elements from pop culture. It quotes Kevin Garnett as saying \\\\\\\"Anything is possible!\\\\\\\" — an exclamation he made after the 2008 NBA Finals. Samberg visually and lyrically references Leonardo DiCaprio\\\\\\\'s scene in the 1997 film Titanic, where on the bow of the ship, DiCaprio\\\\\\\'s character shouts, \\\\\\\"I\\\\\\\'m the king of the world.\\\\\\\" In the video, Samberg holds a press conference with a blue \\\\\\\"I\\\\\\\'m on a Boat\\\\\\\" banner in the background while wearing a flight suit, a sight gag reminiscent of President George W. Bush\\\\\\\'s 2003 \\\\\\\"Mission Accomplished\\\\\\\" press conference. Rapper E-40 (who appears elsewhere on the album) often mentions liquors in his rap, which corresponds to the mention of Santana champagne (the actual topic of E-40\\\\\\\'s featured appearance). Music video The video opens with Andy Samberg — who is sitting at the kitchen table with bandmates Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone — pouring cereal into a bowl. To his delight, a coupon for a free boat ride for three falls out of the box. After pondering who will go with him, Samberg picks Schaffer but skips over Taccone in favor of the previously unseen rapper T-Pain, who has apparently been sitting at the table directly across from the others, barely off camera, the entire time. The three men are next seen atop the yacht Never Say Never in Biscayne Bay, Florida, dressed in tuxedos as Samberg announces that they are about to set sail on a boat. The video frequently shows flashes of the left-out Taccone at comparatively mundane places, like \\\\\\\"at Kinko\\\\\\\'s straight flippin\\\\\\\' copies\\\\\\\" or lifting a parking ticket from his car. The rap portion of the video places the three throughout the boat and in varying attire, including full tuxedos, a flight suit, traditional sailor costumes, white naval uniforms and typical casual and formal resort wear. Reception Critical Giving the song four stars, Rolling Stone said it is \\\\\\\"one of the strongest Saturday Night Live hip-hop hits since Eddie Murphy was funny.\\\\\\\" Stereogum called the tune \\\\\\\"a 2:42 masterclass in stunting.\\\\\\\" The A.V. Club said the song \\\\\\\"holds up well on physical media.\\\\\\\" Popular As of January 11, 2010, the video has been viewed more than 40.7 million times and was featured by Entertainment Weekly, Stereogum, and G4\\\\\\\'s Attack of the Show. Awards In December 2009, \\\\\\\"I\\\\\\\'m on a Boat\\\\\\\" received a nomination for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration at the 52nd Grammy Awards, a category held for a [rhymed]/sung collaborative performance by artists who do not normally perform together, losing to Jay-Z, Kanye West, and Rihanna\\\\\\\'s song \\\\\\\"Run This Town\\\\\\\". Single by The Lonely Island featuring T-Pain from the album Incredibad Released February 3, 2009 Format Digital download Recorded 2008 Genre Comedy hip hop Length 2:36 Label Universal Republic Writer(s) Andy Samberg, Akiva Schaffer, Jorma Taccone, A. Cherrington T-Pain Producer Wyshmaster Certification Gold (RIAA, CRIA) \"Dick in a Box\" is a Saturday Night Live digital short featuring Justin Timberlake and Andy Samberg that aired on December 16, 2006. Following its debut on network television, the sketch became an example of viral video after massive exposure on sites such as YouTube. The song featured was written and produced by Timberlake and Samberg, Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone of The Lonely Island, with associate music director Katreese Barnes. The video is a parody of R&B sex ballad videos from the early 1990s. The song won a Creative Arts Emmy for Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics. After being notified of his Emmy win, Timberlake performed the song at his concert at the Tacoma Dome in Washington. The music video portrays two balladiers (played by Samberg and Timberlake) singing about giving Christmas gifts to their lovers (played by Maya Rudolph and Kristen Wiig, respectively). Each man has a gift-wrapped box attached to his waist. The lyrics include step-by-step instructions on how to create the \"gift\" (1: \"Cut a hole in a box\", 2: \"Put your junk in that box\", 3: \"Make her open the box... and that\'s the way you do it!\"). They also sing about how a \"dick in a box\" is better than other gifts and is suitable for any holiday or occasion. At the end of the film, they are both arrested and taken away by the police, presumably for indecent exposure, after they bring their boxes \"backstage at the CMAs\". The style of the video and the musical performance is inspired by early-1990s R&B/new jack swing acts like Color Me Badd, Jodeci and R. Kelly; The Lonely Island and Timberlake were fans of such acts while growing up. The premise also resembles a scene in the 1982 Barry Levinson film Diner, in which Mickey Rourke places his penis inside a box of popcorn at a movie theater to win a bet, and a scene in the 1980 Claude Pinoteau film La Boum, in which a junior high school student performs an identical act for fun. Response An uncensored version was made available on the Saturday Night Live website after the show was aired. It features the same audience response track, as the short was aired uncensored to the in-studio audience. NBC added the video to YouTube, where it received more than 28 million views. Over 18 additional copies were also posted to various YouTube and Google Video accounts, bringing the total views to over 35.3 million, making it the 24th most viewed video on the Internet (as of September 2007). On October 21, 2007, NBC took down its YouTube channel in preparation for the launch of Hulu. On December 22, 2006, the Parents Television Council called on NBC to \"rethink its decision to post an uncensored version of a Saturday Night Live sketch on both its own website and YouTube\". When the sketch aired on SNL, NBC bleeped out the word dick a total of 16 times. Some radio stations played the edited version (called \"Junk in a Box\") as an unofficial single by Timberlake.[citation needed] The version used was recorded from the SNL broadcast. The song won a Creative Arts Emmy for Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics. Sequel On May 9, 2009, the day before Mother\'s Day, Saturday Night Live aired another digital short featuring Samberg and Timberlake, called \"Motherlover\", showing their characters emerging from a New York City jail five months after the events of \"Dick in a Box\". In the new song, the pair agree to present each other as sexual partners to their mothers (played by Susan Sarandon and Patricia Clarkson) as a Mother\'s Day gift, which they think is their second best idea ever (the first being \"Dick in a Box\"). Parodies and homages The band Incubus covered the song while on their 2006 Light Grenades Tour.The band Umphrey\'s McGee covered the song, complete with box props, as their first encore of their New Year\'s Eve show in Chicago, with percussionist Andy Farag contributing vocals in the Andy Samberg role and Brendan Bayliss singing Justin Timberlake\'s part. The multi-camera video is available on YouTube. On an episode of The Ellen DeGeneres Show, DeGeneres performed a jingle for AQUA2GO water drink boxes to the tune of \"Dick in a Box\". Facebook created a virtual gift shop for Valentine\'s Day that included a box with a bow on top and a hole cut into one of its sides. A parody from the female perspective, Leah Kauffman\'s \"My Box in a Box\", appeared on YouTube and has since been viewed over 5 million times. On January 8, 2007, on Countdown with Keith Olbermann, Olbermann called \"My Box in a Box\" the \"#1 most viralest video\" in the world. The video received press coverage in a wide variety of media, including Rolling Stone and Cosmopolitan. Single by The Lonely Island featuring Justin Timberlake from the album Incredibad Released December 16, 2006 Format Digital download Recorded 2006 Genre Comedy/parody R&B New jack swing Comedy rap Length 2:41 Label Broadway Video/Universal Republic Writer(s) Andy Samberg, Akiva Schaffer, Jorma Taccone, Asa Taccone, Justin Timberlake, Katreese Barnes Producer Jorma Taccone, Katreese Barnes, Asa Taccone