Lazy Sunday (The Lonely Island song)
"Lazy Sunday" | ||||
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Universal Republic | ||||
Songwriter(s) | Andy Samberg, Akiva Schaffer, Jorma Taccone, and Chris Parnell | |||
Producer(s) | Jorma Taccone | |||
The Lonely Island and Chris Parnell singles chronology | ||||
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Music video | ||||
"Lazy Sunday" on YouTube |
"Lazy Sunday" (sometimes "The Chronic of Narnia rap", "The Chronicles of Narnia rap" or "The Narnia rap") is a single and
The song was written by Samberg and Parnell, as well as Lonely Island members Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone, in one night. They recorded the following night in the comedy troupe's office and shot the music video around Manhattan two days later using a borrowed camera. After being quickly mixed and edited by Schaffer, the short was approved for broadcast on the next evening's telecast of Saturday Night Live by producer Lorne Michaels.
Although the writers initially worried the studio audience would respond to the short negatively, the short received a positive reception and enjoyed Internet stardom overnight, with multiple bootleg copies surfacing on video-sharing website YouTube, catapulting the awareness of the then-fledgling website.[1] The song and short brought forth positive critical reception, with many hailing it as a revival for the stagnant series. In retrospect, commentators have named "Lazy Sunday" as one of the best Saturday Night Live moments of the 2000s.
Background
The track "Lazy Sunday" and its accompanying music video follow the two cast members (Parnell and Samberg), who adopt the brash personas of hardcore rappers. The song follows their quest to achieve their "ultimate goal" of attending a matinee of the fantasy film The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. The lyrics involve subjects that are "anything but hardcore," such as eating cupcakes from the Magnolia Bakery, searching for travel directions on MapQuest and buying tickets with $10 bills. Samberg described the lyrics as "two guys rapping about very lame, sensitive stuff."[2]
Schaffer and Taccone had been on the writing staff for nearly three months, yet to this point they had only two live sketches that survived the dress rehearsal process and actually made it on air.[2]
Recording and production
Parnell, Samberg, Schaffer, and Taccone wrote "Lazy Sunday" on the evening of December 12, 2005. They recorded the following night in the office The Lonely Island occupied together using a laptop Taccone bought on
Release
The short had its premiere on Saturday Night Live (
The short was initially available after its broadcast through the
NBC later placed the short on its SNL site and Hulu. In August 2013 the official SNL channel uploaded "Lazy Sunday" to YouTube.[11]
Reception
Entertainment Weekly put it on its end-of-the-decade "best-of" list, saying, "the hallowed genre of 'white dudes rapping about mundane stuff' reached new heights of hilarity with Andy Samberg and Chris Parnell's 2005 ode to an afternoon viewing of The Chronic—what!—cles of Narnia."[12] Business Insider included it on its list of "videos that changed YouTube forever."[7]
Sequel
On May 19, 2012, Samberg and Parnell collaborated on "Lazy Sunday 2", which starts off similarly to the first one, with more modern references such as
Cultural influence
The 2005 rap ... has been credited with reenergizing SNL. But more importantly, it introduced YouTube as a place to watch and (even more importantly) share comedy. It's hard to believe, considering we live in a world in which a Hannibal Burress bit about Bill Cosby, captured by a cell phone in a small club and shared online, can spark a revolution. But in 2005, that kind of thing was unheard-of.
Mickey Rapkin, Men's Journal[14]
"Lazy Sunday" is considered to have helped turn around Saturday Night Live's declining performance prior to 2005.[9] Thanks to "Lazy Sunday"'s initial iTunes success, Apple announced they had licensed several archived Saturday Night Live sketches to offer for download in January 2006.[6]
The viral success of the video is widely credited as having been the tipping-point for YouTube's success.[1][15] The video-hosting site had gone online five months earlier, in July 2005.[15] The rap video was the first television clip to go viral on the site, and in the week of its upload, the website traffic went up 83-percent.[15]
The video also spawned dozens of response videos,
See also
- SNL Digital Shorts
References
Citations
- ^ a b Anderson, Nate (November 23, 2008). "Did "Lazy Sunday" make YouTube's $1.5 billion sale possible?". Ars Technica. Retrieved June 24, 2014.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Dave Itzkoff (December 27, 2005). "Nerds in the Hood, Stars on the Web". The New York Times. Retrieved May 14, 2011.
- ^ The New York Daily News. Retrieved May 14, 2011.[permanent dead link]
- ^ "Andy Samberg invites you to his Lonely Island". MSNBC. Associated Press. February 26, 2009. Archived from the original on June 30, 2011. Retrieved May 14, 2011.
- ^ "Bill Hader, episode #26 of Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend on Earwolf". Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend on Earwolf. May 12, 2019.
- ^ a b Bosman, Julie (January 10, 2006). "Apple to Sell S.N.L. Skits for iPod Use". The New York Times. Retrieved May 15, 2011.
- ^ a b Leskin, Paige (May 29, 2020). "These are the videos that changed YouTube forever, from 'Lazy Sunday' to 'Baby Shark'". Business Insider. Retrieved June 8, 2020.
- ^ Biggs, John (February 20, 2006). "A Video Clip Goes Viral, and a TV Network Wants to Control It". The New York Times. Retrieved February 14, 2020.
- ^ a b Novak, Matt (February 14, 2020). "Here's What People Thought of YouTube When It First Launched in the Mid-2000s". Gizmodo. Retrieved February 14, 2020.
- ^ NBC nastygrams YouTube over "Lazy Sunday" Archived February 25, 2006, at the Wayback Machine, Boing Boing
- ^ SNL Digital Short: "Lazy Sunday" – YouTube
- ^ Geier, Thom; Jensen, Jeff; Jordan, Tina; Lyons, Margaret; Markovitz, Adam; Nashawaty, Chris; Pastorek, Whitney; Rice, Lynette; Rottenberg, Josh; Schwartz, Missy; Slezak, Michael; Snierson, Dan; Stack, Tim; Stroup, Kate; Tucker, Ken; Vary, Adam B.; Vozick-Levinson, Simon; Ward, Kate (December 11, 2009), "THE 100 Greatest MOVIES, TV SHOWS, ALBUMS, BOOKS, CHARACTERS, SCENES, EPISODES, SONGS, DRESSES, MUSIC VIDEOS, AND TRENDS THAT ENTERTAINED US OVER THE PAST 10 YEARS". Entertainment Weekly. (1079/1080):74-84
- ^ SNL Digital Short: "Lazy Sunday 2" – YouTube
- ^ Rapkin, Mickey (February 20, 2020). "Andy Samberg Is Ready for Anything". Men's Journal. Retrieved June 8, 2020.
- ^ a b c Higgins, Bill (October 5, 2017). "Hollywood Flashback: 'SNL's' 'Lazy Sunday' Put YouTube on the Map in 2005". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved June 8, 2020.
- ^ Crane, Dan (March 26, 2006). "Cubicle Dwellers' Funniest Home Video". The New York Times.
General references
- The Lonely Island
- "The Narnia Rap, Deconstructed", Slate.com, December 27, 2005
- "SNL Narnia-Rap Skit: Better Than Actual Rap?", Village Voice, December 20, 2005
- "The Chronicles of Narnia Rap: It Won't Save Saturday Night Live, But It Could Save Hip Hop", Slate.com, December 23, 2005
- "Video shoots 'SNL' rookie into the show's spotlight" at the Wayback Machine (archived December 26, 2005), New York Daily News, December 24, 2005
- "Nerds in the Hood, Stars on the Web", The New York Times, December 27, 2005
- "NBC Uni to sites: Clip the clips". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved May 16, 2017.[dead link], Hollywood Reporter, February 18, 2006
- "A Video Clip Goes Viral, and a TV Network Wants to Control It", The New York Times, February 20, 2006