The One SNL Digital Quick Music Video The Lonely Island Regrets Not Capturing

The Lonely Island (comprised of Andy Samberg, Akiva Schaffer, and Jorma Taccone) made a reputation for themselves on “Saturday Evening Reside” by ushering within the SNL Digital Quick period of the late evening sketch comedy sequence. As soon as the breakout music video for “Lazy Sunday” turned one of many earliest viral movies on YouTube (lengthy earlier than “SNL” sketches have been formally uploaded to the video web site), The Lonely Island felt the stress of delivering hilarious pre-recorded bits nearly each single week throughout their time on the present. 

It ought to comes no shock that their most profitable bits have been numerous music movies, usually that includes rap or R&B tunes with a comedic contact (although the trio refers to their work as “frapping,” absolutely acknowledging that it is “pretend rapping”). This ranges from raunchy vacation fare like “D**ok in a Field” with Justin Timberlake to the movie-fueled “Jack Sparrow” that includes “Workplace Area” punchline Michael Bolton as a significant cinephile, the latter of which is Andy Samberg’s favourite, as confirmed in a current episode of The Lonely Island and Seth Meyers Podcast (a must-listen for “SNL” followers). However there’s one music video that The Lonely Island members all remorse not with the ability to shoot as an SNL Digital Quick, and it could have made for fairly an costly manufacturing.

In actual fact, that was the entire level of making the tune in query to start with.

On The Lonely Island’s second album, titled “Turtleneck & Chain,” there is a tune referred to as “Japan.” Operating precisely two and a half minutes, the tune options the blokes not fairly singing and solely actually half-rapping about being in Japan. The premise of the video is that they really simply wrote this tune solely as a result of the label must pay for an extravagant music video depicting no matter they mentioned. In case you want additional clarification, listed below are the lyrics:

We’re three cool white pals in Japan (Japan!)
We have by no means been to Japan
So we wrote a tune in regards to the three of us in Japan
And our label has to pay for it

Yep, that is it! Within the September 26 episode of The Lonely Island and Seth Meyers Podcast, which focuses on the less-celebrated SNL Digital Quick referred to as “Canine Lover” (or “Speaking Canine”) with Zach Braff (it is considerably troublesome to seek out on-line, since it isn’t formally accessible, however you possibly can watch it right here), the boys and Meyers reply some questions that followers have proposed in current weeks. One in all them asks if there have been any Lonely Island songs that they remorse not with the ability to flip into music movies. All three of the blokes agree that “Japan” was the one which obtained away, and it is just because they wished to shoot the unnecessarily costly video that may have accompanied the tune. 

Among the expensive issues The Lonely Island point out within the tune embrace staying on the resort from “Misplaced in Translation,” consuming at the costliest sushi restaurant, and going to Tokyo Disneyland. There would have additionally been a fast journey to Hawaii for a single shot, simply because the label must pay for it. Finally, the tune takes a barely weirder flip, the place all of them resolve to get tremendous drunk and “purchase some smelly used ladies panties out of a type of pervert merchandising machines.” Sounds about proper. Finally, they’d have chucked Pokémon and a rental automotive right into a river, together with a bunch of Yen, actually losing cash. You’ll be able to hear all of their exploits in Japan within the full tune:

Funnily sufficient, The Lonely Island’s document label, Common Data, would have really paid for the music video to occur, they usually have been fairly passionate about it. Schaffer defined, “The craziest half is after we completed the tune and turned it within the album, the pinnacle of the label was like, ‘Let’s do it. Let’s make that occur.'” 

So why did not we get the “Japan” music video? Shaffer lamented, “We have been simply too busy, as a result of we have been again at ‘SNL.'” Samberg and Taccone each agreed, “We blew it.” However Samberg admits that, on the time, they’d no concept what being busy really really was: “We have additionally talked about us in all probability having the dialog of like, ‘We’re simply too busy,’ and now that we now have children, being like, ‘We weren’t! We actually ought to have performed it.'”

Nevertheless it’s not as if The Lonely Island is retired. So possibly it is lastly time for a visit to Japan.