They could be called the Weird Al Yankovic of today.

All year in class we’ve been talking about ‘cultural producers’ and though these guys haven’t gotten into every bit of modern culture they are definitely on their way. To me they are a definition of cultural producers.
The Lonely Island is a group of three guys (Andy Sandberg, Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone) who produce music, write comedy skits, and movies together. The group met in junior high in California and formed The Lonely Island in 2001. Together they have produced an online television series titled the Bu’ for Channel101.com (It feature Sarah Chalke from Scrubs.), various Saturday Night Live [SNL] skits, their first feature length film ‘Hot Rod’ and they released an album titled ‘Incredibad’ in 2009. The group currently writes for SNL in New York where they’ve already shown a great amount of talent through skits and comedic songs such as ‘Dick in a Box’ featuring Justin Timberlake.
Incredibad is what the group call their music producing side and in February 2009 they released their first album titled ‘The Lonely Island: Incredibad’. The album is just an extension of their comedy. It also seems to somewhat parody hit songs of today like Weird Al Yankovic did back in the day. The biggest hit off the album was ‘I’m on a Boat’ which features T-Pain and a whole lot of autotune. Normally I’m not down with autotune or him but it just makes this song even funnier. Who knew “singing” about being on a boat could be funny. The music video they made to accompany it is all right and the song has got a decent beat as well.
As well as working together they have also done quite a bit solo work. Akiva Schaffer has directed a few music videos including ‘After Hours, We Are Scientists’, the groups feature film and An Adventurer’s Handbook (currently in production). Jorma Taccone, as well as writing and directing with the guys has also acted in a few movies, Land of the Lost and Role Models being a couple of them. Lastly Andy Sandberg, he has hosted the MTV music awards, and acted in various TV shows and films; ‘American Dad’, ‘I Love You, Man’ and ‘Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist’.
To say these guys have done a lot is an understatement. In the last few years they seem to be everywhere. Andy Sandberg is probably the more recognised of the three but that’s not saying he’s the more talented one. When they’re written about in some articles it’s called Andy Sandberg’s Lonely Island but without Akiva and Jorma I don’t think it would be the same. It’s really nice to see this group of friends, put something together and have it be such a success.
The Lonely Island has brought a lot of humour to the table and I hope that they continue to do so because I still crack up every time I hear ‘I’m on a Boat’.

Bibliography,
IMDB, Andy Sandberg [Online]
Available at: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1676221/bio [Last Accessed: February 28th 2010]

IMDB, Hot Rod [Online]
Available at: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0787475/ [Last Accessed: March 4th 2010]

Myspace, The Lonely Island [Online]
Available at: http://www.myspace.com/thelonelyisland [Last Accessed: February 28th 2010]

The Lonely Island, Website [Online]
Available at: http://thelonelyisland.blogspot.com/ [Last Accessed: March 2nd 2010]