Before they introduced the world to the SNL Digital Short, Andy Samberg, Jorma Taccone, and Akiva Schaffer were just a group of high school friends making funny videos during their time at the University of California Santa Cruz. They didn’t have the star power like Justin Timberlake in “Dick in a Box” or Adam Levine in Iran (So Far Away) they simply had to rely on their wits and comedic sensibilities. In my opinion some of the best stuff came from these guys all the way back in 2001 when they were just a bunch of college students with a mini-dv camera.
Ka-blamo
The first music video the guys ever did. It’s completely absurd and features the phrase , “When you’re mining for coal and you forget what coal is!”
Baltimore Police Department
How are two of Baltimore’s finest going to pass the time during an all night stakeout.
The Bu
Here is the first episode of The Lonely Island series The Bu. It’s basically a parody of those awful teen dramas from the 90’s like Dawson’s Creek and Degrassi. It also features fledgling Scrubs star Sarah Chalke. This isn’t one of my favorite episodes but I figured I’d put this one of the list to give the next video a little context.
This is my favorite episode of The Bu. Mainly because Sarah Chalke was too busy shooting Scrubs to make to the shoot so they replaced her character with a ridiculous pink puppet. That plus some sick bicycle moves and Dido makes this my favorite Lonely Island video of all time.
The Bing Bong Brothers
They made this music video just after they got the job on SNL. It’s a parody of the Ying-Yang Twins absurdly graphic hit “Wait (The Whisper Song)”
My Pants
Short and sweet. It’s always good to see Jorma on his own.
Ignition TV Buzz Countdown (NSFW)
This one basically just parodies the music video countdown shows like TRL. I would say more but I would ruin the laughs. Definitely NSFW
