The history of one of the most iconic moments on “SNL” was revealed on a new episode of The Lonely Island and Seth Meyers podcast this week, as the quartet pulled back the curtain on the making of “Lazy Sunday.” But in the process, the digital shorts masterminds – Andy Samberg, Jorma Taccone and Akiva Schaffer – revealed their initial displeasure at a note that changed the music for the “Lazy Sunday” track.
“When we first recorded it, it was just relentless all the way through, there were no dance breaks,” Samberg explained on the podcast, which launched last week and is charting the history of every single “SNL” digital short that The Lonely Island made.
“And then Steve Higgins came in to check in on us and we played it for him, and he was like, ‘That’s way too fast for the audience, you have to put in breaks to give people a time to laugh and wrap their head around it.’ And we were like, ‘OK Steve!’”
Higgins, of course, joined as a writer and producer on “Saturday Night Live” in 1995 and currently serves as the announcer on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.”
But it was at this revelation that Taccone chimed in to say he was steamed about the note.
“I have to say, that’s one of the maddest times I’ve ever been at ‘SNL’. I was so furious about it,” he said with a laugh. “I loved how it sounded. It just ran through.”
The finished version does indeed have short dance breaks, the first coming after the line “I love those cupcakes like McAdams loves Gosling.” Samberg noted that the break allowed the audience to understand what they were seeing since this was only the second-ever digital short from The Lonely Island, and their first that was a song.
“Higgins, I think correctly, asked us to make it slow down so that the audience had a chance to catch their breath and decide they liked it,” Samberg said, to which Taccone noted that Higgins’ note was right for the live audience.
Samberg was aligned, but seemed surprise that this was the maddest Taccone ever got during their tenure at “SNL.”
“Musically I disagreed with it and still do, but I would certainly not say it was the most mad I got at the show, Jorm. I got so much more mad than that,” Samberg said with a laugh.
Schaffer chimed in, “Jorm’s not saying he was right to be that mad, he’s just saying that’s what happened.” Taccone laughed and said he was “really furious.”
Meyers, who was working at “SNL” at the time and would eventually become head writer, explained why Higgins’ note was correct.
“Higgins was 100% right because if you watch it and you hear the audience, the whole first verse the sense is, ‘What is this?’ and then you give them that break and then that whole second verse is them saying, ‘We love this.’ They’re listening to that second verse as fans.”
Taccone, Samberg and Schaffer all agreed at the end of the day Higgins’ note was correct, but it’s fascinating to hear their recollection of how “Lazy Sunday” came to be, and how strongly they felt about their music early on in the show.
The Lonely Island and Seth Meyers podcast is only three episodes in but it’s already offered up plenty of fascinating insight into this specific era of “Saturday Night Live.”
Listen to the “Lazy Sunday” episode below.
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