At SNL they found a kind of kindred spirit in Parnell, who has used the program's "Weekend Update" segment to deliver highly inappropriate rap tributes to some of the show's comelier female guest hosts. On the evening of Dec. 12, the four wrote a song about "two guys rapping about very lame, sensitive stuff," as Samberg described it. They recorded it the following night in the office Samberg shares with Schaffer and Taccone at SNL, using a laptop computer that Taccone bought on Craigslist.That's like two weeks work done in one day. I know because I took an RTV class in the fall and I am still an RTV minor which I may drop because a class conflicts with student government meetings.
Then, while their colleagues were rehearsing and rewriting that Saturday's show, the group spent the morning of Dec. 15 shooting their video with a borrowed camera.
Schaffer spent the next night - and morning - editing the video and working with technicians to bring it up to broadcast standards.
Finally, around 11 p.m. Dec. 17, the four learned from Lorne Michaels, executive producer of SNL, that Lazy Sunday would be shown on that night's show.
By the next morning, the video had burrowed its way into the nation's cultural consciousness. "It brought a breath of fresh air to the show," Parnell said. "It's something the likes of which we haven't seen on SNL any time recently."
He said the video's success will continue to pay dividends for his young collaborators. "It encourages Lorne and everybody involved with the show to trust them more and to put their stuff out there."
Schaffer, who has written just two live sketches with Taccone that have survived the Darwinian SNL dress-rehearsal process and made it onto the air, said that he appreciates the attention Lazy Sunday has received but that he expects no special treatment when the show's staff resumes work in January.
"The thing about SNL, Schaffer said, "is that all of this could happen and we could still come in on Monday morning with zero ideas."
While he was named the biggest star of all time (which means that people could care less for the bigger stars like Marylin Monroe), Tom Cruise also took home a ward for being the most irritating. I stopped liking Tom Cruise as soon as he started bashing Brooke Shields but also because he started going out with someone that is less than half is age! Speaking of Katie Holmes, she doesn't want to get married until after she gives birth. I'm sorry but I think she needs to get married before she gives birth. That kid will get so much flack for being born out-of-wedlock.
The Hollywood Reporter pays tribute to actors who have fallen. I'll be doing something along those lines tomorrow.
B.B. King is alive and well.
What if computers were Jewish?
Jim Breuer is ready for 2006. But he gets another interview in before the end of the year.
TVGuide.com: What were the circumstances of your 1998 SNL exit? Did you leave them, or vice versa?
Breuer: It was a little bit of both. The show made me really ugly, changed my whole personality. When I went into it, I already understood the situation. I knew I could leave and be a stand-up, so I didn't put my whole life on it, but.... It was sort of like showing up for a swordfight without a sword, and people were bringing dirty weapons. I was like, "I don't want to fight like this." The guys who really wanted me there, they quit my second year, and then life was miserable for me. If you watch the show, I couldn't get in many sketches after that, so what I did was start aiming myself for places they couldn't touch me, like the Update desk and the monologues.
TVGuide.com: I always figured Weekend Update served as a sort of clearing house for one-offs not worthy of full sketches.
Breuer: Right. Comedians often go there because that's the only realm where they really can't touch you, where the writers are completely different. The way to describe SNL is as the best experience I ever had, it really was....
TVGuide.com: But it made you see the light about some things?
Breuer: A lot of things.
TVGuide.com: When was the last time you watched? Have you caught the current incarnation?
Breuer: No, I really haven't. Tina [Fey, now headwriter] came in the second year I was there and she was great. But see, when a girl like Tina comes, it's like bringing brownies to a homeless shelter — that s--- is gone before she makes it past the first door. And unless you're willing to literally harass her, you're not even going to get close to her. You have to fight like an animal to protect your stuff and get your stuff, and then hope they don't mangle it.
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