The Taccones Live at SXSW

Pop-ups (33 · 1 fan pick from YouTube comments)

1. Jorma pitches Over Your Dead Body at SXSW

   1:30

   Jorma is promoting his new film at South by Southwest and notes the festival has a special meaning to him because MacGruber also screened there. The festival response to the new film was described as comparable to MacGruber's.

   I've never had the experience of anything pop off the way that MacGruber did when we did a screening here at South By.

2. Grandmother's reaction to MacGruber's extreme scenes

   2:00

   Seth recalls sitting next to his 85-year-old grandmother at the MacGruber premiere, which included explicit scenes. The family joke is that she was nonetheless proud.

   I had to sit next to my 85-year-old grandmother.

3. Dick in a Box Emmy win

   2:25

   The Taccone brothers won an Emmy together for Dick in a Box, and Jorma jokes that the word dick was printed on the award. Their grandmother displayed the photo of the win.

   I didn't even know that they could put the word dick on an Emmy, but they did.

4. Bay Area political and musical roots

   3:48

   Jorma explains that the Bay Area's left-leaning politics, with parents who were card-carrying communists, shaped the Lonely Island's approach. Dancehall reggae and hip-hop from 1988 to 1996 are key to the group's sound.

   pretty left-leaning i would say our parents were like card carrying or my dad can explain this later but like but uh you know communists

5. Trustafarian roots of Ras Trent

   4:50

   Asa notes the growing-up reggae scene produced wealthy white dreadlocked kids, which inspired the Ras Trent character. The lyric 'me toil part time at ja Cold Stone Creamery' is named as the brothers' favorite Lonely Island line.

   me toil part time at Jock Coldstone Creamery. It's so crazy.
   me toil part time at ja

6. Ras Trent drawn from Bay Area dreads

   5:14

   Asa says the Bay had many wealthy white kids who were ultra into dancehall and reggae, and that scene made its way into the Digital Shorts. The Ras Trent character comes from this observation.

   From the Bay, there was just a lot of white kids that were ultra into dance hall and reggae, but were also kind of wealthy.

7. Lazy Sunday and the HD switch

   6:24

   Lazy Sunday was among the first Digital Shorts after SNL went fully HD. Jorma says the grainier footage made the short feel more special, and he crunched the drums to sound dirtier.

   the first year that they went full HD quality. And I remember actually being annoyed with that.

8. Lazy Sunday was Jorma's first YouTube

   6:58

   Jorma says Lazy Sunday was the first time he encountered YouTube, which tied the Lonely Island to the platform. The short was the third Digital Short the group made.

   But Lazy Sunday was also the first time I'd ever heard of YouTube.

9. Asa's mentor Brian Burton, later Danger Mouse

   8:06

   Brian Burton, who later became Danger Mouse and produced The Grey Album, befriended Asa after a phone call. Asa moved into Burton's house in LA and worked in its studio with artists including MF DOOM.

   Brian turned out to be Danger Mouse. And he made the Grey album.

10. Natalie's Rap origin

    9:46

    Natalie Portman loved Lazy Sunday and asked for a follow-up. Her rap was built on a beat Jorma made for a Dynamic Producer submission, and she spat memorized Lil' Kim lyrics.

    Natalie Portman came to us now and loved lazy Sunday. It was like, we got to make one of those.

11. Natalie's Rap beat from a rejected submission

    12:34

    Jorma made the beat for an East Coast rapper through a service called Dynamic Producer, and the rapper didn't pick it. He sent it to the group instead, and it was later used under Natalie Portman's rap.

    I had done that beat for some East Coast rapper, probably some underground dude. And they didn't choose it or whatever.

12. Watching Digital Shorts air live

    13:24

    Jorma recalls being in LA while sending material to SNL. He describes the feeling of watching a short air for the first time on a Thursday, and that Justin Timberlake was on speakerphone late at night during the work.

    And I was in LA just like sending you stuff. You're in New York. You guys would stay up all night.

13. Catrice Barnes and the Dick in a Box chords

    18:41

    Music supervisor Catrice Barnes wrote the skeletal chords for Dick in a Box, which the writers then fit lyrics to. The group wanted a 90s R&B feel, and the Taccones credit her with building the song's structure.

    She sent me those initial just the chords. Yeah, she just sent me this kind of skeletal thing.

14. Justin Timberlake sure Dick in a Box was a hit

    20:53

    Jorma says Justin Timberlake was extremely confident about his melodies and called the song a hit as soon as it was finished.

    The minute we were done with it, he was like, that's a hit.

15. The unpaid Dick in a Box payment

    21:05

    Jorma says he never received payment for Dick in a Box. Years later, a man at a Christmas party gave him three $20 bills, which he spent at the mall.

    You know what's crazy about that song is that I never got paid for that. No, I'm not joking.

16. Dick in a Box as a YouTube hit

    21:45

    Dick in a Box was tied for the top YouTube song with Justin Bieber's Baby in its first days online. NBC pulled it for about a year before releasing it on iTunes for 99 cents.

    And this song was, when it went online, it went out for like three days and it was tied for the number one song on YouTube.

17. Joining a union after Lazy Sunday

    22:34

    Asa says he never got paid for Lazy Sunday, so he joined a union to be protected.

    I never got paid for Lazy Sunday. I had to join a union because I was like, oh, wait a minute.

18. Boombox and the Spanish guy doing the Bartman

    24:54

    Asa picks out a line from Boombox about a Spanish guy doing the Bartman, which Jorma connects to growing up in the Bay. The sketch was made with Drew Campbell's trance-influenced music.

    I saw a Spanish guy doing the Bartman.

19. Fans point here

    25:05

    1 YouTube comment timestamps this moment, 4 likes.

    Tell us about that one. I mean, that was, again, like all this stuff that I think the cool thing about especially those early years was it was so small. It was just like I did that with this kid, my good friend Drew…

20. Mother Lover's early mashup

    25:29

    Asa says Mother Lover came from an early experiment mixing big rap beats with trance, and Neil Brennan once asked why they'd give anyone that beat. Drew Campbell also scored much of Bash Brothers.

    Neil Brennan i remember from uh from chapelle show when he heard this he was like bro why did you give them that beat

21. Mother writes scolding letter about jokes

    28:23

    After the brothers' controversial song, their mother reportedly sent a written letter scolding them while they were in Miami filming I'm on a Boat. The family's politics come up as a reason for her reaction.

    we received, as I remember, a letter, an actual written letter from our mother

22. Knuckles musical episode with Michael Bolton

    32:53

    Jorma describes the Knuckles spinoff episode, which is largely a musical with Michael Bolton appearing near the end. He says it was a bigger production than his recent feature film budget.

    Michael Bolton's in the end of it. It's like it's so buck wild.

23. Roasting Dad at a farewell party

    33:43

    Jorma recalls a rock-opera style song made to roast their father at his work farewell party, a precursor to the brothers' later comedic musical style. Attendees were San Francisco elites at an auction-style event.

    we had actually, some years before, our pop had not retired, but he had left his job and there was this big kind of farewell party

24. Third-grade Superman toilet drawing framed

    40:43

    Jorma describes a third-grade drawing of Superman flying into a toilet, captioned that he wants to be an actor because his dad is a director. Tony says they framed it and it still hangs in their house.

    There's a drawing that I made in third grade that is Superman flying into a toilet.

25. Jorma pees in Asa's bassinet

    41:52

    Tony recounts a sibling rivalry story: after Asa was born at home, Jorma ran into the house ahead of the family and urinated in Asa's bassinet. Tony says this foreshadowed future conflicts.

    And Yorma is pissing in Ace's bassinet.

26. Lonely Island pact and robbing the Berkeley Rep props

    42:22

    Tony recalls the Lonely Island members' junior high pact to work together after college, and their request for funding for their early work. The brothers borrowed props from Berkeley Rep's prop department for Awesome Town.

    they had this pact that they were going to get together after college and work together.

27. Awesome Town budget: $70,000

    42:57

    Jorma says they raised $70,000 to make Awesome Town, which was intended as a seven-minute short but ran about eighteen minutes. The budget came from begging, borrowing, and stealing props.

    We got $70,000 to make Awesome Town, and it was supposed to be seven minutes long

28. Apex Twin sample costs NBC $160,000

    44:32

    Jorma recounts sampling Aphex Twin in a piece without telling NBC, and the network ended up paying $160,000 in licensing. NBC then required approval for every beat he made afterward.

    I've sampled Apex Twin for that, and I didn't tell NBC that it was a sample, and then they had to pay $160,000.

29. 10,000 hours of editing at SNL

    45:26

    Jorma credits Akiva Schaffer with teaching him editing on a computer their father helped purchase, using Final Cut Pro. The team edited shorts together over many late-night sessions, which he calls their 10,000 hours.

    i learned editing from akiva the computer that my dad helped us purchase i learned final cut three

30. Jorma falls asleep on the editing room floor

    45:58

    Jorma describes editing a short at five in the morning at SNL, when exhaustion made his body shake and he fell asleep on the floor. He ties that dedication to the work on Over Your Dead Body.

    literally my body starts shaking because i'm so tired and i fell on the floor and went to sleep

31. The dumber the joke, the faster you tell it

    46:26

    Jorma explains a Lonely Island principle: a dumb joke must be delivered quickly to stay ahead of the audience. He applies the same timing logic to horror and jump scares in his new film.

    the dumber, the joke, the faster you tell it.

32. Sibling fights over restaurant and living together

    46:44

    Asked how they irritate each other, the brothers mention a fight at a restaurant in front of everyone, and say living together was the problem. They say they are not over it.

    We've had some fights. Yeah, we've had some fights. Remember when we got in a fight at that restaurant in front of everybody?

33. Akiva and the one-frame lip flap fight

    50:29

    Jorma recalls Akiva Schaffer arguing over a lip-sync mismatch in a music video, going back and forth for about five minutes over what amounted to a single frame. Jorma says that obsessive attention to detail is his main lesson from Akiva.

    there was a moment where he was so up in arms about a lip flap being off on a music video thing.

34. Zadie and Wiley home movie: The Sparkly Crown

    51:41

    Jorma brings his kids Zadie and Wiley onstage to discuss a home movie they are making, a Joseph Campbell-style adventure called The Sparkly Crown. Zadie named the film.

    Zadie named it as well. And these guys come up with great ideas for it.