Moments after they sit down for lunch at the tavern-ish Three Broomsticks - the entire castle turret-like outside deck has been closed down to give the trio privacy - frosty mugs of the stuff, which turns out to be a frozen concoction of cream soda and butterscotch, appears. “And now we’re at Harry Potter World with a security guard.”Īlmost as soon as they arrived at the theme park, the guys were excited about the prospect of trying butterbeer, a candy-laced drink the wizards guzzle in the Potter books. “And we’ve done that!” says Samberg brightly, as if the thought had occurred to him for the first time. “The whole time?” asks Samberg incredulously. An employee in a Hogwarts outfit suggests that he should hold on to his baseball cap. “I think this is going to be more intense than we thought it would be,” says Samberg gravely. All three Lonely Island guys wear glasses, and appear concerned that they might fly off. Suddenly, a four-seat car comes sliding down an overhead rail and they strap in. Even Jimmy Fallon, Samberg’s friend and a similarly multihyphenate talent, was famously unable to make the jump. Even though he managed the transition from SNL darling to sitcom star with Fox’s Brooklyn Nine-Nine, connecting with movie audiences is a rarer trick. And then there’s Samberg’s prospects as a movie star. By their third, 2013’s The Wack Album, sales were down to 74,000. There’s the question of timing: The crew’s first album, 2009’s Incredibad, moved an impressive 455,000 copies. Top, from left: Schaffer, Samberg and Taccone wear vintage silk robes and Brooks Brothers slippers. ” ‘I’m on a Boat’ is two-times platinum - that’s hilarious.” “When one of our songs is a hit, it actually makes it a little funnier,” says Taccone. 30 on the Billboard Hot 100) and The Lego Movie‘s “Everything Is Awesome” (a co-write of theirs that made the top 10 of the Dance/Electronic Songs chart). With Popstar (which is broadly based on slice of life-meets-concert movies like Justin Bieber’s Never Say Never and Katy Perry’s Part of Me), Samberg, Taccone and Schaffer have the widest canvas yet to use all the skills they’ve developed over more than a decade of blending comedy and music, from SNL classics like “Lazy Sunday” and the Justin Timberlake-assisted “Dick in a Box” to actual hits like 2011’s Akon-spiked “I Just Had Sex” (which reached No. We’re huge fans of Weird Al - it spans a lot of mediums so it makes sense we work in a lot of mediums,” says Samberg. From left: Samberg, Schaffer and Taccone wear OppoSuits suits and ties, Kooples shirts and Adidas sneakers. “I’ve always looked up to Amy Poehler, and obviously people like Adam Sandler, Will Ferrell, Mel Brooks and the Monty Python guys. “We were trying to go at that” in Popstar. Kelly all have really funny lines, and you never know where the self-awareness ends and begins,” says Schaffer. “It’s true to R&B and pop to be clever in your lyrics - Kanye and Macklemore and R. They take the spirit of identifiable pop forms, exaggerate them and amp up the absurdity with A-list guest stars, all with hyper specificity and genuine love for the music. Where “Weird Al” Yankovic‘s biggest hits are all parodies of already huge songs, what Samberg and company do is trickier. It’s hard to even think of direct comparisons. The Lonely Island on Why Their Bodies Are a ‘Temple of Doom’ and the Secret to Success (Think Matching Outfits): Exclusive Videoįor as long as it has existed, The Lonely Island has dominated its music-as-comedy space, selling 824,000 albums and 7.3 million digital songs (according to Nielsen Music) while racking up 1.7 billion spins on its YouTube channel. “The list is so long that I’ll be like, ‘Oh, yeah! That guy’s in it - he’s pretty good!’ “ (The list also includes Usher, Carrie Underwood and Martin Sheen.) “I won’t say who, but I’ve definitely forgotten people who are in our movie,” says Taccone. Taccone, 39, and Schaffer, 38, who co-directed the movie, play Conner’s former bandmates in a legendary hip-hop crew called the Style Boyz who were a key influence on everyone from Nas to Questlove, we learn from some of Popstar‘s two dozen cameos.
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