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A lot can happen in the better part of a decade.
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Growing up in the Bay, everyone was completely ignited by them.
How are the Bash Brothers muses for your style?Samberg:Yeah.
Akiva Schaffer: Thats not even specifically them.
We could have been any sports star from the 80s.
The whole thing is almost as if we stopped learning anything when we were 11.
Its what our dream of what their lives were like.
Samberg: It combined with a lot of realizations about stuff we grew up on.
And then you watch them [later] youre like, Oh, this is rapey as fuck.
How were we shown this as children?
So while were huge fans of theirs, were also talking about why things were bad.
Schaffer: The main joke of it is, why did we make it?
Then the more you make of it, the funnier the joke.
Whats the most fancy, highfalutin pedestal we could put this thing on?
Samberg: We kept coming back to the idea of the long-form video, which had this huge resurgence.
Basically everyone who writes about this correctly is comparing it toLemonade,but sinceLemonadetheres been like 15 other ones.
It just felt like the moment to do it that way.
As is our proclivity, we like dressing up our turds as fancy as possible.
It felt like a real tightrope you had to walk.
We found a balance that we were very happy with at that show.
Samberg: We are the top frappers in the game.
We want to get that term a little more ubiquitous.
Ive coined it,frapping, fake rapping.
And I just dont feel like anyones saying it but me.
The thing were the proudest of could be an insult to others.
You are about to set out for your first-ever tour.
Theyre going to be annoyed if its too short.
Were like, Who would want to see this for more than 45 minutes max?
But now were doing our own, so we have to make it a little longer.
Were constantly being like, Eh.
It felt good at an hour.
Samberg: Clusterfest helped us learn that there were certain songs people were just happy to hear.
We were like, Man, maybe were going to subvert this in some way.
It just feels right.
Schaffer: People just wanted to sing along to it, which was a pleasant surprise.
Youll sometimes describe your stuff as stupid or dumb.
Id be like, You have to watch this!
and my friends or parents would be like, I dont know.
It just seems stupid.
I would always say, Yeah, but they know its stupid.
Theyre choosing to be stupid from a place of intelligence, and therefore that is making me happy.
Its the same thing we always used to talk about watchingStella.
AtSNL, we wouldnt put our things up for table reads because theyre execution-based ideas that could sound terrible.
They tried to pitch it and we can say its not a very pitchable show.
Samberg: We gave them some money to make a presentation.
They came back with their presentation and we were all like, Oh, fuck.
Samberg: The cool part of it is helping people that have a really unique perspective make something.
Im not saying we wouldnt do things outside of this scope.
But the thing about that show that initially struck us was like, Holy shit.
These guys are funny.
This is hard laughs, fucking funny.
Obviously Tim [Robinson] as well.
Well be at upfronts celebrating it and well cash those checks.
And its:Is this making us laugh right now?That has been it from the jump.
Samberg: And anytime weve strayed from that, weve regretted it.
Its really whats making us feel inspired and excited that day.
