My friends and I are bonafide dorks. Not only are we in law school, but we get drunk and recite quotes from Will Farrell and The Karate Kid on a regular basis. Thankfully, we are not alone, as the bonafide cultural phenomenon of SNL's "Lazy Sunday" digital short has demonstrated over the past week. Andy Samberg and Chris Parnell, both regular cast members on the sometimes struggling TV staple, took their geekdom and made it incredibly cool. They rap about cupcakes, Narnia, and Mr. Pibb - and it's fucking awesome.

In "Lazy Sunday," a music video that had its debut on the Dec. 17 broadcast of "SNL," two cast members, Chris Parnell and Andy Samberg, adopt the brash personas of head-bopping, hand-waving rappers. But as they make their way around Manhattan's West Village, they rhyme with conviction about subjects that are anything but hard-core: they boast about eating cupcakes from the Magnolia Bakery, searching for travel directions on MapQuest and achieving their ultimate goal of attending a matinee of the fantasy movie "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe."

It is their obliviousness to their total lack of menace - or maybe the ostentatious way they pay for convenience-store candy with $10 bills - that makes the video so funny, but it is the Internet that has made it a hit. Since it was originally broadcast on NBC, "Lazy Sunday" has been downloaded more than 1.2 million times from the video-sharing Web site YouTube.com; it has cracked the upper echelons of the video charts at NBC.com and the iTunes Music Store; and it has even inspired a line of T-shirts, available at Teetastic.com.

"I've been recognized more times since the Saturday it aired than since I started on the show," said Mr. Samberg, 27, a featured player in his first season on "SNL." "It definitely felt like something changed overnight."

The video was produced by the pair and two other SNL writers (and longtime friends of Samberg). Lorne Michaels decided to put it on the air half an hour before the show went live. And it is probably the best thing on the show since (yes, I'll say it) more cowbell.

The download is available for free in high quality from the iTunes music store.

trocc

Chicago, IL

March 2003

DEC 27, 2005 11:28 AM

you could call 'em Aaron Burr from the way they're droppin' Hamiltons

jonze

Willimantic, CT

December 2005

DEC 27, 2005 11:31 AM

i don't know if anything is better than more cowbell....

Eddie615

Houston, TX

July 2005

DEC 27, 2005 11:35 AM

It didn't say it was better than more cowbell, just best thing since more cowbell.

PointBlank

New York, NY

November 2004

DEC 27, 2005 11:43 AM

The people who put it together are Lonely Island, All three members were added to SNL's writing team this year, with Samberg also becoming a performer. They've been doing this stuff for a while now.

Subrosa

San Francisco, CA

July 2004

DEC 27, 2005 11:49 AM

No hat tip on the headline?

Tsk, tsk.