Andy Samberg: A Swedish Chef

It appears as though SNL newcomer Andy Samberg is rapidly winning over the hearts of people everywhere. What a hero. I'm sure he is enjoying his newfound popularity, but I'm actually beginning to feel a little bit badly for him. Andy Samberg's presence seemed barely notable the entirety of SNL's current season. That is, until the pop culture explosion known as "Lazy Sunday" (the chronicles of narnia rap) aired a few weeks ago, becoming an instant hit. As a result, the expectations for Andy Samberg are now quite high. Suddenly, not only is Samberg being revered as a hilarious hottie, but it is also expected of him that he will single handedly and perhaps magically make Saturday Night Live funny again.

Maybe I only find this so intriguing because I had already watched nearly everything on The Lonely Island website prior to Andy Samberg even making his debut on SNL this season. Of the three dudes (Andy Samberg, Jorma Taccone, and Akiva Schaffer), Andy certainly has the most commercial appeal, and his comedy style is quite accessible. While it's interesting that all three of them were hired on SNL, I can see why only Andy was hired to be featured on the show, whilst the other two were hired as writers. Still, I'm not sure if Andy Samberg deserves all the praise that he is garnering these days. Don't get me wrong.. I do find Samberg funny (at times). That's right, I said it. Andy Samberg isn't ALWAYS funny. In the 25 minute long Lonely Island episode Regarding Ardy which can be viewed on their website, it is actually painful at times to even watch Andy. The FACES he makes in it, yikes. It took me a while to realize that I only enjoy watching said video as a result of Akiva and Jorma being funny in it. Sure Andy Samberg can be funny, and I admittedly watch SNL mainly just to see what he's doing on it, but I find the recent praise surrounding him to be just a little bit overzealous. I wonder how the longtime fans of The Lonely Island feel about this subject. Are they all loving the Andy Samberg explosion? Or is there a slim chance that a few of them might believe Andy Samberg's next SNL moments should undergo a closer analysis before automatically being declared hilarious?

Then again, the twenty-three seconds featuring Andy Samberg's portrayal of the Swedish Chef may just have been the most paramount moment of this past week's episode of SNL. Maybe. It DID certainly stand out in the sketch it was featured in, shocking me out of the SNL induced coma I had fallen into. The sketch featured Seth Meyers and host Scarlett Johansson on a dull Scandinavian cooking show entitled 'Smorgasbord'. It's when they announced the fake word from their sponsor/commercial break, that I suddenly stopped falling asleep while drooling on myself and began to pay attention. The fake commercial consisted of Andy Samberg dresssed as the Swedish Chef from The Muppets Show, fully decked out with puppet hands, the moustache, and a rolling pin. Selling "Swedish Chef Ringtones", Andy Samberg bork bork bork-ed along to the tune of Herbie Hancock's 'Axel F'. It almost seems as though some sort of alliance must exist between SNL and the Muppets. I recall cast member Horatio Sanz performing his staple 'Christmas Song' alongside the Muppets a couple years ago after the rest of his Christmas Song crew had all left the cast. Anyway, I'm not saying that the Swedish Chef Ringtones bit wasn't funny. Samberg's impression of The Swedish Chef was certainly... interesting. I just want to make sure that people are finding it funny for the right reasons. Not just because it's Andy Samberg, thus making it automatically funny. Note: clips of the real Swedish Chef from the Muppets Show can be viewed here.

I'm actually a little bit concerned, as I saw people on a few different forums saying that Andy Samberg as 'A Swedish Chef' was hilarious. That's right... not THE Swedish Chef, but A Swedish Chef. Don't let fans of the Swedish Chef/The Muppets see that. It must be pure blasphemy to them. This leads me to believe that some people who watched the Swedish Chef ringtones bit and thought it was funny might not even know or be familiar with what it's a parody of. I'm sure that there are many folks out there who found this bit funny as a result of it involving the beloved Swedish Chef character, but I'm pretty sure it's also got to be true that there are others out there who thought it was great merely because they think "Andy Samberg is a GENIUS!!!", "Andy Samberg is the new Jimmy Fallon x 50", and "Andy Samberg is going to rescue SNL and make it at least slightly funny again." (I stole all of those quotes from things that people actually said under the clip's comments on youtube.com. No offense to those who wrote the preceding comments, they just happen to display pretty accurately what I keep seeing Andy Samberg fanatics saying non-stop these days).

The "Lazy Sunday" Chronicles of Narnia video became an instant pop culture phenomenon as soon as it aired on SNL. The irony of its success is perhaps that the Lonely Island guys had made many videos quite similar to it years ago as Incredibad. The number of people who appreciate the old videos is quite slim in comparison to the volumes who love "Lazy Sunday". Yet, the video for Stork Patrol is easily funnier and equally, if not more clever. People laugh at "Lazy Sunday" anyway, even if they are not aware that the recipe has already been done before. I'm also afraid that after its immense success, the Lonely Island guys will be pressured to produce more videos akin to "Lazy Sunday". While the first video was funny, the joke has already been killed to death by its fans. Many more videos similar to it would be overkill. Just go watch the old videos for Ka-blamo, Stork Patrol, and Just 2 Guyz. There is really no need to see ripoffs and remakes of Incredibad songs with Chris Parnell. Sure I like Andy Samberg, and he can be funny. But he's just not funny all the time, and I'm not going to believe everything he's in is funny just because he's Andy Samberg.

P.S. Akiva is my favorite member of The Lonely Island team.