SNL Digital Short

An SNL Digital Short is one in a series of comedic and often musical video shorts created for NBC's Saturday Night Live. The origin of the Digital Short brand is credited to staff writer Adam McKay, who created content for the show in collaboration with SNL hosts, writers, and cast members. The popularity of these segments exploded following the addition of the Lonely Island to the show, and it is to them that credit is given for ushering SNL "into the age of digital online content in a time when it needed to tap into that relevance more than ever." The Lonely Island's digital shorts were originally recorded with consumer grade digital video cameras and edited on personal computers. It is typical for the show's hosts and musical guests to take part in that week's Digital Short, and several shorts have included appearances by celebrities who were not scheduled to appear in any of that episode's live sketches.
The shorts generally took fewer than five days to complete. Schaffer directed a majority of them, with Taccone as occasional director or co-director. Taccone also produced music for the shorts as necessary, along with his brother, Asa.
Following Samberg's departure from SNL in 2012, it was speculated that the era of videos branded "An SNL Digital Short" had come to an end. A total of eight new Digital Shorts from The Lonely Island have aired since then: two that featured the episode's respective hosts ; two that aired when Samberg hosted the Season 39 finale in 2014; one created for the Saturday Night Live 40th Anniversary Special in February 2015 ; one that aired during the Season 41 finale in May 2016 to promote The Lonely Island's feature film, Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping; and three that aired in Season 50, with one being in the Saturday Night Live 50th Anniversary Special.

List of shorts

2005–2006: Season 31

A total of 11 SNL Digital Shorts were created for the 2005–2006 season.

Title	Written by	Directed by	Original airdate	Description
Lettuce	Will Forte	Akiva Schaffer	December 3, 2005	In what is revealed to be a commercial for the vegetable, two friends discuss the death of an unnamed friend while taking large bites out of heads of lettuce. Written and filmed in November 2005 and originally cut after airing during the dress rehearsal of the Eva Longoria episode.
Lazy Sunday	Andy Samberg Akiva Schaffer Jorma Taccone Chris Parnell	Akiva Schaffer	December 17, 2005	Parnell and Samberg perform rap about going out to see The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe on a typical Sunday, while also getting themselves food and acing the pre-film trivia questions. The short became a viral video online. Music produced by Jorma Taccone.
Young Chuck Norris	Harper Steele	Akiva Schaffer	January 21, 2006	A Chuck Norris fan sings a rock ballad about the action star before he became famous. There are cameos by Fred Armisen as a criminal mugging a woman, played by Amy Poehler, and Taccone as a man being robbed by Bill Hader.
The Tangent	Bill Hader	Akiva Schaffer	February 4, 2006	Joel rambles endlessly about a restaurant he visited to his friend Liz at first, and becomes so involved in the story that he fails to notice that he is discovered by talent scouts, stars in a movie with Scarlett Johansson, becomes a national phenomenon, and then loses it all when his movie flops at the box office. Brian Williams, MTV correspondent Gideon Yago, and Conan O'Brien also make cameo appearances. This short was filmed the week of the Johansson episode, but was cut after dress rehearsal from both that episode and the Peter Sarsgaard episode before finally airing on the Steve Martin/Prince episode.
Close Talkers	Will Forte	Akiva Schaffer	February 4, 2006	Two old friends from school meet up after years apart, greeting each other loudly while standing with their faces only an inch apart.
Natalie's Rap	Andy Samberg Akiva Schaffer Jorma Taccone Asa Taccone	Akiva Schaffer	March 4, 2006	Natalie Portman is interviewed about her life and responds with a rap proving she is a "badass bitch", poking fun at her clean and intellectual image. She slaps Seth Meyers and throws a chair at Parnell. Samberg appears as Carl, a character dressed as Flavor Flav. Music produced by Jorma Taccone and Asa Taccone, and mixed by Ben Lovett.
Doppleganger	Andy Samberg Akiva Schaffer Jorma Taccone	Akiva Schaffer	March 11, 2006	Meyers, Forte, and Samberg are on a lunch break and start to notice that each one has a doppelgänger nearby. After Meyers and Forte say that a large bum is Samberg's doppelgänger, they kill the real Samberg in an evil twin scenario.
Laser Cats!	Andy Samberg Lorne Michaels Bill Hader	Akiva Schaffer	April 15, 2006	In a frame story, Hader and Samberg pitch their new ultra low-budget Digital Short, Laser Cats! to SNL executive producer Lorne Michaels. In the Laser Cats! short itself, Hader and Samberg play the heroes Nitro and Admiral Spaceship in a post-nuclear war world in which cats can shoot lasers from their mouths and are used as weapons. They are saving the princess from the evil Robotron. Rachel Dratch makes an appearance, disguising herself as the princess/Lohan. Jorma Taccone appears in the opening credits for Laser Cats!. Fred Armisen also makes a cameo. Laser Cats! is shot in the SNL offices with gleeful haphazardness because, according to Samberg in the special Saturday Night Live in the 2000s, “it’s supposed to suck.”
My Testicles	Unknown	Akiva Schaffer	May 6, 2006	Friends in the early 1990s discuss the music video by pop stars Ariel and Efrim, where we see the lyrics consist of constantly begging for their testicles not to be harmed, in a parody of Right Said Fred's "I'm Too Sexy" and C+C Music Factory's "Gonna Make You Sweat". Armisen plays the guitar player, Taccone appears as a backup dancer, and Poehler and Maya Rudolph are women in the video.
Peyote	Andy Samberg Akiva Schaffer Jorma Taccone Will Forte	Akiva Schaffer	May 13, 2006	A distraught man, pressed against the side of a building, threatens to jump to his death. A second man, using a bullhorn, tries to talk him out of it. After a bit of dialogue, it is revealed that the distraught man is safely on the ground and his friend is kneeling mere inches away from him. The short ends after it is revealed to be a commercial for peyote. Peyote was written and filmed after Lettuce had aired, making it the second SNL Digital Short made by The Lonely Island. It was deemed "too similar" to Lettuce to be aired right away, however, so the group produced Lazy Sunday to showcase other aspects of their comedic range.
Andy Walking	Andy Samberg	Akiva Schaffer	May 20, 2006	Samberg asks factual questions of passers-by outside NBC Studios in the style of the Jay Leno bit Jaywalking, instead laughing off correct answers as false. John Lutz makes a cameo as a man walking that Andy ridicules.

2006–2007: Season 32

A total of 12 SNL Digital Shorts were created for the 2006–2007 season.

Title	Written by	Directed by	Original airdate	Description
Cubicle Fight	John Lutz Bill Hader	Akiva Schaffer	September 30, 2006	New office employee Gary gets into a fight to the death with incumbent cubicle holder Steve. Jason Sudeikis appears as the boss and Andy Samberg, Will Forte, Fred Armisen, Kenan Thompson, Amy Poehler and Kristen Wiig are other employees cheering on the fight.
Harpoon Man	Andy Samberg Akiva Schaffer Jorma Taccone	Akiva Schaffer	October 21, 2006	Harpoon Man, a suave action hero and parody of Shaft, tracks down an insulting announcer dressed as a whale, who is narrating his life in a theme song. There are appearances by Jorma Taccone, who plays a man getting robbed, and Bill Hader, who plays the man robbing Taccone.
Pep Talk	Fred Armisen John Lutz	Akiva Schaffer	December 9, 2006	A fast food boss gives his employees a pep talk and has trouble controlling his anger until one of his employees comes in late. It originally was scheduled to air on the episode hosted by Matthew Fox, but ended up airing on the following episode hosted by Annette Bening.
Dick in a Box	Andy Samberg Akiva Schaffer Jorma Taccone	Akiva Schaffer	December 16, 2006	A Christmas song about two men giving their lovers a box with their genitalia inside as presents, in a style reminiscent of early 1990s R&B sex ballads made popular by acts such as Bell Biv Devoe, Color Me Badd, and R. Kelly. Won a 2007 Creative Arts Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Music and Lyrics. Music created in part by Asa Taccone, Jorma Taccone and Katreese Barnes. It was the first official single from The Lonely Island's debut album, Incredibad.
Laser Cats! 2	Andy Samberg Akiva Schaffer Jorma Taccone Bill Hader	Akiva Schaffer	January 13, 2007	In the same frame-story format, Hader and Samberg apologize to Lorne Michaels for the original Laser Cats! claiming to understand where they went wrong: not enough politics. They then introduce Laser Cats! 2, based on the same premise, now set in the Iraq War which has gone nuclear and caused the feline mutations. This time, Dr. Scientist has stolen the cure that turns Laser Cats back into regular cats. Jorma Taccone appears in the opening credits for Laser Cats! 2, and Fred Armisen and Amy Poehler are the scientists who created the cure.
Nurse Nancy	Matt Murray	Akiva Schaffer	January 20, 2007	Scott Garbaciak is the multi-role star in a commercial for the fictional film Nurse Nancy, in parody of Eddie Murphy films such as Norbit and The Nutty Professor.
Body Fuzion	Amy Poehler Maya Rudolph Kristen Wiig	Akiva Schaffer	February 3, 2007	Drew Barrymore is Desiree, host of a 1986 sexually suggestive, low-impact, high-result exercise video Body Fuzion, with "her friends" Donna, Michelle, and Donna M..
Andy Popping Into Frame	Andy Samberg Akiva Schaffer Jorma Taccone	Akiva Schaffer	February 10, 2007	Samberg quietly pops into view as the camera cuts to different locations and landmarks. Forte begins doing the same, before being forced out by Samberg at gunpoint. Samberg wears his "Andy" shirt from the failed sketch show Awesometown created by The Lonely Island.
Business Meeting	Jorma Taccone Seth Meyers	Jorma Taccone	February 24, 2007	A corporate executive leads a meeting to brainstorm ideas on how to save his failing company, fielding suggestions from an increasingly bizarre set of employees, including a gigantic turkey sub and musical guest Arcade Fire. Upon reaching the end of the meeting, Wilson receives a phone call, seemingly informing him that the office building is about to be blown up. The office building explodes, presumably killing all of the people inside. Amy Poehler, Bill Hader, Jason Sudeikis, Kristen Wiig, Will Forte, Darrell Hammond, Fred Armisen, Maya Rudolph and Andy Samberg all play employees of Wilson's, and Kenan Thompson plays a water delivery guy.
Dear Sister	Andy Samberg Akiva Schaffer Jorma Taccone	Akiva Schaffer	April 14, 2007	In a spoof of The O.C. episode "The Dearly Beloved", a man writes a letter to his sister, he is shot by his friend, leading to a series of overly dramatic, slow-motion shootings set to "Hide and Seek" by Imogen Heap, including their roommate, the sister, and two police officers.
Roy Rules!	Andy Samberg Jorma Taccone	Jorma Taccone	April 21, 2007	Samberg performs a rhyme about how much he likes his brother in-law named Roy.
Talking Dog	Andy Samberg Akiva Schaffer Jorma Taccone	Akiva Schaffer	May 19, 2007	While meeting the owner of an apartment that is available for sublet, a potential candidate is shocked to find out that the owner's dog not only can talk, but has fallen in love with him. He finds out later that the dog was using him to get a plate of ham. The owner implies that this happens regularly, but the dog convinces the man that it's still something more, and the man ends up French kissing the dog.