Andy Samberg wasn't sure if “The Office” was making fun of Lonely Island with 'Lazy Scranton' parody
The "Hot Rod" star said he slowly realized that "SNL" alum Mike Schur was "liked what we were making" and wanted to put his own spin on it on "The Office."
Andy Samberg has revealed that he initially wasn’t sure if he should be flattered or offended by The Office’s Scranton-themed riff on The Lonely Island’s legendary "Lazy Sunday" sketch.
The comedy trio was asked during Monday’s fan Q&A on The Lonely Island and Seth Meyers podcast if they knew that The Office would be channeling their Saturday Night Live short with their “Lazy Scranton” spoof prior to the episode airing in 2006.
"I very distinctly remember it, and I remember having to go through the feelings of, like, 'Are they making fun of it? Or are they making fun of people doing their version of it?'" Samberg recalled. "And slowly coming to realize that Mike [Schur] was our friend and liked what we were making and stuff and being like, 'Oh, I see.'" (Schur, who was a writer and producer on The Office, previously served as an SNL writer from 1997 until 2004.)
Related: The Lonely Island had to 'disavow' Hot Rod for years after it flopped: 'There were some rough times'
Released in 2005, "Lazy Sunday" sees Samberg and Chris Parnell rapping about their relaxing day off that includes getting cupcakes and going to see The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe at the movies together.
"Lazy Scranton," on the other hand, was featured in The Office’s season three episode “The Merger,” and was filmed by Michael (Steve Carell) and Dwight (Rainn Wilson) to welcome their new Stamford colleagues to Scranton after their branches were combined. In their version, the pair rap about how their "public parks and libraries are truly the best" and how there’s "plenty of space in the parking lot" at work.
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Co-host Seth Meyers noted that he believed the parody wasn’t intended to be a slight against The Lonely Island, noting that the homage just seemed like "a thing that Michael Scott would do" in his spare time.
Samberg agreed that people putting their own spin on their sketches was very commonplace at the time. “It was the phenomenon of people dressing up as the stuff and doing their own, like, ‘Our thing in our office and in our town,’ and the fan vid version of it,” he said.
Fellow Lonely Island member Akiva Schaffer added, “We were very flattered.”
Listen to Samberg recall the parody in the clip above.
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