Andy Samberg’s ‘The Lonely Island’ returns to SNL to share its message of YOLO

Comedian Andy Samberg has returned to Saturday Night Live, well sort of. He has reunited with fellow “Lonely Island” performers to create “YOLO,” a new digital short featuring last Saturday’s host Adam Levine of Maroon 5 and musical guest Kendrick Lamar.

If “The Lonely Island” isn’t something you remember, you might be more familiar with some of the group’s other performances, including “I’m On A Boat” featuring T-Pain, “Jack Sparrow” with Michael Bolton, or even “Motherlover” with Justin Timberlake. As you can tell from the lyrics, it’s a comedic troupe made up of Samberg, Akiva Schaffer, and Jorma Taccone and first became an Internet sensation with its first music parody “Lazy Sunday” in 2005.

YOLO, if you haven’t been on the Internet for the past few years, stands for You Only Live Once and has become the latest target of “The Lonely Island’s” music parodies. The video is pretty well done, but you have to listen to the lyrics to really appreciate the message. Here are some notable parts of the song to give you an idea of what it’s about:

YOLO: You only live once, the battle cry of a generation. This life is a precious gift, so don’t get too crazy, it’s not worth the risk.

We’re still pretty young, don’t be dumb.

Never go to loud clubs because it’s bad for your ears. Your friends will be sorry when they can’t hear.

Never trust a bank because they’ve been known to fail.

Wear titanium suits in case a piano falls on you.

Never take the stairs because they’re often unsafe.

You know we are still young, so hold off on that fun.

Stay away from kids because their hair is filled with mad lice.

YOLO say “no no”. Isolate yourself and go solo and be careful.

It’s the complete antithesis of YOLO — in fact, it states that it should actually stand for “You Outta Look Out”.

“The Lonely Island” has definitely reached incredibile popularity on YouTube. Last year, it announced its channel has more than one billion views since it launched and each of its videos has millions of views. Of course, YouTube brought the group in to talk to the company.