SNL’s 50th Anniversary celebration was filled with memorable moments on Saturday night, from the return (and subsequent drama behind) “Black Jeopardy” with Tom Hanks to Jenna Ortega memorably getting squished. But the whole weekend was an experience for the longtime cast members on the show, as Friday night’s SNL50: The Homecoming Concert also brought in a slew of major names for performances, veteran Andy Samberg included.
In fact, in an iconic moment, he busted out his longtime hit “Dick in a Box” with Lady Gaga, a moment that immediately went viral and was discussed in the days following. This subsequently led into a Digital Short medley that was one of the highlights of the evening.
But, how did Lady Gaga even get involved given she wasn’t the OG “Dick in a Box” singer? And why was Justin Timberlake missing? Thankfully, Andy Samberg addressed this and more in his story of how SNL50 Concert came together.
How Lady Gaga Got Involved With Dick In A Box
Samberg’s less active with SNL than he has been in the past, but his podcast with Seth Meyers, aptly titled “The Lonely Island and Seth Meyers,” addressed how the whole thing came together. Honestly, there was way less preparation in advance than I would have guessed.
The Lonely Island frontman said that’s because they were not doing any new material really. So, it was only a week before the project came to fruition that Lady Gaga even became involved as a musical guest on the docket.
I mean, the hardest part was done, which was the songs were already written… But I think it was like we started working on it the week before, and I mean the trickiest part was originally when we started talking about it, we were hoping it would be all other music people doing all the songs. And then I guess Aaron David (sp) and some of the folks on the SNL side had reached out to Lady Gaga and she said she wanted to do it with me.
To be clear, Samberg was stoked to create the opportunity with the A Star Is Born actress and pop singer, and they even nodded at her movie gig before the “Dick in a Box” bit. It was very funny. You’d never guess it by the final version that played out onstage, but Samberg was a bit intimidated about working with Gaga.
I was like, ‘well I’ll do whatever she wants.’ So I said, ‘Of course.’ But then I was like, ‘Oh shit, now I have to actually’… I didn’t think about, until honestly the day before that I was going to have to actually do like a singing duet with Lady Gaga. And then I was like, ‘Uh Oh.’ I mean I had the easy part, as I did with Justin.
Oh yeah, so where was Justin anyway?
Why Justin Timberlake Was Out And Lady Gaga, Bad Bunny And Eddie Vedder Were In
Lady Gaga may have been a great get, but Andy Samberg says she only came into the picture after Justin Timberlake declined; the former concurrent SNL host and musical guest currently on his Forgot Tomorrow World Tour. Then other big names got added, including singer (and sometimes WWE star) Bad Bunny, Pear Jam’s Eddie Vedder (in cosplay) and T-Pain, who tragically did not bring a pashmina afghan.
Obviously, Justin was on tour. That’s why the whole thing started the way it started. But she was great, and was so game and we got so lucky that everyone who agreed to do it did it. Obviously Parnell was really fun to be back with him. But fucking Bad Bunny, T Paine, Eddie Vedder as Jack Sparrow, it was so special. It just couldn’t have made us feel more like the show was making what we did feel special. It was very, very exciting for me.
Missing Justin was a bit of a bummer, but Seth Meyers said the medley end result was fantastic, and that largely had to do with those involved --s/o Eddie Vedder -- who really committed to the bit. Meyers said that's really a key to being involved with SNL in general; when people who are not comedians "get the game," the end result is always better.
While Samberg said the songs being written already made things easier, it was actually fairly difficult to rehearse and everyone put in a lot of effort. The medley itself was complicated to compose, and Gaga even had some trouble with learning "the piano parts," so it wasn't just "a given" they could all show up and just execute with no work. It all turned out great, however, and it ended up being one of the highlights of the night.
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