Dick in a Box
"Dick in a Box" is a song by the American comedy group The Lonely Island featuring American singer-songwriter Justin Timberlake. The trio—Andy Samberg, Akiva Schaffer, and Jorma Taccone—co-wrote the song with Timberlake, Katreese Barnes, and Asa Taccone. Barnes and Asa Taccone co-produced it with Jorma Taccone. Saturday Night Live (SNL) creator and producer Lorne Michaels asked Samberg to write a musical sketch for the 2006 Christmas episode with Timberlake, who was returning as both host and musical guest. Samberg developed the concept with other members of the group before working with Timberlake on December 14. They recorded the track around midnight and spent the next day and a half filming the corresponding music video.
"Dick in a Box"
January 27, 2009
December 14, 2006
2:41
- Andy Samberg
- Akiva Schaffer
- Jorma Taccone
- Asa Taccone
- Justin Timberlake
- Katreese Barnes
- Jorma Taccone
- Asa Taccone
- Barnes
The sketch depicts two early 1990s R&B singers, played by Samberg and Timberlake, singing a holiday song about making a Christmas gift for their girlfriends of their penises in boxes. The sketch premiered on SNL as a Digital Short on December 16, 2006. The word "dick" was bleeped 16 times following an agreement with the Federal Communications Commission. SNL producers published an uncensored version of the sketch online right after its broadcast debut, a decision criticized by the Parents Television Council. In 2009, the song was released digitally as a single and included on The Lonely Island's debut studio album, Incredibad.
"Dick in a Box" became a viral hit on the internet, and had generated more than 28 million views on YouTube by October 2007. The song received generally positive reviews from both television and music critics, who praised its raunchy humor and Timberlake's performance. "Dick in a Box" has been recognized retrospectively as The Lonely Island's signature song and one of the best Christmas-themed SNL sketches. The track won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics in 2007, and appeared on the Australian and Canadian single charts in 2009. Samberg and Timberlake reprised their roles in two Digital Shorts sequels, "Motherlover" (2009) and "3-Way (The Golden Rule)" (2011).
Background[edit]
Akiva Schaffer, Andy Samberg, and Jorma Taccone met while attending junior high together in Berkeley, California.[1] They decided to move to Los Angeles in September 2000 and formed the comedy trio The Lonely Island, named after the nickname they gave to the apartment they shared.[1] They hosted several short films on their website before signing to the variety show Saturday Night Live (SNL) in late August 2005.[2] Samberg was promoted as a performing member for the 32nd season, while Taccone and Schaffer joined the show as writers.[2] In December, the trio wrote and recorded "Lazy Sunday" with fellow cast member Chris Parnell, which was broadcast as their second Digital Short.[3] The gangsta rap song received over five million views on YouTube by February 2006, becoming the first television clip to go viral on the online video platform.[4][5] The track's popularity contributed to the success of YouTube and reintroduced SNL to a younger audience.[4][6]
Justin Timberlake first appeared on SNL as a musical guest in 2000, performing as a member of the American boy band NSYNC.[7] He subsequently appeared as both host and musical guest in an episode in October 2003,[7][8] in which he demonstrated his acting potential with an impression of Jessica Simpson and his work with Jimmy Fallon on The Barry Gibb Talk Show sketch.[7] "Hosting SNL was something I'd always wanted to do. The show allowed me to play to my strengths—mixing music with comedy seemed like a way into that world", Timberlake recalled.[9] After the show, he received several acting offers and spent the next two years launching his acting career.[8][10] He shot four films, including Edison Force (2005) and Alpha Dog (2006), before working on his second studio album FutureSex/LoveSounds (2006).[10] In late November 2006, Timberlake announced his return to SNL for the December 16 episode as host and musical guest.[11]
Composition[edit]
"Dick in a Box" is an R&B song[43][44] with a runtime of 2:41.[45][28] According to Universal Music Publishing Group's digital sheet music for the song, "Dick in a Box" is composed in the key of C minor and set in common time signature, with a moderately slow groove of 80 beats per minute.[46] The vocals span two octaves, from C♯4 up to C♯6.[46] Music critics compared the track to the work of Color Me Badd, noting the song's spoken-word breakdown and the way the last syllables of the refrain go increasingly up.[47][36] Idolator's Noah wrote the track is a "slightly more up-front–and generously Yuletide-themed" version of Color Me Badd's "I Wanna Sex You Up" (1991).[42] Critics also found the R&B track was influenced by American groups New Kids on the Block, Hall & Oates, and Backstreet Boys.[48][49]
David Jeffries of AllMusic described "Dick in a Box" as an imitation of teen pop,[50] while Stephen Saito of Premiere called the slow jam "an ode to the phallic present for all occasions".[51] Chris Mincher of The A.V. Club and Stuart McGurk of GQ viewed it as a midtempo synth rock track that soundtracks a rapidly unfolding horror.[29][24] "Dick in a Box" has been described as a Christmas song by critics,[52][53] including Mincher who highlighted its release in the special Christmas episode of SNL.[29] Ross Bonaime of Paste referred to it is a hybrid between "a Christmas song, a '90s R&B parody and a joke about bad gift giving".[39] Believed the sketch qualified as a Christmas film, Matthew Dessem of Slate pointed out the Christmas setting and the theme surrounding Christmas presents, as well as the non-Christmas holidays mentioned in the song all take place around Christmas.[54]
Public reaction[edit]
The SNL episode received a 5.3/13 Nielsen rating/share in the 18–49 demographic,[76][77] and attracted seven million American viewers during its initial broadcast,[78] one of the show's highest ratings for a Christmas episode.[b][76][77] According to the New York Daily News, less than a week after its online release, the uncensored version of the sketch had been viewed over 320,000 times on NBC's website and 3.5 million times on YouTube.[62][80] Thanks to a partnership between NBC and YouTube, the video quickly became one of the 20 most-viewed on the site and one of the quickest viral hits of 2006.[13] It generated 7.5 million views in one week at the end of December.[81] According to online video analytics site Vidmeter, there were at least 18 identical copies of "Dick in a Box" posted to various YouTube and Google Video accounts, bringing the total views to over 20 million as of February 2007.[82][83]
The official uncensored video garnered more than 15,000 comments and 28 million views[84] (34.9 million views when combined with other versions)[85][86] before NBC took down its YouTube channel in preparation for the launch of Hulu on October 21.[87][88] On December 23, 2008, "Dick in a Box" appeared at number nine on the Guardian Viral Video Chart: Christmas Special showing the year's top viral videos, compiled by The Guardian and viralvideochart.com.[89] An official video of the sketch was uploaded again on YouTube in December 2018, which had garnered 5.5 million views as of April 2020.[26][90] Following its release as a digital single in January 2009, "Dick in a Box" debuted at number 82 on the Canadian Hot 100 and number 48 on the Billboard Canadian Digital Song Sales chart.[91][92] Both were The Lonely Island's first entries on the charts.[91][92] In late June, the single peaked at number 61 on the Australian Singles Chart, the third track from Incredibad to appear on the chart after the top 10 entries "Jizz in My Pants" and "I'm on a Boat".[93] In January 2011, "Dick in a Box" peaked at number eight on the Billboard Comedy Digital Track Sales.[94]
Following the rebroadcast of "Dick in a Box" on SNL, the FCC received several complaints from viewers about the sketch.[95] A report in The Atlantic showed that "Dick in a Box" and "Djesus Uncrossed," a 2013 parody of Django Unchained starring Christoph Waltz, were the most frequent targets of complaint letters sent to the FCC about SNL by viewers from 2012 to 2015.[96] Most of the letters were suspicious of Timberlake's appearance after his part in the Janet Jackson controversy at the Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show.[95][96]
Live performances and usage in media[edit]
On February 7, 2007, Timberlake and Samberg gave a surprise performance of "Dick in a Box" for the first time at the Madison Square Garden during Timberlake's concert tour FutureSex/LoveShow.[112][113] The duo sang in front of a sold-out stadium of 18,000 people, including rapper P. Diddy, Donald Trump and his wife Melania.[114][113] They performed the track as an encore, beginning with an announcer introducing them as a new band that had "the most-watched video on YouTube".[114][113] The singers wore the characters' costumes and facial hair from the sketch, with a gift box attached below the belt.[114] Samberg changed the holiday lyrics to "Valentine's Day... Flag Day... Kwanzaa", while Timberlake was giggling as he delivered the deadpan lines.[114][115] At one point, Timberlake fell on his knee and sang the line "All across America, a dick in a box."[113] After the song, Timberlake came back onstage and apologized, "I'm sorry if I offended some of you, but I could not resist."[113][114]
Billboard felt the surprise performance "was hilarious if wholly unnecessary".[115] Caryn Ganz of MTV wrote that the singers struggled with the nasal vocal performance and the song "landed a bit awkwardly in context".[113] Ganz, however, noted that the audience "went truly berserk" with the performance.[113] Amelia McDonell-Parry of Rolling Stone wrote "Samberg hardly has the pipes to fill an arena, but no one seemed to mind."[116] Timberlake, who was absent during the Primetime Creative Arts ceremony on September 8, celebrated after being notified of his Emmy win by performing a piano rendition of the song at the Tacoma Dome, Washington.[117] Samberg was willing to perform "Dick in a Box" with Timberlake at the main 59th Primetime Emmy Awards ceremony, held in Los Angeles on September 16.[109] The Emmy Awards producers were reportedly unsure about airing the explicit content and asked the duo to come up with a more family-friendly version of the track.[118][119] The singers rejected the idea, and the performance was canceled.[118][120]
The online release of "Dick in a Box" resulted in many users filming response videos on YouTube, in which they either present their own gift box or give instructions on how to do the box.[121] Leah Kauffman, who was a Temple University student, wrote and recorded a parody from the female perspective of the sketch, titled "My Box in a Box".[122][123] The track's music video showed a woman lip sync to Kauffman's vocals and dance around with a gift-wrapped box in front of her crotch.[122][123] The video had attracted more than three million views by January 2007.[122][123] American band Umphrey's McGee covered "Dick in a Box" as an encore on December 31, 2006, at the Aragon Ballroom in Chicago.[124][125] In "Koi Pond", an episode of the sixth season of the American comedy television series The Office, Michael Scott (portrayed by Steve Carell) dresses in a suit similar to Samberg and Timberlake's characters, with a box wrapped as a present attached to his waist, while slipping a noose around his neck and faking a hanging to scare a group of young visitors.[126] On an episode of The Ellen DeGeneres Show, aired in January 2007, Ellen DeGeneres performed a jingle for AQUA2GO water drink boxes to the tune of "Dick in a Box".[127][128] The following month, Facebook created a virtual gift shop for Valentine's Day that included a box with a bow on top and a hole cut into one of its sides.[129][130]
Credits adapted from the liner notes of Incredibad.[17]
Studio locations
Personnel