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,[1] 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 (Jorma Taccone, Akiva Schaffer, and Andy Samberg) 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."[2] The Lonely Island's digital shorts were originally recorded with consumer grade digital video cameras and edited on personal computers.[3] It is typical for the show's hosts and musical guests to take part in that week's Digital Short (the latter on rarer occasions), 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.[4] Schaffer has directed a majority of them, with Taccone as occasional director or co-director. Taccone also has produced music for the shorts as necessary, along with his brother, Asa.
Following the departure of Samberg from SNL in 2012, it was speculated that the era of videos branded "An SNL Digital Short" had come to an end.[5] A total of six new Digital Shorts from The Lonely Island have aired since then: Two that featured the episode's respective hosts (Adam Levine in Season 38[6] and Natalie Portman in Season 43); 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 (featuring Samberg & Adam Sandler); and one that aired during the Season 41 finale in May 2016 to promote The Lonely Island's feature film, Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping.
List of shorts[edit]
2005–2006: Season 31[edit]
A total of 11 SNL Digital Shorts were created for the 2005–2006 season.
Reception[edit]
The short "Lazy Sunday", which aired on December 17, 2005, was viewed more than five million times on YouTube alone before it was removed due to copyright infringement.[57] In late 2006, however, NBC began uploading SNL shorts on YouTube themselves. As of October 6, 2023, the upload currently available on the show's YouTube channel has received over four million views.
The short "Dick in a Box", which aired on December 16, 2006, was viewed more than 28 million times on YouTube.[58] The uncensored version was available on YouTube with a special warning, stating that the sketch contained explicit language that was censored from the television version. The song also won a Creative Arts Emmy Award in 2007 for Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics.[59] Songs from five other Digital Shorts received Emmy nominations for Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics: "Motherlover" in 2009;[60] "Shy Ronnie" in 2010;[61] and "I Just Had Sex", "Jack Sparrow", and "3-Way (The Golden Rule)" in 2011.[62]