Lonely Island Returns To YouTube With Two New Videos

Andy Samberg hosted the May 17th episode of Saturday Night Live. During the episode, Lonely Island fans were rewarded with a rare treat. Samberg’s comedy musical group, which also includes Jorma Taccone and Akiva Schaffer, has released two new videos on YouTube.

One of the new videos is a music video for “Hugs”, a song from 2013 Lonely Island release The Wack Album that features a guest appearance from Pharrell. The accompanying video also makes room for a second guest star in the form of Orphan Black star Tatiana Maslany. The other new video has already scored more than a million views. It’s called “When Will The Bass Drop?”, it includes a Lil Jon cameo, and it makes fun of formulaic EDM tracks (such as Lil Jon’s own chart-topper, “Turn Down For What“).

Since launching in 2005, The Lonely Island’s YouTube home has become one of the site’s most popular channels, and the group’s music videos regularly drew tens of millions of views. However, the channel has been mostly inactive since Samberg left SNL in 2012, and the two new videos equal the group’s previous output from the past nine months.

Unfortunately for Lonely Island fans, the two new videos don’t forecast a triumphant return to YouTube glory. Instead, the group signed a development deal with FOX at the beginning of 2014, through which it will produce content for FOX-owned platforms like Roku and Hulu. Therefore, we can expect the Lonely Island YouTube channel to go dark once again, but the new videos reminded viewers that the Internet becomes a funnier place when Samberg, Taccone, and Schaffer hang out on it.