Before audiences can levy judgment on the new music mockumentary Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping, the members of the Lonely Island have already treated them to a delightful appetizer. The press tour for Andy Samberg, Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone’s latest feature (the early buzz is “Spinal Tap for the 21st century,” an appealing prospect) has been more entertaining than the average po-faced series of interviews.
Far from stars reluctantly weathering an endurance trial of tired questions, the comedians have enlivened their hype cycle by mixing up the interview format with games and other stunts. Here at Rolling Stone, we took the Samberg-Schaffer-Taccone brain trust back a few decades for a round of America’s favorite test of love and devotion, The Newlywed Game.
The guys know one another pretty well, having first joined forces in junior high. Their easy, goofing-around rapport could make a trip to the laundromat into comedy worth documenting, and while they don’t take the challenges fully seriously (there may or may not have been some peeking on other boards between takes), they still raise the expected laugh riot.
Tackling the big questions – What type of smoking apparatus would Akiva be? How long should Andy cut his hair? Where does Jorma land on the kale-pizza spectrum? – shows the trio in their natural habitat: hanging out and goofing off, like teenage skate-punks with a multi-million-dollar studio contract.
