The Lonely Island's Akiva Schaffer Reveals His Favorite SNL Backstage Moment – Exclusive
For six years, Akiva Schaffer was a writer for "Saturday Night Live" alongside his childhood friends Andy Samberg and Jorma Taccone, who together make up the award-winning comedy trio The Lonely Island.
From 2005 to 2011, Schaffer helped keep the laughs coming on the weekly late-night sketch show, having a hand in such iconic NSFW fare as "Dick in a Box," "Motherlover," and "I Just Had Sex." Since then, Schaffer has gone on to direct films like "The Watch," "Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping," and the recently released "Chip 'N Dale: Rescue Rangers," which is available exclusively on Disney+.
But, despite all the success he has achieved since leaving "SNL" — including an Oscar nod for co-writing the song "Everything Is Awesome" from "The Lego Movie" — Schaffer still cherishes his time with the long-running comedy show. In fact, he shared one of his all-time favorite backstage memories with Looper during an exclusive interview.
The audience reaction to 'Dick in a Box' is a stand-out moment
As a writer for "Saturday Night Live," Schaffer spent most of his time behind the scenes. But that doesn't mean he didn't sneak a peek at what was going on in the "SNL" studio.
"Whenever we'd air our [digital] shorts, we'd go down to the floor, where all the stages are being flung around to make room for the next sketch, and we would watch the audience," Schaffer shared. "There was a monitor just below the audience that's facing the opposite way so we could watch."
Schaffer's favorite memory he said involves one of The Lonely Island's greatest pop-culture achievements: The Justin Timberlake-Andy Samberg collaboration "Dick in a Box," which won a Creative Arts Emmy.
"There's a photo that was taken, and it's of us three [The Lonely Island] watching when 'Dick in a Box' first aired live, and you can see all our faces, us watching the audience enjoying it," said Schaffer. "We always went down there, and some weeks were fine and some weeks weren't, but the weeks where we made a short that the audience loved, and we watched the audience, those were my favorite moments."
Schaffer's latest film, "Chip 'N Dale: Rescue Rangers," is now streaming exclusively on Disney+.