Internet Nostalgia

Let’s Revisit “Lazy Sunday”

The future of content was … “Saturday Night Live?”

Welcome to part 14 of our Internet Nostalgia series, which looks back at phenomena that captured the internet’s imagination and attention for a fleeting moment and then vanished as everyone moved on to something else. This series looks back at those olden times and what they told us about the internet and ourselves. If you have a suggested topic, email me at williamfleitch@yahoo.com. Last week, Chuck Norris Facts. This week: Lazy Sunday.

Date: December 17, 2005.

The story: The first-ever Lonely Island sketch filmed for “Saturday Night Live” was about lettuce. It was called “Lettuce.” It wasn’t really a Lonely Island bit; it was written by cast member Will Forte. It was very strange. It was so strange it made no splash at all when it aired, and it’s oddly difficult to find online today. Its quiet launch was another SNL bummer for the Lonely Island trio, three fellows named Andy Samberg, Akiva Schaeffer and Jorma Taccone, three buddies from middle school in Berkeley, California. They’d been making funny online videos for years, including a wild one where they pretended to be mugging someone only to have Kiefer Sutherland — the actual Kiefer Sutherland, who happened to be driving by — intervene because he…