The Lonely Island are doing the comedy gods’ work—rescuing a pair of lost Saturday Night Live sketches from the cutting room floor and sharing them with fans for the first time ever.
This week’s episode of The Lonely Island and Seth Meyers Podcast revisits the 2009 SNL episode hosted by Zac Efron and unearths two long-buried gems: a live musical sketch called “Balcony Song” and a never-before-seen Digital Short titled “Guys in Sunglasses Lookin’ Dope!”
Most of the podcast episode centers on “Balcony Song,” which survives in the form of a full dress rehearsal recording—much of which is played during the podcast, albeit only in audio form. It begins as a sweeping romantic duet between Efron and Abby Elliott, perched on separate balconies. Things quickly unravel when Andy Samberg, from a third balcony, joins the song to reveal he’s a creepy voyeur with binoculars. What follows is a full-cast spectacle, with moments featuring Will Forte, Kristen Wiig, Jason Sudeikis, Kenan Thompson, Bill Hader, and Bobby Moynihan.
The audience at dress loved the sketch—especially the moment when Thompson’s dramatic solo is interrupted by Sudeikis peeing on him from above. The crowd broke into laughter and applause, prompting Seth Meyers to call it a “well-earned and well-crafted applause break.”
So why didn’t it air? Because Lorne Michaels wasn’t there to see it. According to Akiva Schaffer, the sketch ran so late in dress that Michaels and Meyers had already left to meet about cuts. “Our sketch is literally being performed for an audience that’s laughing, and he’s not even here,” Schaffer said. “What’s the point of the show? Is applause and laughter the point of the show?!”
Meyers offered a theory: that “Balcony Song” fell victim to a double standard. “Lorne probably had seen a rehearsal and was like, ‘It doesn’t pop the way their pre-filmed, quickly edited shorts do,’” Meyers said. “And I don’t think he held other people to that standard.” Even Schaffer admitted the sketch could’ve used some tightening, but stood by its reception.
The second rediscovered sketch from the same episode, “Guys in Sunglasses Lookin’ Dope,” is one of six known Digital Shorts that have never seen the light of day.
In the short, Bill Hader narrates shots of Samberg, Moynihan, Forte, Sudeikis, Efron, and Fred Armisen awkwardly posing in sunglasses. With each pose, a camera flash hits and the word “Dope!” appears onscreen. “They’re all doing ‘Just 2 Guyz’-level awkwardness, like they were plucked out of a mall in Ohio and told to just look cool,” Schaffer explains. It’s brief and silly—but very much in the Lonely Island wheelhouse.
Schaffer recalled thinking at the time: “This one shouldn’t air, and the other one should.” But the whole group ultimately agreed that both sketches were air show-worthy—just victims of an episode overloaded with material. “We should just resubmit,” Schaffer joked.
As for “Balcony Song,” there may still be hope. Meyers floated the idea of restaging it on Late Night’s “Second Chance Theatre”—with Zac Efron returning to finish what he started.
