REVIEW: "Incredibad"

The Lonely Island
Incredibad
© 2009 Universal Republic Records

Comedy in music—whether it be a parody band, novelty song, or a “serious” artist using wit—is a challenging technique. The difficulty of balancing humor and listenable music often results in one element losing out. Comedy troop and Saturday Night Live writer/performers The Lonely Planet—Akiva Schaffer, Jorma Taccone, and Andy Samberg—have thrown their hats into the ring with their first album Incredibad.

Though the troupe had produced numerous sketches and music parodies independently, it was their SNL Digital Short and viral smash “Lazy Sunday,” that garnered them major attention. Since then, many of their Digital Shorts have featured music videos written and produced by the trio—often with a celebrity guest—such as “Dick in a Box (feat Justin Timberlake).”

Many of the songs included on Incredibad have also been featured on Saturday Night Live. While it is a little disappointing that more original content was not included, these songs are nonetheless enjoyable, with most of them surviving quite well without the aid of their video.

One of the group’s most recent shorts, “I’m On A Boat (feat. T-Pain),” has arguably handled the transition to audio-only the best. The song’s hardcore swagger, energy, and backing vocals by T-Pain would not be out of place on a serious rapper’s album; most of the songs humor comes from the contrast between the earnestness of the music and the inanity of the content of the lyrics, rather than quality.

“I’m On A Boat (feat. T-Pain)”


The other SNL tracks have generally remained both funny and listenable, but often lack a little something compared to their videos. “Jizz In My Pants,” for example, is an extremely funny song with well-produced music, but the physical humor of the video was certainly part of the appeal.

“Jizz In My Pants”


Few things can kill the listenability of a song quite like it being deliberately bad and, fortunately, one of the strengths of Incredibad is that they usually do not use the song itself as the joke. There are some exceptions to this, however.

One, “Sax Man (feat. Jack Black)” starts off pretty kickin’ in that distinctive Jack Black way. The song’s humor derives from the hyped Sax Man utterly failing to meet expectations.

“Sax Man (feat. Jack Black)” (no video)


Another, “Ras Trent,” makes fun of its vocalist/character, a white college student who claims to have become Rastafarian, but clearly neither gets it nor has any skill.

“Ras Trent” (no video)


By treating the music as a joke they come across more as sketches than funny rap songs. While they may be good for a laugh now and then, by becoming essentially a joke-song instead of a song of jokes, they lack in staying power. This is particularly damning for “Ras Trent.” Where much of the humor of “Sax Man” comes in repetition and continued refusal of the Sax Man to play—and thus making use of it’s entire two minute play time—“Ras Trent” quickly overextends it’s basic joke—the ignorance and lack of talent of Trent—which is clearly made in the first few seconds of the song.

The non-SNL material is a mixed bag, with the best of it touching on some of the attitude and wit of the Beastie Boys (albeit with a consistently self-deprecating edge) and the lesser just being a little boring. One of the greatest stumbling blocks these songs face is inconsistent production values; many of them are older tracks from the groups pre-SNL days. The album finishes with one of the funnier of these tracks “Incredibad” where the group gives the obscene and hilarious origin of the album title and cover art.

“Incredibad” (no video)


Incredibad is largely parody, but, even in the pure joke-songs, the humor is directed inwards. The Lonely Planet are not mocking the genre or riffing on specific songs, instead targeting their own failings (“Jizz In My Pants”), nerdy over-enthusiasm (“We Like Sportz”), or the extremes of their imagination ("Space Olympics"). This has worked heavily in their favor as, not only does it give their songs more staying power, they are easily able to bring celebrity guests and SNL cast-members in on the joke; even when only guests voices heard (as in “Natalie’s Rap”), the humor and sound is consistent with the rest of the album

RECCOMENDED IF… you have enjoyed their Digital Shorts. The humor presented in them is representative of the album, for better and worse. This is a consistently funny comedy album, though as a rap album it tends overly towards a generic sound.

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