From left to right: Andy Samberg, Jorma Taccone and Akiva Schaffer. The three members of L.A.-based comedy troupe The Lonely Island first rose to popularity online, and have now joined the cast of NBC's Saturday Night Live. View Slideshow 
Live from New York, it's -- three comic talents who first made a name for themselves on the internet.
Andy Samberg will become a performing member of Saturday Night Live's 31st season cast debuting Oct. 1, while Jorma Taccone and Akiva Schaffer have joined the show as writers. But all three got their first big break online, thanks in part to the viral popularity of video shorts they released on the net. In a move that may have helped fuel rapid grass-roots distribution, the comics released their work under Creative Commons licenses, which essentially let anyone copy a given work for free provided that person doesn't try to profit from it.
As members of the L.A.-based comedy collective The Lonely Island, Taccone, Schaffer and Samberg produced short-form comedy videos and songs that were distributed on its website and ifilm.
Fan remixes soon followed from admirers around the world: In 2002, a song called "Ka-Blammo!" was mashed up and republished by Dutch DJ Baby Grandpa (MP3 link to remix here).
Video and music was produced with borrowed video gear and edited on a single PowerMac, and further proliferated by way of blogs and peer-to-peer file-sharing networks.
Later video offerings, including the episodic series The 'Bu, featured cameo appearances by stars including Brooke Shields and Jack Black.
When the Lonely Island pilot Awesometown was rejected by Fox, Lonely Island released two versions -- one edited by Fox, the other a "director's cut" -- on its own website. The group offered both under a new kind of noncommercial copyright license, known as Creative Commons, or CC. Modeled on open-source software licenses, the CC licenses freely granted reproduction rights to anyone who promised to offer derivative works created under the same terms. CC licenses for more online work followed.
Samberg, Taccone and Schaffer performed temp jobs in and out of the entertainment industry and shared a modest, low-rent Los Angeles apartment that doubled as a studio and editing bay.
Their first brush with SNL resulted from a gig the trio took as writers for the MTV Movie Awards in 2004 and 2005. SNL cast member Jimmy Fallon hosted this year's edition in June, and word of the Lonely Islanders' online shorts had spread to others on the SNL team, including Tina Fey and show creator Lorne Michaels. Samberg, Taccone and Schaffer auditioned in mid-2005, and were hired in late August.
Additional new hires on the SNL cast include Bill Hader, a member of Second City's Los Angeles troupe.
Two familiar faces on the show will be missing, however: SNL Weekend Update anchors Tina Fey and Maya Rudolph will be on maternity leave when the SNL season debuts this Saturday night. Who will replace them has not yet been determined.
Now You, Too, Can Be a Comedian
