The Lonely Island, the greatest fake rap group in the world, were asked to do a song at the Oscars celebrating the kind of blockbuster movie that doesn’t do enormously well in awards season. Andy Samberg, Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone put a pitch together that ended up being rejected by producers for being “financially and logistically impossible”.
Set to feature performances from a lot of huge stars - Chris Hemsworth and Gal Gadot reprising their roles as Thor and Wonder Woman, Vin Diesel popping up for a verse, a lineup of all cinema’s Chrises - you can see what the producers were thinking, but it feels like a real missed opportunity.
Fortunately, The Lonely Island have shared the demo version, complete with temp vocals, Andy Samberg’s Vin Diesel impression and some not-appalling Adobe AfterEffects animation. It’s really good:
Just lovely stuff. Obviously a logistical nightmare, yeah, but magnificent.
On the subjects of movies, The Lonely Island and things the world never got to see, this song that was cut out of their movie Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping (which, if you haven’t seen, you should see, it’s brilliant) is one of the best things ever recorded.
They’re the best band in the world.
