A List Of Things Thrown Five Minutes Ago

IT IS BY FAR THE MOST HILARIOUS JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE–STARRING, KWANZAA-REFERENCING, COLOR ME BADD–PARODYING, “PUT YOUR JUNK IN THAT BOX”–INSTRUCTING SHORT VIDEO YOU WILL EVER SEE: Adam Sternbergh, of the much beloved-and-missed Fametracker.com, considers for New York Magazine whether cuddly/goofy/weird SNLer Andy Samberg can make "The Leap" this summer:

Samberg’s comic sensibility -- a cross between goofy innocence (kick in the groin!) and oddball non sequiturs (kick a Viking in the groin!) -- turns out to be tailor-made for popularity on the Internet. And Samberg has been held up as Exhibit A in every argument about the viral power of the Web. (In the weeks after “Lazy Sunday” hit, YouTube’s traffic increased by 83 percent.) In that sense, casting him in a major studio comedy right now makes perfect sense. He’s hot! He’s big on the Web! The kids love him! But in another sense, being big on the Internet and being big at the multiplex have absolutely nothing to do with each other. The beauty of producing comedy on the Web is that you can do pretty much whatever the hell you want. And you might find a hundred, or a thousand, or a hundred thousand people who share your weird obsession with monkeys or homoerotic pirates. But your jokes will find their audience, if there’s an audience out there to be found.

A studio comedy, however, has to make a lot of people laugh, starting with small, randomly selected groups of people sitting in test screenings. This is why studio executives tend to champion jokes that everyone’s seen before (think of every movie trailer where someone gets bonked in the head), while comedians tend to be drawn to jokes no one has ever seen before ...

And between the Internet and the neighborhood cineplex, the calculus of just how many people have to find you funny changes dramatically. On YouTube, a million viewers is a phenomenon. On pay cable, a million viewers is a critical darling, like Curb Your Enthusiasm. On a network, a million viewers is a disaster. With a movie, it might end your career. “Comedy’s weird, because it’s the only job where the definition is a matter of opinion,” says Samberg. “If you’re a plumber, and you show up and fix someone’s toilet, then that’s proof that you are a plumber. But if you make a comedy, and people don’t think it’s funny, then in their world, it’s disproving your existence. You’re like, ‘Yeah, I’m an entertainer.’ And they’re like, ‘Really? Because I’m not entertained.’ ”

We shall see if the folks responsible for the Natalie Portman rap can handle 90+ minutes, because genre parody alone probably won't be enough.

edited to add, Weds 9pm: That no one here has commented on this post suggests that Mr. Samberg may not, in fact, be ready for Friday nights at the movies.