The Ending Of One Of SNL's Most Beloved (And Dirtiest) Digital Shorts Was A Complete Accident

"Saturday Night Live" is a crapshoot with each new episode. Regardless of what certain highfalutin comedy connoisseurs might try to say about "SNL" not being funny anymore, every single golden age of the series (and there have been several) has to contend with the fact that each episode will have good sketches and bad sketches. Honestly, if 50% of an episode of "SNL" is good, that's a victory. We're talking about a live sketch comedy show that's written, developed, shot (for pre-tapes), and aired within the span of a single week, from inception to building sets to creating costumes and everything that a normal TV show has to do — but in one of the most truncated windows imaginable. That's what makes "SNL" such a high-stress environment, and why it's one of the hardest gigs in show business.

Every now and then, some genuine comedic magic happens on the show, whether it's because of a home run host helping to deliver an incredible episode (like Ryan Gosling's recent stint on the show) or simply because a sketch becomes a viral sensation right out of the gate. Sometimes, all the right pieces come together and we get something really special.

The comedy trio known as The Lonely Island (comprised of Andy Samberg, Akiva Shaffer, and Jorma Taccone) had several moments like this throughout their time on "SNL" from 2005 through 2012, including their breakthrough viral hit "Lazy Sunday," their raunchy, star-fueled hip-hop hit "Natalie's Rap" with prestige actress Natalie Portman, and their classic Christmas riff, "D**k in a Box." In fact, that last hilarious holiday treasure didn't even have a proper ending until production on the short was met with a happy accident that otherwise could have been bad news for Samberg, Shaffer, and Taccone. 

In case you haven't heard, The Lonely Island and Seth Meyers Podcast is a gold mine for "Saturday Night Live" fans wanting to hear all the great behind-the-scenes details from the SNL Digital Short era of the series. Around the time of the trio's rise, Meyers also became head writer at the show, and his insights into the making of each episode, combined with a chronicle of how each and every SNL Digital Short came together, are truly unparalleled. That's where this fun little tidbit about "D**k in a Box" comes from.

During the podcast episode looking back at this holiday classic, Meyers had one particular question about the end of the sketch. To remind everyone, the premise of this sketch is a music video parody featuring Andy Samberg and Justin Timberlake as two R&B singers who both have the same vibes as the one of the white guys from the real R&B group Color Me Badd. The song they're using to serenade Kristen Wiig and Maya Rudolph is about a certain present they've wrapped up for Christmas. Spoiler alert: It's their d**k in a box. 

At the end of the sketch, the characters played by Samberg and Timberlake are arrested by NYPD, and the two are actually handcuffed and placed inside of the back of a squad car. Meyers, who knew how quickly and haphazardly these SNL Digital Shorts often came together, was wondering how The Lonely Island secured the actual NYPD, when getting a permit for such an on-camera arrangement often takes much longer than the window in which these shorts had to be produced. The answer? It was a complete accident.

As Shaffer revealed on the podcast, "Those cops saw us shooting and then realized who we were and just were like, 'Hey, we'll hang out. We'll make sure no one messes with you." Taccone didn't even recall this wasn't something that they planned for the shoot. Shaffer continued, "They were just real, on-duty NYPD officers that just kind of saw we were doing a thing and just came and hung out. And then we were like, 'Can we do a shot?' And they were like, 'Yeah, sure.' And they acted in it.'"

Meyers echoed the incredible opportunity they were given to have a proper ending thanks to this happy accident, which actually leads to another beloved SNL Digital Short:

"While I was watching it, 'cause it is so perfect, and then to foreshadow, 'Mother Lover' starts with you guys getting out of jail. So it does feel like this perfect connective tissue. But then I thought, based on how late in the week it broke, there was no way they got a cop car. There was no way they got the permits to use a New York City cop car. That had to be dumb luck. [...] Because it does put a perfect, you know, bow on it, for lack of a better term."

Shaffer agreed that they really needed that closing shot, "We really needed it. And I love that they get arrested. It's what they deserve. I don't know whose idea was. It was just, again, the same way. Everything else just came together. It just all came together."

Of course, if you watch Samberg and Timberlake, it seems like these two lawbreakers are pretty stoked to be getting arrested for their special present. Like Shaffer says, "They know the game."