'Lazy Sunday' revisited: The guys do a reference check

Jorma: We looked back, and originally on our early files, it was called “Black Sunday,” which is a reference to Cypress Hill. It was meant to be ironic.

Akiva: That was the name of one of their albums.

Andy: We were just trying to make it sound super-scary, because it was so whack what they were talking about.

Andy: The subject of going to see The Chronicles of Narnia had already been chosen, and then we discovered that the word chronic was in the word chronicle.

Akiva: We got very wild writing it. Everyone went, “YES!”

Akiva: We picked Magnolia because it was right in our neighborhood where I used to live. But the lines were so long, I don’t think we’d even had it at that point.

Jorma: Due to Sex and the City, Magnolia had become very popular, and it seemed like just the perfect amount of lameness to want to go there.

Akiva: They sent us a dozen cupcakes after the song hit, but when we were shooting, they were not nice to us at all.

Chris: They actually tried to confiscate the tape.

Akiva: But in the years after it, they started being really nice and sending us cupcakes at other shoots we’ve had. Multiple times, banana pudding would show up on set.

Jorma: So we forgave them.

Andy: We’re cool with them now. That beef has been squashed.

Jorma: That epic rap beef has been squashed.

Andy: It’s like the great ones: Jay Z and Nas, the Lonely Island and Magnolia. All squashed in the name of positivity. But I have to say, probably my favorite part of the song is Chris saying “That’s bakery’s got all the bomb frostings”—not just because the line is funny, but the way he says it is so aggro.

Akiva: The Notebook is one of the great love stories of our time.

Jorma: You can say that we all simultaneously said that.

Chris: And Andy was just a big Ryan Gosling fan at the time. I remember at the time, he had a Notebook poster up on his wall, and then underneath that he had a number of smaller pictures of Ryan Gosling. [laughs] He didn’t really.

Akiva: The theater we actually filmed at was in Chelsea.

Jorma: Yeah, the exterior was Chelsea Cinemas.

Andy: And the interior was the UCB Theater, also in Chelsea.

Akiva: So we didn’t actually go to the Upper West Side. [laughs] We just called it out because it’s the most… basic place.

Jorma: That’s actually where I lived at the time, so I like to think I was getting made fun of. I’m a middle-of-the-road guy!

Andy: Also, the real reason we didn’t go to the Upper West Side was because we couldn’t afford a cab that far! It’s like, well, we’re already in the West Village… let’s walk to Chelsea! It was the closest movie theater to where we were. It cost us $7.

Jorma: And by the way, Google Maps is still the best today.

Andy: Jorma’s such a Google Maps guy. I like all of them!

Akiva: If that song came out today, it would be Waze, Google Maps, and Apple Maps.

Akiva: To be perfectly frank, we used to sneak alcohol into theaters all the time. I have not done that in a long time. But that’s what it’s really about.

Jorma: I actually did that recently.

Andy: You have! We did that, when we went and saw Taken 2. We all snuck in beers.

Jorma: Nothing’s changed since high school! I recently tried to sneak a burrito into a theater and got caught. It was pretty embarrassing. He noticed it under my sweatshirt—it was a real bummer. I’m in my 30s.

Chris: I don’t eat much candy anymore, so I mostly take in bottles of water now.

Akiva: That was my line.

Jorma: Mr. Pibb has always been my favorite soda. If you’re gonna do Dr Pepper or Mr. Pibb, Mr. Pibb wins every time.

Chris: Usually I get Pibb Extra. I think it’s got extra caffeine in it.

Akiva: And Red Vines because we’re California guys, and Red Vines are West Coast.

Andy: Yeah, Twizzlers are East Coast.

Akiva: Also, Mr. Pibb just sounds funny.

Jorma: We did feel bad though, because then people would send us notes saying that they tried that and it wasn’t very good. Like, using the Red Vine as a straw in a Mr Pibb.

Andy: I think that is good though!

Jorma: No, it’s not. I’ve tried it. They’re right, it’s not great.

Akiva: They probably didn’t do it right.

Jorma: The girl at the deli is our friend, and now my sister-in-law, Emily Heller, who is a standup comedian and very funny.

Andy: But she wasn’t then! She was just visiting.

Jorma: She’d done a little bit of standup, but just barely.

Akiva: We put her in because she was just there visiting, not because of her comedic things.

Andy: She also had the look for what we wanted, which was complete apathy.

Akiva: She continues to have that look!

Akiva: Andy wrote that line. He got it from that old Got Milk? ad.

Andy: Definitely. That is how I knew about Aaron Burr. [laughs] Berkeley public-school system here.

Akiva: If I can be frank, it’s the best line he’s ever written.

Andy: I think that’s fair.

Andy: I think that was a real one we’d seen, right?

Akiva: Maybe? But maybe not, because we had to make it rhyme. But it might have been similar. Do they still even do trivia before movies?

Jorma: I don’t know. That’s prime real estate to sell, like, Hondas now.

Chris: Some people call me Parns now because of the song. It’s not my favorite thing—it just seems a little familiar. The SNL people, one of them called me Parnsy or something, and it just ended up being my nickname somehow. It’s okay if they call me that, but one of my best friends tried to do it, and I said, You can’t call me that. That’s a special private name among the SNL cast! [laughs]