The Lonely Island all-dayer comes to Manchester

The parody song can be excruciating in the wrong hands, but as performed by the trio of Andy Samberg, Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone, collectively known as The Lonely Island, you get comedy gold.

Friends from high school, they started making comedy YouTube sketches when they couldn’t find work in Hollywood and found they had a knack for flawlessly parodying various pop music styles and creating uproarious and eminently shareable videos in the process.

Pilot Light TV Festival pay tribute to the comedy trio on 12 March with an all-dayer dedicated to their two feature films and music videos, which have garnered over two billion views on YouTube and feature collaborations with the likes of Justin Timberlake, Lady Gaga, Pharrell, Rihanna, Snoop Dogg and more.

The event kicks off with a special tenth anniversary screening of The Lonely Island’s debut feature film Hot Rod, which tells the hilarious tale of the worst stuntman ever and his record- (and bone-) breaking attempt to jump 15 buses and stars Danny McBride, Bill Hader, Isla Fisher and Ian McShane.

Then, there'll be a special feature-length slot curated by Pilot Light featuring some of The Lonely Island’s best internet videos, Saturday Night Live sketches and other clips from the archives. Expect classics like Lazy Sunday, Dick in a Box and I’m on a Boat to feature.

The night comes to a close with a screening of Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping, which we included in our roundup of the criminally underrated films of 2016. A pop mockumentary with Andy Samberg playing a Justin Bieber-type pop star, the film is full of dopey jokes set in and around the pop music world. Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping got a tiny theatrical run in the UK, so make sure you take this opportunity to catch it on the big screen if you missed it.

Pilot Light festival director Greg Walker says that celebrating this trio was a no-brainer: “At our annual Festival in May we celebrate the best of TV and web series,” he said. “If there is any group of content creators who have well and truly mastered and conquered both, it is The Lonely Island.”