Andy Samberg on Birth of Timberlake Duet "Motherlover"

Coming off the massive viral success of "Dick in the Box," SNL and the Lonely Island's Andy Samberg tells Entertainment Weekly he was reluctant at first to pen a sequel to the hit "SNL Digital Short" when he heard Justin Timberlake was returning to host this past weekend's episode. "We didn't want to ruin it and, you know, like, crap on it by driving it into the mud," Samberg said, fearing that a redux couldn't top the original "Dick." Instead, Samberg, his partners-in-comedy and JT huddled to create what has become the highlight of the SNL season, "Motherlover."

The song is an ode to loving your best friend's lonely mom on Mother's Day, and Samberg says Timberlake played a big role in the song's creation. "We actually built the song together with him in the room and wrote the lyrics all out together. It was fantastic," Samberg tells EW, adding that it was Timberlake who insisted they write a sequel to "Dick."

"[Justin] was like, 'But what if we did do it again? How unprecedented would that be?' That's a big swing. We knew going in from the very start that we were taking a real, real big swing and that if it didn't work — and if the joke didn't really land — that we were going to look like big jerks. But you know, he's so confident and we started writing it and it was making us laugh really hard, so we just went with it, and said, 'Fuck it. ' "

As for getting acclaimed actresses Susan Sarandon and Patricia Clarkson involved, Samberg said JT is friends with Sarandon while Samberg shares a publicist with Clarkson. "They're really doing dramatic stuff, but they're not really asked — or given the opportunity — to loosen up and do weirder, sillier stuff. And a lot of them are really excited to do it," Samberg said. Despite having to watch her boyfriend get intimate with Sarandon, actress Jessica Biel also approved of the skit, telling MTV, "I thought it was amazing. I mean, it was so wrong, it's right. Just so wrong, it had to be right."

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Song Stories

“Smells Like Teen Spirit”

Nirvana | 1991

"Smells Like Teen Spirit," named after a brand of deodorant marketed to girls, was Kurt Cobain's attempt to "write the ultimate pop song," he said, using the soft-loud dynamic of his favorite band, the Pixies. Cobain "had that dichotomy of punk rage and alienation," the song’s producer, Butch Vig, told Rolling Stone, "but also this vulnerable pop sensibility. In 'Teen Spirit,' a lot of that vulnerability is in the tone of his voice." Sadly, by the time of Nirvana's last U.S. tour, in late '93, Cobain was tortured by the obligation to play "Teen Spirit" every night. "There are many other songs that I have written that are as good, if not better," he claimed.

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