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Dick in a Box

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"Dick in a Box"
Song

"Dick in a Box" is a Saturday Night Live digital short featuring Justin Timberlake and Andy Samberg that aired on December 16, 2006.

Following its debut on network television, the sketch became an example of viral video after massive exposure on sites such as YouTube.[1] The song featured was written and produced by Samberg, Timberlake, Akiva Schaffer, and Jorma Taccone of The Lonely Island, with associate music director Katreese Barnes.[2] The video is a parody of R&B sex ballad videos from the early 1990s. The song won a Creative Arts Emmy for Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics.[3] After being notified of his Emmy win, Timberlake performed the song at his concert at the Tacoma Dome in Washington.[4]

Plot and style

File:Junkinabox.jpg
Justin Timberlake in the "Dick in a Box" video.

The music video portrays two Casanova-type men (played by Samberg and Timberlake) singing about giving Christmas gifts to their lovers (played by Maya Rudolph and Kristen Wiig, respectively). Each man has a gift-wrapped box attached to his waist. The lyrics include step-by-step instructions on how to create the "gift" (1: "Cut a hole in a box", 2: "Put your junk in that box", 3: "Make her open the box... and that's the way you do it!"). They also sing about how a "dick in a box" is better than other gifts, and suitable for any holiday or occasion. At the end of the film, they are both arrested and taken away by the police, presumably for indecent exposure.

The style of the video and the musical performance is inspired by early-1990s R&B/new jack swing acts like Color Me Badd, Jodeci and R. Kelly; The Lonely Island and Timberlake were fans of such acts while growing up.[5] The premise also resembles a scene in the 1982 Barry Levinson film Diner, in which Mickey Rourke places his penis inside a box of popcorn at a movie theater to win a bet[6] and a scene in the 1980 Claude Pinoteau film La Boum, in which a junior high school student performs an identical act for fun.

Response

An uncensored version was made available on the Saturday Night Live website after the show was aired.[7] It features the same audience response track, as the short was aired uncensored to the in-studio audience.[citation needed]

NBC added the video to YouTube, where it received more than 28 million views.[needs update] Over 18 additional copies were also posted to various YouTube and Google Video accounts,[8] bringing the total views to over 35.3 million, making it the 24th most viewed video on the Internet[9] (as of September 2007).[needs update] On October 21, 2007, NBC took down its YouTube channel in preparation for the launch of Hulu.[10]

On December 22, 2006, the Parents Television Council called on NBC to "rethink its decision to post an uncensored version of a Saturday Night Live sketch on both its own website and YouTube".[11] When the sketch aired on SNL, NBC bleeped out the word dick a total of 16 times.[12]

Some radio stations played the edited version (called "Junk in a Box") as an unofficial single by Timberlake.[citation needed] The version used was recorded from the SNL broadcast.

The song won a Creative Arts Emmy for Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics.[3]

Sequel

On May 9, 2009, the day before Mother's Day, Samberg and Timberlake made another digital short featuring their characters from this video with their characters emerging from a New York City jail five months after the events of "Dick in a Box", called "Motherlover". In this song, the pair agree to present each other as sexual partners to their mothers (played by Susan Sarandon and Patricia Clarkson) as a Mother's Day gift, which they think is their second best idea ever.[13]

On Weekend update Justin Timberlake guest starred and said "I was supposed to host this episode" on the episode where Paul Rudd guest stared. He then went down his plan for the episode and said he planned a sequel to Dick in a Box called "Dick in a Turkey."

Parodies and homages

The band Incubus covered the song while on their 2006 Light Grenades Tour.[14] The band Umphrey's McGee covered the song, complete with box props, as their first encore of their New Year's Eve show in Chicago, with percussionist Andy Farag contributing vocals in the Andy Samberg role and Brendan Bayliss singing Justin Timberlake's part. The multi-camera video is available on YouTube.[15]

On an episode of The Ellen DeGeneres Show, DeGeneres performed a jingle for AQUA2GO water drink boxes to the tune of "Dick in a Box".[16][17] Facebook created a virtual gift shop for Valentine's Day that included a box with a bow on top and a hole cut into one of its sides.[18][19]

A parody from the female perspective, Leah Kauffman's "My Box in a Box", appeared on YouTube and has since been viewed over 5 million times.[20][21] On January 8, 2007, on Countdown with Keith Olbermann, Olbermann called "My Box in a Box" the "#1 most viralest video" in the world. The video received press coverage in a wide variety of media, including Rolling Stone[22] and Cosmopolitan.[23]

Charts

Chart (2009) Peak
position
Canadian Hot 100 82

References

  1. ^ "YouTube - Dick in a Box". Retrieved 2008-07-09. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)
  2. ^ Steinberg, Jacques (2006-12-21). "Censored 'SNL' Sketch Jumps Bleepless Onto the Internet". The New York Times. Retrieved 2004-12-30. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  3. ^ a b "2007 Creative Arts Emmy winners" (PDF) (Press release). Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. 2007-09-08. (page 10)
  4. ^ Hilton, Perez (September 9, 2007). "He's A Winner Too!". Retrieved 2007-09-09.
  5. ^ Kaufman, Gil (2006-12-20). "'SNL' Star Behind Timberlake's Raunchy Hit Hopes To 'Box' Up Full LP". MTV via VH1.com. Retrieved 2007-01-27. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  6. ^ Gordon, Devin (2007-08-13). "Is It Too 'Hot' In Here?". Newsweek: p. 53. {{cite journal}}: |pages= has extra text (help); Check date values in: |date= (help) ([1])
  7. ^ "Dick in a Box - Uncensored Version". Saturday Night Live. NBC. Retrieved 2008-02-03.
  8. ^ "NewTeeVee - Where to Find Good Video". NewTeeVee. Retrieved 2007-01-22.
  9. ^ "Vidmeter All Time Top 100". Vidmeter. Retrieved 2007-07-11.
  10. ^ "NBC Pulls YouTube Channel". ValleyWag. 2007-10-11. Retrieved 2007-11-11. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  11. ^ "PTC Criticizes NBC for Posting Uncensored "Saturday Night Live" Sketch on the Internet" (Press release). Parents Television Council. 2006-12-21. Retrieved 2007-08-01.
  12. ^ "PTC Puts NBC on Naughty List". Comcast News. 2006-12-22. Retrieved 2007-01-18. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  13. ^ "Hulu.com - Mother Lover". May 11, 2009. Retrieved 2009-11-5. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  14. ^ "Incubus Setlist". ncubus-online-view.com. 2007-09-05. Retrieved 2007-09-05. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  15. ^ "Umphrey's McGee - Dick in a Box - 12/31/2006". YouTube. 2007-01-08. Retrieved 2007-01-18. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  16. ^ "AQUA2GO Press Releases". Esgee Enterprises. 2007-01-10. Retrieved 2007-01-21. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  17. ^ "Ellen's Aqua2Go Commercial". Google Video. 2007-01-10. Retrieved 2007-01-21. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  18. ^ "Facebook Gift Shop". Facebook. 2007-02-08. Retrieved 2007-02-07. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help) (subscription access required)
  19. ^ "20.png". Facebook. 2007-02-08. Retrieved 2007-02-09. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)
  20. ^ "Leah Kauffman and Melissa Lamb Cosmopolitan July 2007
  21. ^ "My Box in a Box". YouTube. 2006-12-28. Retrieved 2008-02-03. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  22. ^ "My Box is in Rolling Stone". Rolling Stone. 2007-01. Retrieved 2008-02-03. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  23. ^ "Cosmopolitan July '07: My Box is a Overnight Success". Cosmopolitan. 2007-06. Retrieved 2008-02-03. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
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