Jorma, Andy, and Akiva have lost it.

If you don't think you know who "The Lonely Island" is (are?), chances are you know their work. The front man for the group is Andy Samberg. He's the guy on SNL that's responsible for such skits as "Lazy Sunday" (the Chronic "WHAT?" - cles of Narnia), Lazer Catz, and stars in most of the other Digital Shorts on Saturday Night Live. All pretty funny huh?

The rest of the group does the work. They shoot/write/direct all those sketches. They've always been a little off their rockers, but it's understandable since most of comedy is leading the audience down a path of thinking one way, then at the appropriate time making the course correction that makes them laugh.

Shocking is the easy way out for comedians. The most recent Digital Short is an example of the end of the line for these guys. The sketch is Andy doing a painting of Paul Rudd naked, then Paul Rudd doing Andy, then both of them taking the painting to an art auction, where it's so horrific that the entire group commits suicide in more and more disgusting ways.

Even being as desensitized to this kind of humor as I am, I couldn't watch it and not only because it was gross either. I was just disappointed that it wasn't funny. Instead of putting in the work to bring a concept that will work to an audience, they decided to make something that they could laugh at and give the finger to everyone else.

What artists like this do (and I use the term artist loosely) is just pure ego. To get the joke the audience has to look at it from the perspective of the creator instead of the creator tailoring the joke to the audience. Call me lazy if you like, but I would like my entertainment to be entertaining. I don't want to have to start thinking like you to get your joke.