Late Friday evening, Andy Samberg officially announced he was leaving SNL, after seven years on the show. It was a technicality, sure, but still necessary. Samberg told the New York Times, “Something about it just feels like it’s the moment. My contract’s up and I did so much more than I ever thought I would ever even do.” He did more than probably anyone thought he would do. He arguably changed SNL and how people watched SNL forever. Links shared on Sunday became as important as their live showing the night before. And fundamentally that is his legacy. Outside of the Digital Shorts, he didn’t really have many, if any, particularly popular characters (shout out to Blizzard Man). You could say Andy Samberg’s most popular character was himself, a distinction usually only reserved to Weekend Update anchors. This might be to his advantage as he tries to strike out on his own. This summer he has two movies coming out: That’s My Boy, which regardless of critical response, will likely Adam Sandler its way to at least a $100 million box office and Celeste and Jesse Forever, which is a nice indie romcom to pair with the other film’s broadness (also it has my name in the title, woohoo). What do you think: will he be a movie star, a TV star (he’d make a great friendly neighbor), or a Jewish Chris Kattan? Until then, watch the first and best (it’s definitely not the best – no one thinks it’s best, other than the American Lettuce Council) Digital Short, “Lettuce”:
Andy Samberg Officially Leaving ‘SNL’
