The Story Behind “I Just Had Sex” By Lonely Island - GQ

Here, The Lonely Island members Akiva Schaffer, Andy Samberg, and Jorma Taccone (plus DJ Frank E) come together to share the story of how this classic song came to be.

“I Just Had Sex” was definitely one of those where we were like, “Oh, we should do something on this.

Andy Samberg: We're not big weed guys, but we constantly would do interviews around our albums and people would be like, “what were you guys smoking when you came up with this idea?” And this one is funny because we actually were smoking when we came up with this idea.

Andy Samberg: And we were like, “Oh, Dad's gone.

Jorma Taccone: The first line that I thought was really funny that I think he said was, "let us flop around on top of them.” Because it's the most accurate part of the song of just like, "Ah, this is sadly how I think a lot of women maybe feel about sex with men.".

Akiva Schaffer: And then I got to wake up in the morning and be like, “I wonder what they got into.” I opened Pro Tools and I could hear the first verse and or first chorus.

Jorma Taccone: Oftentimes if there's a song that has the two of us on it, such as "I'm on a Boat,” usually it was like a two guy concept and the other guy comes in to punch it.

Andy Samberg: “We Takin’ Over” [by DJ Khaled] had just come out when we were making that album.

It starts off with him saying his own name and we were like, “oh, we should do it like Khaled's mixtape.” We reached out to Akon’s team and we were basically like, “We wrote this song for Akon.

Jorma Taccone: We’re just massive fans and we immediately sort of thought of him as somebody who we were fans of, but also would sound good on it.

And it's not mixed or anything.” And we were like, “Oh my God, he just destroyed that.” Then he flew out to New York to make the video.

Andy Samberg: He was having a blast.

Jorma Taccone: They were like, "Yeah.

Andy Samberg: Akon was freezing cold, as we all were.

Akiva Schaffer: It's the second tallest building in New York.

Akiva Schaffer: Akon, for most of his takes, his face wasn't moving.

Andy Samberg: It was gnarly.

Akiva Schaffer: Armageddon was the main inspiration.

Just global families watching TV and people watching it in Times Square and singing along to it.

Andy Samberg: And so successful.

Akiva Schaffer: And we were like 22 in LA with nothing.

Andy Samberg: Thanks to Katy Perry for loaning us those fireworks.

Jorma Taccone: It is a big celebratory, “anyone can get behind this” sort of concept like “you're a firework." Anyone can feel that.

Andy Samberg: Blake [Lively] and Jessica [Alba], I think we got the talent department at SNL.

Akiva Schaffer: When they said yes, we were very stoked.

Andy Samberg: The pile of manure was definitely the last thing we shot and that's all I really remember.

Jorma Taccone: It's one of the dumbest songs that we've ever made, to me.

Andy Samberg: Personally speaking, it's not really one of my favorites.

Akiva Schaffer: Sometimes we'd hear a beat and be like, “Man, if Drake took this one this could be on the radio tomorrow.

Andy Samberg: Sometimes we would actually get to meet and talk to the producers and it was generally because they liked what we did, but we always would have this insecurity that they'd be like, “Oh man, these dumbasses ruined my music.”.

Akiva Schaffer: My favorite part about it is how it's one of our best ones that we pulled off in terms of, it sounded like an actual radio song.

And a huge part of that is just, we like Akon and how his voice sounds.

Akiva Schaffer: Akon and Frank E.

Akiva Schaffer: In some foreign countries where English is not their first language, it was being played un-ironically

We got direct messages from people there like, “It’s playing at the club as if it's just a song.” Because the nuance of the distinction would be lost if English wasn't your first language

Andy Samberg: It's Akon