Well … this oddity came out of nowhere.
Andy Samberg and his Lonely Island cronies recently dropped The Unauthorized Bash Brothers Experience on Netflix. This nutty 27-minute “musical poem” chronicles the late ’80s insanity that was the Bash Brothers—the steroid-enriched combo of Oakland Athletics baseball players Jose Canseco (Samberg) and Mark McGwire (Akiva Schaffer).
The short film chronicles their rise and fall, taking a hilariously esoteric deep dive into psyches that were apparently a lot more complicated than their athletic exteriors revealed. The Lonely Island guys grew up in the Bay Area, so this is something that is close to home for them. It’s also an inspired and unexpected choice upon which to base a half-hour music video.
Musical group Haim shows up with Maya Rudolph to do an ass-shaking routine that reminds of Janet Jackson’s “Nasty,” while Sterling K. Brown makes an appearance as, yes, Sia. This is actually as visually impressive as it is musically, in line with the Lonely Island’s hilarious Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping.
The highlight actually comes during the credits, when Jorma Taccone shows up as a dorky, singing Joe Montana, another Bay Area sports legend. Popstar didn’t get any traction in theaters (although it deserved it), so maybe the shorter format will catch fire on Netflix, and we will get a bunch of these. That would be nice.
The Lonely Island Presents: The Unauthorized Bash Brothers Experience is now streaming on Netflix