Create a free profile to get unlimited access to exclusive show news, updates, and more!
Andy Samberg and Michael Phelps Get Intergalactic in SNL's "Space Olympics"
The 2008 Saturday Night Live digital short starring Andy Samberg was truly out of this world.
Paris is a beautiful locale for the 2024 Summer Olympics — but what about in a thousand years? What will the Olympics look like in the year 3022, and in which city on what planet will they be held on?
This was the premise for "Space Olympics," a digital short from Saturday Night Live's September 13, 2008 episode. Starring Andy Samberg, the video also features an appearance from one of the greatest Olympians of all time: Michael Phelps, who hosted the Season 34 premiere fresh off competing in Beijing.
"Space Olympics" stars Samberg as a white-haired, nearly translucent-skinned alien, performing a song that sounds straight out of Eurovision (complimentary) about the intergalactic games, and the problems that come along with trying to host the Olympics in outer space. Like "Lazy Sunday" and "D--k in a Box," the funny The Lonely Island-penned song also appears on the trio's 2009 Incredibad album.
RELATED: A Swimming Instructor Gets Hands-on with an Olympic Hopeful in SNL's Classic Sketch
SNL's "Space Olympics" are totally cancelled
As Samberg sings in the heavily Auto-Tuned track, the issues just get worse and worse for athletes competing on planet Zargon.
"Let it be known by every nation, you'll only get one meal a day," Samberg sings over footage of his character frustratedly crunching some numbers. "Because of a budget snafu, food funding insufficient. We can't really enforce a curfew, because there is no light or sound."
"Just one of the many problems with hosting a sporting event in space," he explains in song.
Many of the games at the Space Olympics — Space Disk, Space Swords, Space Luge —wind up getting "totally canceled," with all other events "pending." If that wasn't bad enough, Samberg's alien delivers the terrible news that oxygen has begun to run out on the giant spaceship carrying the athletes, and "someone who will not be named" has accidentally hit the self-destruct button.
The ship is about to explode, but Samberg's alien vows to stay on board and fight the hordes of evil alien invaders, sacrificing himself as the Olympians run to their escape pods.
RELATED: Watch Kevin Hart and Kenan Thompson Roast Colin Jost on Their Olympic Highlights Show
This digital short is truly out there, and in addition to Samberg, other SNL cast members make appearances in the video, including Bill Hader, Jason Sudeikis, and Casey Wilson. The episode's Host, Michael Phelps, also makes a cameo along with... a Laser Cat?
Here's hoping the 3026 Space Games as smoothly as the Paris Olympics did in 2024.
