3-Way (The Golden Rule)
Encyclopedia
"3-Way" is a song by American comedy music
group The Lonely Island
featuring American pop
singers Justin Timberlake
and Lady Gaga
. It appeared as an SNL Digital Short in the May 21, 2011 episode of the sketch comedy
television series Saturday Night Live
(SNL), which saw Timberlake and Gaga as the host and musical guest, respectively. It was released as a single
on May 24, three days after the broadcast.
The old school hip hop
and R&B
song was written by Andy Samberg
, Akiva Schaffer
, Jorma Taccone
, and Timberlake. Samberg and Timberlake were nervous about presenting the idea to Gaga, who initially failed to find the humor in the song. The music video, which aired on the SNL broadcast, is a sequel to the "Motherlover" sketch and finds Samberg and Timberlake reprising their roles from that skit as they sing about having a threesome
with Gaga. The song and sketch received positive reviews from critics who called it one of the funniest moments of the episode. "3-Way" received a nomination at the 63rd Primetime Emmy Awards
for Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics, but it lost to another song from the same SNL episode.
would once again host Saturday Night Live for its May 21, 2011 episode, many media commentators spectated that there would be a recurrence of the two characters that he and Samberg portrayed in past SNL Digital Shorts ("Dick in a Box
" and "Motherlover"). Speculation only increased when TMZ
released photos of Samberg and Timberlake shooting the music video, donning the same suits worn in "Dick in a Box". "3-Way" was written on May 19, with the song and video recorded on May 20. The beat of "3-Way" is by The Futuristics with Ryan & Smitty and Asa Taccone.
The song's premise follows the 1990s pop duo (Samberg and Timberlake) finding themselves invited to a threesome with "the girl [they] met at the Payless ShoeSource" (Gaga). Lady Gaga's character acknowledges that "most guys won't freak together," but the two conclude that "it's not gay, when it's in a three-way," and that they should follow "The Golden Rule". At one point in the song, the duo find that "the way to impress a chick" is by using the "helicopter dick". The song features a reference to the sitcom Three's Company
. Gaga related the nervousness of Samberg and Timberlake asking her to do the song in an interview on May 23:
praised the skit, writing, "Timberlake and Samberg work an intentionally cheesy R&B shtick with hilarious results." Ken Tucker of Entertainment Weekly
commented, "The old-school rap details were impeccable as always," though he was unsure about the intentions of the song's lyrics. "I'm going to give [The Lonely Island] the benefit of the doubt and say the lyric was a satire of the fear of being thought gay," he continued. Nick Carbone of Time
called the skit "hilarious" and praised Gaga's acting abilities in the skit and throughout the SNL episode. The Hollywood Reporter
' s Aaron Couch wrote that with the skit, "Justin Timberlake and Andy Samberge may have topped their Emmy
-winning digital short D--- in a Box ." People
s Alla Byrne and the Wall Street Journal staff both listed it as one of the funniest moments of the episode. "3-Way" received a nomination for Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics at the 63rd Primetime Emmy Awards
. However, it lost to the song "Justin Timberlake Monologue" from the same episode of SNL.
" and "Motherlover" sketches. "3-Way" is a sequel to the "Motherlover" sketch. The clip begins with each half of the duo exiting the house of the other's mother (played by Patricia Clarkson
and Susan Sarandon
) as she grabs him seductively. Timberlake and Samberg then greet each other, simultaneously saying, "Your mom says hi. Jinx
!" before they are seen in various locations around town as they sing the song's introduction ("yeah yeah yeah" repeated several times). Timberlake sings about his plans to have a sexual encounter with a girl he met the previous week at a Payless ShoeSource
store, while Samberg reveals similar plans about "a cutie [...] who loves the way I knock on her boots." They then leave, agreeing to meet back with each other in a few hours. They are both then seen outside of Gaga's apartment, where it is revealed that both of them agreed to have sex with her, though they did not know the other was also planning to do the same. She explains that she invited them both there so that they could have a threesome, which they quickly agree to do, citing the "golden rule" that "it's not gay
when it's in a 3-way." Following the encounter, Gaga walks back into the bedroom with a bowl of cereal to find Timberlake and Samberg under the covers together.
Comedy music
Comedy music is music that is comedic or humorous in nature, encompassing a wide variety of music genres. Popular types of comedy music include parody music, novelty songs, comedy rock and comedy hip hop.- Notable comedy musicians :...
group The Lonely Island
The Lonely Island
The Lonely Island is an American comedy troupe composed of Akiva "Kiv" Schaffer, Jorma "Jorm" Taccone, and David Andrew "Andy" Samberg, best known for their comedic music. Originally from Berkeley, California, the group is currently based in New York City. The group broke out due to their...
featuring American pop
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
singers Justin Timberlake
Justin Timberlake
Justin Randall Timberlake is an American pop musician and actor. He achieved early fame when he appeared as a contestant on Star Search, and went on to star in the Disney Channel television series The New Mickey Mouse Club, where he met future bandmate JC Chasez...
and Lady Gaga
Lady GaGa
Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta , better known by her stage name Lady Gaga, is an American singer and songwriter. Born and raised in New York City, she primarily studied at the Convent of the Sacred Heart and briefly attended New York University's Tisch School of the Arts before withdrawing to...
. It appeared as an SNL Digital Short in the May 21, 2011 episode of the sketch comedy
Sketch comedy
A sketch comedy consists of a series of short comedy scenes or vignettes, called "sketches," commonly between one and ten minutes long. Such sketches are performed by a group of comic actors or comedians, either on stage or through an audio and/or visual medium such as broadcasting...
television series Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live is a live American late-night television sketch comedy and variety show developed by Lorne Michaels and Dick Ebersol. The show premiered on NBC on October 11, 1975, under the original title of NBC's Saturday Night.The show's sketches often parody contemporary American culture...
(SNL), which saw Timberlake and Gaga as the host and musical guest, respectively. It was released as a single
Single (music)
In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a recording of fewer tracks than an LP or a CD. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats. In most cases, the single is a song that is released separately from an album, but it can still appear...
on May 24, three days after the broadcast.
The old school hip hop
Old school hip hop
Old school hip hop describes the earliest commercially recorded hip hop music , and the music in the period preceding it from which it was directly descended . Old school hip hop is said to end around 1983 or 1984 with the emergence of Run–D.M.C., the first new school hip hop group...
and R&B
Contemporary R&B
Contemporary R&B is a music genre that combines elements of hip hop, soul, R&B and funk.Although the abbreviation “R&B” originates from traditional rhythm and blues music, today the term R&B is most often used to describe a style of African American music originating after the demise of disco in...
song was written by Andy Samberg
Andy Samberg
David Andrew "Andy" Samberg is an American actor, comedian, rapper and writer best known as a member of the comedy group The Lonely Island and as a cast member on Saturday Night Live...
, Akiva Schaffer
Akiva Schaffer
Akiva Schaffer is an American writer for Saturday Night Live, a film director, songwriter, and a member of The Lonely Island, a sketch-comedy troupe that first found success on the Internet, which includes SNL cast member Andy Samberg and SNL writer Jorma Taccone...
, Jorma Taccone
Jorma Taccone
Jorma Christopher Taccone is an American comedy writer-actor-director. Taccone is one third of the sketch comedy troupe The Lonely Island along with childhood friends Andy Samberg and Akiva Schaffer...
, and Timberlake. Samberg and Timberlake were nervous about presenting the idea to Gaga, who initially failed to find the humor in the song. The music video, which aired on the SNL broadcast, is a sequel to the "Motherlover" sketch and finds Samberg and Timberlake reprising their roles from that skit as they sing about having a threesome
Threesome
A threesome is a group of three engaged in the same activity. In relation to a sexual activity a threesome refer to the activity involving three people of any gender or sexual orientation...
with Gaga. The song and sketch received positive reviews from critics who called it one of the funniest moments of the episode. "3-Way" received a nomination at the 63rd Primetime Emmy Awards
63rd Primetime Emmy Awards
The 63rd Annual Primetime Emmy Awards, honoring the best in primetime television programming from June 1, 2010 until May 31, 2011, was held on September 18, 2011, at the Nokia Theatre in Downtown Los Angeles, California. Fox televised the ceremony within the United States. Actress Jane Lynch hosted...
for Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics, but it lost to another song from the same SNL episode.
Background and composition
In the midst of the announcement that Justin TimberlakeJustin Timberlake
Justin Randall Timberlake is an American pop musician and actor. He achieved early fame when he appeared as a contestant on Star Search, and went on to star in the Disney Channel television series The New Mickey Mouse Club, where he met future bandmate JC Chasez...
would once again host Saturday Night Live for its May 21, 2011 episode, many media commentators spectated that there would be a recurrence of the two characters that he and Samberg portrayed in past SNL Digital Shorts ("Dick in a Box
Dick in a Box
"Dick in a Box" is a song by American comedy troupe The Lonely Island featuring singer Justin Timberlake. The song and music video debuted on Saturday Night Live as an SNL Digital Short on December 16, 2006...
" and "Motherlover"). Speculation only increased when TMZ
TMZ
TMZ can refer to any of the following:*The Thames airport in New Zealand*Thirty Mile Zone, a zone in and around Hollywood, California that is considered to be "local" for purposes of entertainment industry union work rules...
released photos of Samberg and Timberlake shooting the music video, donning the same suits worn in "Dick in a Box". "3-Way" was written on May 19, with the song and video recorded on May 20. The beat of "3-Way" is by The Futuristics with Ryan & Smitty and Asa Taccone.
The song's premise follows the 1990s pop duo (Samberg and Timberlake) finding themselves invited to a threesome with "the girl [they] met at the Payless ShoeSource" (Gaga). Lady Gaga's character acknowledges that "most guys won't freak together," but the two conclude that "it's not gay, when it's in a three-way," and that they should follow "The Golden Rule". At one point in the song, the duo find that "the way to impress a chick" is by using the "helicopter dick". The song features a reference to the sitcom Three's Company
Three's Company
Three's Company is an American sitcom that aired from March 15, 1977, to September 18, 1984, on ABC. It is based on the British sitcom, Man About the House....
. Gaga related the nervousness of Samberg and Timberlake asking her to do the song in an interview on May 23:
"I wish that they filmed the backstage scenario as both Justin and Andy Samberg tried simultaneously to pitch this idea to me and they both choked on the way in. Justin was like 'Umm so umm, we have a skit idea and umm, well I'm not really good at this I'll have Andy tell you.' Then Andy came and was like 'Well umm bluh blah we have this skit idea.' Then they both came in finally and they told me the story and I'm like, 'Guys, I get it.' They're like 'We really like each other.'"
Critical reception
The song and sketch received positive reviews from critics. Matt Donnelly of the Los Angeles TimesLos Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
praised the skit, writing, "Timberlake and Samberg work an intentionally cheesy R&B shtick with hilarious results." Ken Tucker of Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
commented, "The old-school rap details were impeccable as always," though he was unsure about the intentions of the song's lyrics. "I'm going to give [The Lonely Island] the benefit of the doubt and say the lyric was a satire of the fear of being thought gay," he continued. Nick Carbone of Time
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
called the skit "hilarious" and praised Gaga's acting abilities in the skit and throughout the SNL episode. The Hollywood Reporter
The Hollywood Reporter
Formerly a daily trade magazine, The Hollywood Reporter re-launched in late 2010 as a unique hybrid publication serving the entertainment industry and a consumer audience...
Emmy Award
An Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various...
-winning digital short D--- in a Box ." People
People (magazine)
In 1998, the magazine introduced a version targeted at teens called Teen People. However, on July 27, 2006, the company announced it would shut down publication of Teen People immediately. The last issue to be released was scheduled for September 2006. Subscribers to this magazine received...
s Alla Byrne and the Wall Street Journal staff both listed it as one of the funniest moments of the episode. "3-Way" received a nomination for Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics at the 63rd Primetime Emmy Awards
63rd Primetime Emmy Awards
The 63rd Annual Primetime Emmy Awards, honoring the best in primetime television programming from June 1, 2010 until May 31, 2011, was held on September 18, 2011, at the Nokia Theatre in Downtown Los Angeles, California. Fox televised the ceremony within the United States. Actress Jane Lynch hosted...
. However, it lost to the song "Justin Timberlake Monologue" from the same episode of SNL.
Music video
The music video for "3-Way" was shot on May 20, 2011, the same day the song was recorded, and aired as the SNL Digital Short during the May 21 SNL broadcast.Taccone is listed in the credits as having helped write an "Additional Sketch", and as having co-directed this short. Timberlake and Samberg appear in the video as their characters from the "Dick in a BoxDick in a Box
"Dick in a Box" is a song by American comedy troupe The Lonely Island featuring singer Justin Timberlake. The song and music video debuted on Saturday Night Live as an SNL Digital Short on December 16, 2006...
" and "Motherlover" sketches. "3-Way" is a sequel to the "Motherlover" sketch. The clip begins with each half of the duo exiting the house of the other's mother (played by Patricia Clarkson
Patricia Clarkson
Patricia Davies Clarkson is an American actress. After studying drama on the East Coast, Clarkson launched her acting career in 1985, and has worked steadily in both film and television. She twice won the Emmy for Outstanding Guest Actress in Six Feet Under...
and Susan Sarandon
Susan Sarandon
Susan Sarandon is an American actress. She has worked in films and television since 1969, and won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in the 1995 film Dead Man Walking. She had also been nominated for the award for four films before that and has received other recognition for her...
) as she grabs him seductively. Timberlake and Samberg then greet each other, simultaneously saying, "Your mom says hi. Jinx
Jinx (children's game)
A jinx is a children's game with myriad highly varied rules and penalties that occurs when two people unintentionally or intentionally speak the same word or phrase simultaneously.- Rules :...
!" before they are seen in various locations around town as they sing the song's introduction ("yeah yeah yeah" repeated several times). Timberlake sings about his plans to have a sexual encounter with a girl he met the previous week at a Payless ShoeSource
Payless ShoeSource
Payless ShoeSource is a discount footwear retailer founded in Topeka, Kansas in 1956 that is owned by Collective Brands, Inc. In 1961, it became a public company as the Volume Shoe Corporation which merged with the May Department Stores Company in 1979. In the 1980s, Payless was widely known in the...
store, while Samberg reveals similar plans about "a cutie [...] who loves the way I knock on her boots." They then leave, agreeing to meet back with each other in a few hours. They are both then seen outside of Gaga's apartment, where it is revealed that both of them agreed to have sex with her, though they did not know the other was also planning to do the same. She explains that she invited them both there so that they could have a threesome, which they quickly agree to do, citing the "golden rule" that "it's not gay
Gay
Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....
when it's in a 3-way." Following the encounter, Gaga walks back into the bedroom with a bowl of cereal to find Timberlake and Samberg under the covers together.
Charts
| Chart (2011) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| South Korean Gaon International Singles Chart Gaon Chart The Gaon Chart is a national record chart of South Korea. It is complied by the Korea Music Content Industry Association and sponsored by South Korea's Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism; with an aim to create a national chart for Korea similar to the Billboard charts and Oricon charts... |
13 |
| US Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles The Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles is a chart published weekly by Billboard magazine in the United States. It lists the top 25 singles below number 100 that have not yet charted on the Billboard Hot 100. Sometimes, however, singles halt their progress on this chart, and never appear on the Hot 100... |
3 |
External links
- "3-Way (The Golden Rule)" music video on YouTubeYouTubeYouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....