A Special Box

Granted, "A Special Box" was more of a Justin Timberlake skit than anything, but give Sandberg credit for coming through with another hit via SNL's digital short series.

Timberlake is the star here, but Sandberg is the perfect counterpart and seems to be the only actor currently working for SNL with any sort of star potential.

By the way, I know that many of the snarky Internet columnists and bloggers are making an effort to difuse this one, which is probably attributable to the Narnia mania from last year. There is nothing the pop culture illuminati does better than hating something that becomes too successful, so the backlash is probably to be expected. That said, this is genuinely funny, even if the concept isn't all that novel. Timberlake swinging from the basketball hoop, the Color Me Badd outfits, the step-by-step process for creating the box ... it all seems to work.

Anyway, here's a nod to Timberlake for constantly being able to surprise us with his versatile talents (get ready for more of that with the upcoming release of Alpha Dog) and good humor (see: those classic episodes of Punk'D). But also give a nod to Sandberg, who has been a driving force behind the two funniest things SNL has done in years (and had a solid cameo in the other video hit - the Natalie Portman gangsta rap).