In the mid-2000s, internet video culture and mainstream network television were two completely separate universes. One man, alongside his childhood best friends, blew that wall to pieces: Andy Samberg.
As one-third of the legendary musical comedy trio The Lonely Island (alongside Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone), Samberg single-handedly ushered Saturday Night Live into the viral digital era. Tracks like “Lazy Sunday,” “Dick in a Box,” and “I’m on a Boat” didn’t just rack up hundreds of millions of YouTube views—they revolutionized how television comedy was produced, consumed, and shared.
Yet Samberg’s greatest achievement has been his evolution far beyond the three-minute viral sketch. Across eight seasons of beloved network television on Brooklyn Nine-Nine, cult-classic slapstick films, and existential indie masterpieces, Samberg proved that ridiculous absurdity and genuine emotional warmth can coexist seamlessly.
Here are the 10 best Andy Samberg movies and TV shows, ranked from fantastic to unforgettable.
10. Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (2009)
The Role: A former child sardine-ad mascot desperately clinging to local town celebrity who discovers his true calling inside a giant roasted chicken.
Teaming up with longtime Studio 8H castmate Bill Hader in Phil Lord and Christopher Miller’s animated hit, Samberg leaned hard into voice-acting buffoonery. Shouting “Uh-oh!” in a baby diaper and evolving into a courageous hero who pilots a giant poultry suit, Samberg turned a ridiculous caricature into the film’s funniest redemption arc.
9. Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers (2022)
The Role: The glory-hound chipmunk who underwent controversial "CGI surgery" to maintain relevancy on the nostalgic fan-convention circuit.
Directed by Lonely Island partner Akiva Schaffer and co-starring John Mulaney, this meta-satirical hybrid won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Television Movie. Samberg voiced Dale with hilarious desperation and showbiz narcissism, sending up Hollywood’s obsession with reboots, bootleg animations, and algorithmic intellectual property.
8. Tour de Pharmacy (2017)
The Role: An oblivious, fabulously wealthy white Nigerian cyclist navigating the scandal-plagued, drug-fueled 1982 Tour de France.
Following in the footsteps of their tennis parody 7 Days in Hell, Samberg and HBO assembled an absurd comedy about international cycling corruption. With cameos ranging from Orlando Bloom and Jeff Goldblum to a hilariously unrepentant Lance Armstrong, Samberg’s deadpan idiocy anchored the madness in pure comedic joy.
7. Celeste and Jesse Forever (2012)
The Role: An unemployed artist attempting to maintain an affectionate best-friendship with his ex-wife while navigating a painful divorce.
In this bittersweet Sundance indie, Samberg delivered his first truly grounded dramatic performance. Co-starring opposite Rashida Jones, Samberg captured the gentle, agonizing friction of two soulmates who love each other deeply but cannot make a marriage work. His quiet, understated heartbreak proved he had remarkable dramatic range beneath the goofy persona.
6. 7 Days in Hell (2015)
The Role: The mullet-wearing, cocaine-fueled "bad boy of professional tennis" locked in an endless, week-long Wimbledon match.
Clocking in at a breathless 45 minutes, 7 Days in Hell is one of the funniest sports parodies ever committed to screen. Playing opposite Game of Thrones star Kit Harington, Samberg channeled Andre Agassi and John McEnroe taken to psychotic extremes. The mockumentary features real sports commentators (John McEnroe, Chris Evert) analyzing the fictional match with stone-faced gravitas.
5. Hot Rod (2007)
The Role: An amateur stuntman who jumps mopeds over school buses to raise \$50,000 for his abusive stepfather’s life-saving heart surgery—so he can kick his butt.
Though largely misunderstood upon its initial 2007 theatrical release, Hot Rod has since achieved legendary status as a cult comedy masterpiece. Featuring unhinged physical stunts, an immortal angry forest punch-dance montage to John Farnham’s “You’re the Voice,” and electric support from Danny McBride and Bill Hader, Samberg’s pure, earnest stupidity made Rod Kimble an underdog icon.
4. Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping (2016)
The Role: An arrogant, sheltered former boy-band member whose bloated solo album tanks, sending his career into a public tailspin.
The 21st-century spiritual heir to This Is Spinal Tap, Popstar is a razor-sharp takedown of modern celebrity narcissism, TMZ culture, and corporate musical greed. With brilliant musical parodies like “Finest Girl (Bin Laden Song)” and “I’m So Humble,” Samberg gave Conner just enough childlike innocence that you root for his boy-band reunion even while laughing at his sheer stupidity.
3. Saturday Night Live: The Digital Shorts Era (2005–2012)
The Impact: Creating the pre-taped digital revolution that revitalized late-night comedy for the internet generation.
Before December 17, 2005, Saturday Night Live was exclusively a live theatrical broadcast. That night, “Lazy Sunday”—featuring Samberg and Chris Parnell rapping aggressively about The Chronicles of Narnia and cupcakes—exploded online, practically putting YouTube on the cultural map.
Across seven seasons alongside fellow titans like Will Forte, Bill Hader, Vanessa Bayer, and Kristen Wiig, Samberg churned out modern classics like “Dear Sister,” “Jizz in My Pants,” and “Jack Sparrow” (with Michael Bolton), permanently changing the DNA of late-night television.
2. Palm Springs (2020)
The Role: A cynical wedding guest trapped in a desert time loop who finds an unlikely partner in crime when the maid of honor gets sucked in with him.
Selling for a record-breaking \$17.5 million at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival, Palm Springs takes the familiar Groundhog Day premise and reinvents it as a profound meditation on depression, existential dread, and human connection.
Samberg’s Nyles is charming, weary, and deeply terrified of vulnerability. His sparkling banter with Cristin Milioti and terrifying encounters with J.K. Simmons showed that Samberg could lead a top-tier cinematic philosophical romance with effortless charisma.
1. Brooklyn Nine-Nine (2013–2021)
The Role: The childish, *Die Hard*-obsessed precinct detective whose unmatched investigative genius is balanced by profound loyalty to his found family.
There is no role in Andy Samberg’s career that matches the cultural footprint, longevity, and pure joy of Detective Jake Peralta.
Over 153 episodes across eight seasons, Samberg won the Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Comedy Series and turned a standard workplace sitcom into one of the most beloved ensembles in television history.
What made Peralta immortal was his evolution: starting as an immature prankster, he grew into an empathetic husband, father, and moral detective without ever losing his infectious, goofy joy. His surrogate father-son relationship with the late, great Andre Braugher’s Captain Raymond Holt created some of the most touching, hilarious television moments of the 21st century. “Cool, cool, cool, cool, cool. No doubt, no doubt, no doubt.”