For millennials such as myself, Saturday Night Lives run from 2008 through 2013 largely defined our generations comedic personas. The core, absurdly talented MVPs of that era like Kristen Wiig, Bill Hader, Seth Myers, and Fred Armisen have left the show and springboarded to greater heights. But for as memorable as those performers are, the cast member who quickly came to represent the millennial sense of humor, and in some ways help define it, was Andy Samberg. And while the actor/comedian/producer is getting his flowers for his work in Hulu and NEONs newly released Palm Springs, diehards will tell you Samberg has always been this goodand hes still getting better.

It was Sambergs now-infamous Lazy Sunday which attuned meand many viewersto his particular brand of comedic stylings. At the core of the video was Samberg; his goofy, expressive face contrasted with his sincerity about getting hyped for Sunday movie matinee. The whole video felt like Samberg and his childhood friends turned collaborators Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Tacconecollectively known as The Lonely Islandhad mined my skull, cherrypicking all the right things I loved, and rolling them into a perfect bit of comedy. The sketch is just as funny 15 years laterand thats even before you get to a weirdly prescient Aaron Burr/Alexander Hamilton joke. Samberg and the rest of The Lonely Island gleefully expanded their ambition, scope, and talent with no premise too far afield. A riff on Bonnie and Clyde wherein Clyde has performance anxiety? Gold. Pansexual dudes who are enjoying one last frat-tastic Spring Break ahead of committing themselves to their future husbands? Amazing satire. On and on the brilliance went as Samberg helped to define both YouTube and viral videos in equal measure while establishing SNL as appointment viewing to see what the groups chaotic reign would bring next.

In spite of The Lonleys Islands anarchy, Sambergs leading presence in these sketches provided an ever-persistent goofiness balanced by an everyman affability. Its a useful skill that helped to ground the groups most absurd moments. Its also a tightrope thats taken larger audiences some time to fully suss outespecially when looking at his projects outside of Saturday Night Live. Hot Rod is a ridiculous comedy about the arrested development of a wannabe stuntman in a small town. Its also a moving story about the search for paternal acceptance. Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping is just as much a This is Spinal Tap (with excellent jokes and incredible musical numbers) for the Justin Bieber generation as it is an exploration of why Schaffer, Taccone, and Samberg will always work well together creatively. Even projects that are seemingly disposablelike Netflixs 2019 The Unauthorized Bash Brother Experiencemange to be deviously smart in the way it garners absolute hilarity out of being too roided out to finish having sex or the burdens of being a successful athlete.

In many ways, time has been Sambergs best friend. Hot Rod and Popstar eventually flourished after theyd been stripped of their initial expectations. Samberg seems happy to plant (cool) beans and let them sit until suddenly, without warning, they explode into fully formed comedic beanstalks. But in those films, the characters arent dissimilar from the roles that defined his SNL Digital Shorts. Samberg isnt changing for audiences but instead waiting for them to catch up. Some of that has happened already; while Brooklyn Nine-Nine will certainly change in the wake of recent events, the show functions best when Sambergs Jake Peralta (a role in which he won a Golden Globe) gets to be as weird as possible within his own surreal work family. The show creates a Cheers-esque environment by just being a deeply pleasant hangout show, complete with a tone thats equal parts warm and hilarious in its own way.

But if the initial reaction to Palm Springsis any indication, audiences have finally caught up. [Ed. note: Spoilers for Palm Springs follow.] The biggest Sundance seller of all time by a nice amount features the actor at his most Sambergian, clad in a bathing suit and a Hawaiian shirt. Sambergs Nyles has already been living in one of those infinite-time-loop situations that you might have heard about for quite some time before Cristin Miliotis Sarah inadvertently joins him. Nyles has fully accepted his fate, declaring to Sarah in between sips of beer, I decided a while ago to sort of give up and stop trying to make sense of things altogether because the only way to really live in this is to embrace the fact that nothing matters. Nyles cynical affect may appear to fly in the face of what we typically expect from a Samberg character, but hes explored nihilism before in his work with Lonely Island (Bash Brothers, in particular, has heaps of it). But its typically been deployed in service of a joke. In Palm Springs, the dourness stands in equal measure with the comedy; neither part ever threatens to overtake the other. This helps to foster a tone for the film thats serious but never depressing or joyless. Its a deeply smart execution of two opposing ideas that Samberg masterfully balances, making the whole movie feel like a watershed moment for him in terms of showing audiences the true breadth of his range.

Palm Springs is full of contradictions. Its heartwarming in the face of an oppressively dour circumstance, equal parts comedy and drama, immature yet adult, and trenchant in a way hes always been. After all, who hasnt felt like theyre living their own version of Groundhog Day as quarantine continues? Palm Springs, based on premise alone, was always going to draw comparisons to Bill Murrays breakthrough hitbut theres far more overlap than youd anticipate. Palm Springs fashions a more dramatic role for Samberg to play in the same way that Groundhog Day did for Bill Murray. Murray was 42 when Groundhog Day came out;Samberg is 41. Not quite an infinite time loop, but a loop nonetheless. Where the two films differ, however, is where the brilliance of Springs arises. Including Miliotis Sarah adds a breath of fresh air to a well-worn premise and she serves as an excellent partner for Sambergs inherent goofiness. The duo doesnt break the loop by letting the universe determine what happens, rather, the characters conclusively go their own way. The results are staggeringly refreshing.

Palm Springs doesnt seem reversed engineered to be a hit vehicle for Samberg. Its just focused on being the best film it can be by leveraging whats always made the comedian great. Thats a lesson more films could stand to take as the actor looks at whats next. The more dramatic portions of Springs prove Samberg is more than capable of handling weighty material while still managing to find moments that speak to his sense of comedic timing. Its not hard to imagine him working with a creative who could really help Samberg tap into the potential of something seriousperhaps in a similar way that Wes Anderson leveraged Bill Murray in Rushmore for example. But even if thats not the direction Samberg decides to head, hes still a creative force to be reckoned with; his track record as a producer on Hulus PEN15 and Netflixs I Think You Should Leave highlight his expertise at finding new voices in the realm of comedy to spotlight for a new generation.

Regardless of what he chooses to do next, the future seems wide open and exciting for the comedian in a way that it quite hasnt before. Palm Springs reconfirms Samberg as a major talent, sees him level up in an exciting way, and proves hes capable of so much more than raps about being on a boat. But as he famously reminded us in that song, anything is possible. It might have been a joke back thenbut its certainly a fact now.

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With 'Palm Springs', Andy Samberg Proves He's Always Been Ahead of the Curve - Complex