We couldn’t wait that long. That’s why, when Samberg and writer Neil Campbell stopped by Den of Geek Studio at San Diego Comic-Con 2025 to discuss the second season of their Comedy Central series Digman!, we requested that Samberg just go ahead tell us his favorite digital shorts. He kindly obliged, offering up unquestioned all-time classic, another modest hit, and one short that is truly off the beaten path of internet discourse.
“I have a bunch of them that I’m very fond of,” Samberg said. “I really like ‘Jack Sparrow.’ I feel like that one kind of encapsulates everything that we do and is still appreciated by true comedy heads. I really like the one we do called ‘Great Day’ where I’m on Commerce Street just gacked out of my mind. There’s one I did from my last season with Jake Szymanski and Jonah Hill called ‘Tennis Balls.’ That’s one that makes me laugh so hard. It was Jonah’s idea cuz there was actually a science video online of a guy who’s like ‘This is what happens when you get hit in the nuts with a tennis ball.’ We took it and ran very far with it.”
Surely, “Jack Sparrow” and “Great Day” are natural considerations for any list of the best SNL Digital Shorts. The former should always have a place in anyone’s top 10 and the latter is an underappreciated gem. “Tennis Balls,” on the other hand, is a real wild card choice from Samberg. This one hasn’t really cracked the cultural zeitgeist like other digital shorts. But based on a rewatch of the clip in question, perhaps it should!
The Jonah Hill and Samberg-starring clip is a touch longer than the average SNL Digital Short, approaching four minutes. But the extra time here is more than well spent as tennis ball after tennis ball is fired into Hill’s gonads as the camera examines the testicular trauma from countless angles. The short also makes time for a visit from some ghost hunters and then both kills and resurrects Hill via direct strikes to the nuts. Simply put: it’s a damn good time.
The best part of it, however, might just be its fidelity to the original clip in question. As Samberg mentioned, “Tennis Balls” was inspired by an episode of the FSN/ESPN series Sports Science (hosted by the wonderful John Brenkus who unfortunately died earlier this year). If you thought that Hill’s character’s striking goatee, lengthy cargo shorts, and dorky sandals were a creative flourish, get a load of this specimen:
Whether the goal is scientific study or comedic amusement, there is clearly no uniform more fitting for getting blasted in the balls.