The Lonely Island & Alanis Morissette Bring “Semicolon,” “Ironic” To ‘Jimmy Kimmel’ : Watch

Christina Lee | June 8, 2013 12:06 pm

When The Lonely Island performed “Semicolon” on Jimmy Kimmel Live, the parody rap group didn’t explain why Alanis Morissette — and not Solange, as heard in the studio version — was singing the chorus, not at first anyway.

Even though “Semicolon” riffs off rap’s current obsession with commas (as in, the number that appears in their current salaries), and chancellor reference aside, the Lonely Island clearly had the ’90s in mind: “‘Did I do that?’ Urkel / Angela, Who’s the Boss? / Merkel.” So when Morissette interrupted to correct them on their use of semicolons, the Lonely Island paused, then fired back with another retro reference. 

“I gotta say Alanis — coming from you, that’s a little ironic,” Andy Samberg said — a cue for Morissette to start singing  “Ironic,” a song that’s still receiving flack for being grammatically incorrect. If only Morissette had more time to sing her more confusing, not-so-ironic lyrics, such as, “It’s like ten thousand spoons when all you need is a knife / It’s meeting the man of my dreams, and then meeting his beautiful wife.”

Watch the Lonely Island and Morissette’s “Semicolon” up top.