Justin Timberlake explains the origins of 'D— in a Box,' says it almost never happened

Did you ever wonder how that d— got into the box?

Not, literally. We're talking about the origin story of the 2006 SNL digital short that features Justin Timberlake and Andy Samberg performing a seductive song about a DIY gift for their girlfriends, appropriately named "D– in a Box." During a recent appearance on Hot Ones, Timberlake shared how the now-infamous skit came about, while chowing down on some particularly spicy wings covered in the hottest of hot sauces.

The Grammy-winning singer explained that when he first got in the room with the Lonely Island guys they were struggling to come up with a concept, until an idea about "a duo of guys who are still stuck in a time, in a certain style: silk suits, the herringbone chains and meticulously sculpted facial hair" struck. Once they had their characters in place, the guys just had to come up with something for them to do. "Finally, Jorma [Taccone] says, ‘What if we do the old popcorn in the movies prank?’" explains Timberlake. "He was like, 'You know the whole d--- in the popcorn.’ I was like, ‘That sounds super creepy, bro!’ To which we then said, 'Yeah, that’s totally appropriate for two guys who are completely misled about what’s appropriate.'"

Cut to the early hours of Saturday show day and the guys have just wrapped shooting when the FCC showed up to let them know they couldn't say the expletive word found in the title and throughout the song on air. Luckily, they were able to okay it though, if the offending word was bleeped out. "I think the irony of that is, I think the funnier version of that is the bleeped out version," says the Trolls star. "I fully believe that that idea wouldn’t have been seen all the way through if the big wigs had known what we were doing."

Watch the video above to see how Timberlake handled his hot sauces.

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