A member of The Lonely Island and former Saturday Night Live star is counting his blessings after surviving a scary accident.
Jorma Taccone, who is one-third of the popular comedy music trio, revealed in a podcast episode with Seth Meyers and fellow Lonely Island members Andy Samberg and Akiva Schaffer that he endured a recent 20-foot fall in his Connecticut barn.
Taccone, 48, recorded his part of the Sept. 2 episode of “The Lonely Island and Seth Myers Podcast” from the hospital, where he said he was “insanely lucky” to be alive following his tumble from a “rickety” ladder.
MANCHESTER, TENNESSEE – JUNE 15: (L-R) Akiva Schaffer, Andy Samberg, and Jorma Taccone of The Lonely Island performs on Which Stage during the 2019 Bonnaroo Arts And Music Festival on June 15, 2019 in Manchester, Tennessee. (Photo by Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic for Bonnaroo Arts And Music Festival )
The freak accident has left Taccone unable to walk for the time being, but still has him grateful that it wasn’t worse.
Decorating gone wrong
Taccone told his co-hosts that he was in the process of getting things together for his daughter’s fifth birthday party when disaster struck.
“I was painting this barn and then I was like, as a final touch, I should hang these lights that will go around the barn,” he said. “… So I’m using this ladder that my neighbor let me borrow and he was like, ‘Hey, this ladder is bad, like, you shouldn’t use this ladder. It doesn’t have a footing thing …’ ”
“I’m probably 20 feet off the ground on this very rickety ladder and I have it diagonal … I felt it give way and … in this moment my life flashes before my eyes and I’m like, ‘Oh no, I gotta get off this ladder,’ ” recalled Taccone. “…As I’m falling [I’m] like, ‘I’m gonna die.’ And so I drop … and I fall straight on my butt.”
Taccone said he immediately began screaming and felt “numb,” so he knew something was seriously wrong.
Plenty of damage, but still lucky
After going to the hospital, Taccone was told he had fractured his pelvis on the left side and detached his sacrum from his spine. He also damaged one of the discs in his back.
On the bright side, things could have been much worse, he said.
“My doctor came in this morning and was like, ‘Oh yeah. If you had hit your heels — if you’d landed on both your heels — that would have been 10 times worse,’ ” Taccone explained. “I’m like, ‘10 times worse? I didn’t know pain at that level was possible.’”
As of now, the writer and comedian is looking at being unable to walk for at least three months. He’ll begin “acute rehab” soon.
“All the doctors have been like, ‘You’ll be walking within, like, three to six months, and you’ll be back to all of the stuff that you normally do,’” Taccone said. “The surgery could not have gone better. … I’m insanely lucky.”
This story was originally reported by Men’s Journal on Sep 3, 2025, where it first appeared in the Entertainment section. Add Men’s Journal as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
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