Jose Canseco and Mark McGwire are the subject of a parody act on Netflix.
The comedy trio “The Lonely Island” relives Major League Baseball’s steroid era with a new parody album called “The Unauthorized Bash Brothers Experience”. Jose Canseco and Mark McGwire are portrayed as superstar baseball rappers by Adam Samberg and Akiva Schaffer, respectively.
The visual rap album spoofs admitted steroid users Canseco and McGwire during the 1988 MLB season. The former Oakland Athletics superstars are re-imagined in a mockumentary that includes steroid use as a recurring theme in eleven rap songs.
The comedy special is good for a few laughs but doesn’t attempt to provide any serious insight into baseball’s steroid era or two of the most prominent poster boys for the era.
Brand new The Lonely Island track! Jose Canseco and Mark Mcgwire came and performed in person!!! #theLonelyIsland @thelonelyisland pt. 1 pic.twitter.com/qZjylmFLgj
— Vincent Damone / Sean PM (@rockdekorose) May 28, 2018
Jose Canseco and Mark McGwire were two of the highest-profile steroid users in baseball.
McGwire played 16 years between 1986 and 2001 in the MLB and ended his career with 583 home runs. He set the single season home run record of 70 home runs in 1988 as a member of the St. Louis Cardinals.
McGwire was long suspected of using steroids but he vehemently denied it for years. It took him 12 years before he would publicly admit it. IN January 2010, McGwire finally confessed to using anabolic steroids and human growth hormone during his 1988 historic home run chase. However, he unbelievably denied that they actually affected his performance.
Canseco, on the other hand, has been relatively open and honest about his steroid use. Canseco was ostracized from the sport of baseball after he published two tell-all books called “Juiced: Wild Times, Rampant ‘Roids, Smash Hits & How Baseball Got Big” and “Vindicated: Big Names, Big Liars, and the Battle to Save Baseball”.
The auto-biographical works extensively discussed Canseco’s own steroid use. But even more controversially, the books claimed that the majority of MLB players were using steroids and performance-enhancing drugs.
Specifically, Canseco alleged that most of the sports top players were steroid users. These included his former “bash brother” Mark McGwire as well as Jason Giambi, Alex Rodriguez, Rafael Palmeiro and Roger Clemens.
Canseco’s claims were particularly outrageous at the time of publication but over the years evidence mounted that he was telling the truth.
The world premiere of the 30-minute Netflix comedy special was released on May 23, 2019.