“Saturday Night Live” skit puts YouTube on map

By Andrew Wallenstein

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) – It took a “Saturday
Night Live” skit featuring a rap about cupcakes and “The
Chronicles of Narnia” to put YouTube on Hollywood’s radar.

Not long after “SNL” aired the segment December 17, the
clever lyrics to what was known as “Lazy Sunday” made its way
to the Internet. YouTube in particular saw its traffic shoot
up, with 5 million streams over 45 days — making it the
most-watched clip on the site for a time.

Nearly two months went by before NBC Universal’s legal
department began reaching out to viral video sites including
http://www.YouTube requesting that the clip be removed, along
with hundreds of other clips culled from its airwaves. NBC had
already posted “Sunday” on http://www.NBC.com at no charge; the
skit also is available for $1.99 on Apple’s iTunes along with
other NBC programs.

Since then, NBC has made a steady stream of “SNL” product
available on new platforms, but YouTube hasn’t left the
picture. A skit featuring Natalie Portman this month drew
another demand of removal from NBC.

And what would an Internet phenomenon be without spawning
countless parodies. “Sunday” has generated more than a few
versions of “Lazy Monday,” picking up on the theme of
hopelessly white kids trying to rap. Two standouts are “Lazy
Muncie,” in which two denizens of the titular Indiana town give
shout-outs to Midwest franchises like Bob Evans, and “Lazy
Monday: Middle East Coast,” which runs subtitles under
Al-Jazeera footage featuring Osama bin Laden and Ayman
Al-Zawahiri (“Let’s go down to the village/and mac on some goat
milk”).

Reuters/Hollywood Reporter