Lazy Sunday

2005

Date: 17 December 2005 · Place: Saturday Night Live, Studio 8H, then YouTube · Figures: Andy Samberg, performer and co-writer · Chris Parnell, performer · The Lonely Island, Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone, co-writers · Tags: Sketch, YouTube 01. A Hard Rap About Cupcakes Andy Samberg, freshly hired at SNL with the Lonely Island team, premieres Lazy Sunday with Chris Parnell on 17 December 2005. Two grown men rap, with full hip-hop posture, about going to see The Chronicles of Narnia and buying cupcakes from the Magnolia Bakery. The piece is shot like a real music video. The studio audience laughs. The real reaction lives elsewhere. 02. The Network Discovers YouTube Within 24 hours the clip is on the ten-month-old YouTube. By February 2006 it has been viewed five million times. NBC issues a takedown. The takedown is the news story. The takedown is also when NBC Universal realises every clip in its vault is suddenly worth more, and starts negotiating what will eventually become Hulu. Lazy Sunday is the first SNL sketch to break on YouTube before broadcast reruns. It is the moment legacy network television acknowledges that the after-life of a sketch on the internet matters more than the airing. Sources • Saturday Night Live, S31E9 (17 December 2005) • The New York Times, 'NBC, Viacom and YouTube' (February 2006) • KnowYourMeme, Lazy Sunday