So what's there to watch? If you haven't checked it out yet, be
prepared for the strangest, most obscure, clandestine, nostalgic,
trendy, and pointless video clips ever recorded by the human race.
In addition to the classic "Bus Uncle," you can find European
music videos, Japanese anime, political news clips, soccer
highlights, pet tricks, low-budget film parodies, amateur
musicians, vacation videos, and an inordinate number of teenagers
staring into a web camera and lip-synching a popular song.
Adult-oriented clips are edited out; everything else is fair game.
Links to these videos are spread via e-mail or are posted on blogs
or other websites.
Media critics have attributed the YouTube phenomenon in part to
our shortening attention span and to our access to technology, as
well as to an increase in exhibitionism in our society. But it
poses a problem for old-school media accustomed to spending money
to produce videos and then recouping the investment by selling the
content to viewers. Unlike cable or satellite television, YouTube
is totally free.
In December 2005, a user posted a short
Saturday Night Live
film to the site. The rap parody was titled "Lazy Sunday" and
depicted the very nongangster lives of two slackers eating cupcakes
and going to see the movie
The Chronicles of Narnia.
Traditional film and television studios were stunned to see their
copyrighted work passed around the world, much farther than the
reach of
Saturday Night Live itself. In one sense, it made
the show relevant again to a younger audience. Unfortunately, all
this exposure came without permission or payment.
Even though money couldn't buy such successful viral advertising,
NBC issued a cease-and-desist order and demanded that all its clips
be removed from
YouTube. Another division of the corporation, the
programming executives, wanted to know how they could get involved.
NBC has since struck a partnership with YouTube to air the
network's clips and previews on the website.