SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE - SNL LEAVES GIFT BOX ON YOUTUBE

SNL LEAVES GIFT BOX ON YOUTUBE

Becoming one of the viral-est videos -- critics might have called it "vilest;" admirers might have called it "virilest" -- ever to hit the web, a boy-band parody that aired last weekend on Saturday Night Live has already been played online by nearly as many people as watched it live. Numerous websites linked to the video on YouTube, featuring Andy Samberg and Justin Timberlake, after the New York Times reported on Thursday that NBC had agreed to allow the on-air bleeps to be removed from it. (The video was also posted on the NBC site, but, oddly, few if any other other websites linked to it.) In the video, Samberg and Timberlake borrow the unmistakable vocal style of 'N Sync and countless other boy bands and the mannerisms of rappers to render a song about delivering their, er, genitalia in a gift box to their girlfriends for Christmas. Titled "D**k in a box," the video is preceded by a warning that it contains language that was not aired during the original NBC broadcast. In the Times article, Rick Ludwin, head of late-night programming for the network, said that his initial reaction was that the unbleeped version of the video should not be posted on the Internet because "it's still representing NBC" but later changed his mind, concluding that those who might be offended by it "are probably unlikely to go searching for it on the Internet."

22/12/2006