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Lazy Sunday

You might remember it as Chronic-what-cles of Narnia, SNL Digital Short Lazy Sunday

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2005·Early YouTube·funny

The sketch that made YouTube a mass destination and then triggered the takedown that defined early platform rights.

At a glanceThe facts

Remembered as
Chronic-what-cles of Narnia
Spread in
2005
Format
Video
Era
Early YouTube
Made by
The Lonely Island: Andy Samberg, Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone
Performed by
Andy Samberg and Chris Parnell
Taken from
A Digital Short on Saturday Night Live
Origin
Origin not yet established
Available
Playable from the source

Why it matteredWhat changed

It is the first television clip to spread on YouTube, in copies the broadcaster had not uploaded and then had removed. Its success is widely credited as the tipping point for the site, then five months old.

TimelineIn order

  1. Made

    The Lonely Island write the song. They record it the next day on a laptop bought second-hand.1

  2. Made

    It is broadcast on Saturday Night Live.1

  3. Taken down

    NBC Universal asks YouTube to take down the copies viewers had uploaded, which had been watched more than five million times.1

  4. Remixed

    A sequel, Lazy Sunday 2, is released.1

  5. Later

    The programme’s own YouTube channel posts the original.1

The version you rememberNot the same thing

The version people rememberThe YouTube copies

Uploaded by viewers, and removed at the network’s request in February 2006.1

The originalA Saturday Night Live broadcast

Shown once on television on 17 December 2005. The network did not put it on YouTube itself until 2013.1

What people misrememberSet straight

Commonly remembered asThe first viral video on YouTube.

ActuallyThe first television clip to spread there. Other videos had spread on the site before it.1

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Why it is here: something the internet still knows by name · it got out of its own corner of the internet fast · still being watched and quoted years later

The version shown here is an official copy on YouTube, published by a rights holder.

Where it came fromWhat we know

Original source uncertain. This is the earliest copy currently known.

View the official copy on YouTube

No original upload has been established for this record. The index is showing the earliest copy it currently knows about, and says so rather than guessing.

More from 2005You were there

More from early YouTubeMore of the archive

SourcesWhat was read

  1. Wikipedia — Lazy Sunday (The Lonely Island song)

Sources last read on . That date is about the history on this page. Whether the media still plays is checked separately and can change any day. How ViralWorld documents things

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