The Times picks up on the success of the Lazy Sunday video — and the fact that the internet, not NBC, that gave it critical mass. (See my post below.)
t is their obliviousness to their total lack of menace – or maybe the ostentatious way they pay for convenience-store candy with $10 bills – that makes the video so funny, but it is the Internet that has made it a hit. Since it was originally broadcast on NBC, “Lazy Sunday” has been downloaded more than 1.2 million times from the video-sharing Web site YouTube.com; it has cracked the upper echelons of the video charts at NBC.com and the iTunes Music Store; and it has even inspired a line of T-shirts, available at Teetastic.com.
“I’ve been recognized more times since the Saturday it aired than since I started on the show,” said Mr. Samberg, 27, a featured player in his first season on “SNL.” “It definitely felt like something changed overnight.”
Every network exec, show producer, star, agent, and media prognosticator should pay attention to that: The internet makes stars. Well, actually, the audience makes stars, now that we’re empowered to.
