Which Saturday Night Live sketch helped popularize YouTube in late 2005?
Answer
Lazy Sunday
The Saturday Night Live sketch that helped popularize YouTube in late 2005 was “Lazy Sunday.”
The musical comedy short was created by The Lonely Island—Andy Samberg, Akiva Schaffer, and Jorma Taccone—with Chris Parnell. It aired on Saturday Night Live on December 17, 2005, during the show’s 2005–06 season.
Unofficial copies quickly spread on YouTube, where they accumulated more than five million views before NBCUniversal requested their removal over copyright concerns. The clip demonstrated that viewers would use YouTube to find and share television material, not merely videos made by unknown web creators.
The sketch is often confused with other famous SNL Digital Shorts, especially “Dick in a Box,” which came later, in 2006. “Lazy Sunday” was the earlier breakthrough and is widely credited with putting YouTube on the cultural map.