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Comedy gold: Katie Couric and Bryant Gumbel explain the Internet in 1994

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wow

ericdijon on January 31, 2011 at 9:22 AM

The internet part is funny, but the main thing is that Gumbel is such a tremendous ass.

myrenovations on January 31, 2011 at 9:23 AM

*sigh* I miss those days. :-)

KS Rex on January 31, 2011 at 9:25 AM

What’s worse, that Couric was around back then or that she is still around today.

Bishop on January 31, 2011 at 9:25 AM

Jane Pauley would have known.

Ronnie on January 31, 2011 at 9:28 AM

Remember, Sarah Palin is the dumb one in that interview.

Red Cloud on January 31, 2011 at 9:28 AM

I was in third grade then and I knew what the internet was.

bcm4134 on January 31, 2011 at 9:28 AM

What’s worse, that Couric was around back then or that she is still around today.

Bishop on January 31, 2011 at 9:25 AM

Is that a trick question?

rich801 on January 31, 2011 at 9:29 AM

violence@nbc.ge.com – didn’t that live on as Olbermann’s email address?

Red Cloud on January 31, 2011 at 9:30 AM

In 1994, I was running the website for the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences at the University of Tulsa. I used a VT100 terminal session to write the HTML with VI. NSCA Mosaic 1.0 was the hot browser, though most connections to the site at the time were still with… Lynx. I had my own personal site, too, and it was one of only about a hundred thousand sites listed on akebono.stanford.edu, if anybody here remembers what that became (hint: it’s a multi-billion dollar corporation now.)

Beo on January 31, 2011 at 9:30 AM

Katie hasn’t gotten any smarter…

crazy_legs on January 31, 2011 at 9:32 AM

Those in industry were using such a thing before the “internet”. It just did not go outside the company systems. Then of course there were BBS’s.

I am quite surprised that NBC did not have such an internal system, for certainly GE did.

Kermit on January 31, 2011 at 9:38 AM

The good news is that NBC is able to recycle their old taglines from 17 years ago, blow the dust off of “America the Violent!” and stick it back up on the screen.

Bishop on January 31, 2011 at 9:39 AM

Katie: “Can Allison [Apparently their tech guru] explain it?”

Brian: “No. She can’t explain anything in ten seconds or less.”

Nothing has really changed in the last 16 years. Airheads are more familiar with the Internet now, but they don’t understand it one tiny bit better today than they did when they first heard of it.

Liberals are a new species of human; adapted for life in the Age Of Mass Media. They actually THINK in soundbites. As far as they are concerned, anything that takes more than ten seconds to explain isn’t worth the effort.

logis on January 31, 2011 at 9:59 AM

Katie hasn’t gotten any smarter…

crazy_legs on January 31, 2011 at 9:32 AM

She’s definitely not up on technology. Joe Biden of all people had to fill her in on “president” Roosevelt using television to address the nation after the 1929 stock market crash. She listened very attentively and nodded.

And look at that e-mail address: “violence@nbc.ge.com”. I believe this makes them culpable in every violent act by anyone since 1994!

forest on January 31, 2011 at 10:08 AM

Wait a minute… computers? I thought the internet was a series of tubes.

bitsy on January 31, 2011 at 10:08 AM

Wait a minute… computers? I thought the internet was a series of tubes.
bitsy on January 31, 2011 at 10:08 AM

Fool. It’s a giant, worldwide web with a huge spider squatting in the center.

Bishop on January 31, 2011 at 10:20 AM

I had my own personal site, too, and it was one of only about a hundred thousand sites listed on akebono.stanford.edu, if anybody here remembers what that became (hint: it’s a multi-billion dollar corporation now.)

Beo on January 31, 2011 at 9:30 AM

I’ll take “Akamai Networks Inc.” for 100 Alex.

wearyman on January 31, 2011 at 10:21 AM

I bet Willard Scott could have explained the Internet in between doing the Smuckers-sponsored old people birthday list and the weather. :)

Vatican Watcher on January 31, 2011 at 10:21 AM

What is the Internet?
I want to go to there

blatantblue on January 31, 2011 at 10:22 AM

What is the Internet?
I want to go to there

blatantblue on January 31, 2011 at 10:22 AM

It’s a series of tubes.

Paul-Cincy on January 31, 2011 at 10:43 AM

I especially love how no one can decide on exactly what the @ symbol is. And how Bryant Gumble doesn’t pronounce the dots. “voilence… is it at or about?… at NBC GE COM.”

crazy_legs on January 31, 2011 at 10:54 AM

Yeah, it’s cute, but the Internet (as we know it), didn’t really become a big deal until 1995. Some of you likely knew what the net was before then – I first used it in 1993 – but I’ll bet many of you were as clueless about it as Bryant and Kate.

YYZ on January 31, 2011 at 11:01 AM

Looks like Katie used “There’s something about Mary” hair gel.

Brat on January 31, 2011 at 11:05 AM

What is the internet? NAUGHTY SONG ALERT!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWEjvCRPrCo

kh6zv9 on January 31, 2011 at 11:18 AM

I’ll bet many of you were as clueless about it as Bryant and Kate.

YYZ on January 31, 2011 at 11:01 AM

I certainly was. I worked with a couple people who discussed “surfing the Net” and I knew what it meant, but I didn’t know what it was. I had no idea how you would “get on” the Internet, or how you would know where to go, or how you would get mail on it. I first started using it in 1996 (and it seems as though I haven’t gotten off it since that time). And I still couldn’t tell you how it works–it’s magic.

DrMagnolias on January 31, 2011 at 11:21 AM

Yeah, it’s cute, but the Internet (as we know it), didn’t really become a big deal until 1995. Some of you likely knew what the net was before then – I first used it in 1993 – but I’ll bet many of you were as clueless about it as Bryant and Kate.

YYZ on January 31, 2011 at 11:01 AM

Very true. I was dating a girl who went to R.I.T. – it was fall 1995, I would wait in the computer lab while she was finishing class – and gave me the “web password”

I was a noob, but within a few weeks was able to move around, find documents, etc. Within 1 year – the world changed, as did my knowledge.

Odie1941 on January 31, 2011 at 11:31 AM

That was so awesome! Like the scene from Back to the Future where Marty is wearing a down vest and they keep calling it a life jacket.

Ted Torgerson on January 31, 2011 at 11:53 AM

I had my own personal site, too, and it was one of only about a hundred thousand sites listed on akebono.stanford.edu, if anybody here remembers what that became (hint: it’s a multi-billion dollar corporation now.)

Beo on January 31, 2011 at 9:30 AM

Yahoo!

Patrick Ishmael on January 31, 2011 at 12:34 PM