Sometimes it seems as though one small event can have a domino effect.  Some call it the Butterfly Effect, where, for instance, a butterfly flapping its wings in Africa eventually causes a hurricane somewhere in the world.  I think the same theory can apply to the business world too.  When Google announced that it was buying www.youtube.com for $1.65 billion, I got to thinking that the founders of Youtube should give some royalties to Chris Parnell and Andy Samberg.  The first time I had heard of Youtube was when people started posting the music video these 2 guys did on Saturday Night Live called Lazy Sunday.

The skit was probably the best thing to be put on SNL in 5 years and when it was posted by multiple users on Youtube, the site’s popularity skyrocketed.  Whether or not this video was the catalyst to its meteoric rise to darling of the internet, there is no doubt it made the familiar to regular internet users.  So this site goes from being like any other moderately successful site to being worth more than any 2 NFL franchises combined in less than a year.

It will be interesting to see the legal challenges facing Youtube since a lot of things posted (and have since been removed) has been copyrighted material from TV stations, including the Lazy Sunday skit which is owned by NBC.  Mark Cuban has analyzed what the future holds for them nonstop the past few weeks on his blog.

Anyway, getting back to my point, I wonder if Youtube would even be a blip on the internet map had it not been for that extremely funny SNL skit?  If anything, they should send Parnell and Samberg a few stock options their way for making them uber-millionaires.