Written by Liz Gannes
Posted Monday, October 1, 2007 at 10:49 AM PT

NBC Pulls SNL Short About Iran

Saturday Night Live online video star Andy Samberg had one of his famous digital shorts run during the show’s season opener this weekend, a ditty referencing Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s recent visit to New York in which the leader made a public remark attesting to the lack of homosexuals in his country. The video was available on NBC’s (GE) official YouTube channel at about 9 a.m. PT this morning but has since disappeared, replaced by the line: “This video has been removed by the user.”

Update: Apparently NBC pulled the clip because it did not clear a musical sample — see below for more details.

Samberg & Co. took the Ahmadinejad remark and ran with it, producing a song featuring Adam Levine of pop group Maroon 5, SNL cast member Fred Armisen (who plays Ahmadinejad, lounging on Samberg’s piano), a cameo by the bearded actor Jake Gyllenhaal, and the chorus “And I raaaaan, I ran so far away. Because you’re home, in my heart you’ll stay.” Embedded is an unauthorized version that’s still live.

The video was approved by NBC to air on national television, but now the network has pulled the clip off its official channel on YouTube. Interestingly, the Internet was where Samberg’s huge hit, the “Dick in a Box” collaboration with Justin Timberlake, was allowed to play uncensored, as opposed to the bleeped-out version that ran on TV.

Perhaps NBC is trying to move traffic to its own site, taking a cue from MTV, which saw record traffic after it kept Britney Spears’ lackluster performance at the Video Music Awards exclusive to its site? Nope, the video has been pulled from NBC.com as well. A commenter on NBC.com wonders if the network took the clip down in order to repost a version with better audio (it’s true, the lyrics were hard to hear). Let’s hope that’s it.

Update: Apparently NBC pulled the clip because it did not clear a music sample from the group Aphex Twin.

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Topic: Networks & Studios

Comments (7)

My uinderstanding is that NBC had to pull all versions of the “I Ran” digital short because it sampled the Aphex Twins song “Avril 14″ without permission. Hopefully, NBC will secure the necessary rights because that short was the only bright light in a dismal season opener.

Steven — 12:53 PM on October 1, 2007 Reply
Thanks for the find — I updated the post.

Liz Gannes, NewTeeVee — 1:38 PM on October 1, 2007 Reply
Aphex Twin isn’t a group. It’s a dude, One guy.

Drew — 7:07 PM on October 1, 2007 Reply
I didn’t know that — very impressive given the songs I’ve heard.

Liz Gannes, NewTeeVee — 10:52 PM on October 1, 2007 Reply
There are at least five other uploads on YouTube at the moment.

raincoaster — 5:16 AM on October 2, 2007 Reply
Aphex twin is a robot made of disjointed monkey parts. Duh, everyone knows that :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1ZGIrNf71Q&mode=related&search=

jeremy — 6:25 AM on October 2, 2007 Reply
aphex twin has publicly stated that as a pioneer in the art of sampling, he could care less about someone sampling him. he’s on record saying (paraphrased) “If you want to take an entire track i’ve made, rename it and release it as your own, go ahead.”

C — 11:38 AM on November 14, 2008 Reply

Linkbacks (7)

[...] One video pulled because of music copyright [via], found [...]

Hurry Hurry, Before It Gets Pulled «… — 3:19 PM on October 3, 2007
[...] The Post’s “exclusive” on this is already a week old; NewTeeVee reported it last Monday. [...]

NBC Can’t Run Away From Copyright Infringement… — 7:15 AM on October 8, 2007
[...] The Post’s “exclusive” on this is already a week old; NewTeeVee reported it last Monday. [...]

NBC Can’t Run Away From Copyright Infringement… — 7:43 AM on October 8, 2007
[...] Aphex Twin. The New York Post is making a big stink about this today, but as Jossip points out, NewTeeVee had the story last week. Share This | Sphere | Print Posts | Topic: Media [...]

NBC’s “I Ran” Copyright… — 8:40 AM on October 8, 2007
[...] NBC Pulls SNL Short About Iran [...]

Film Maker Daily - Today Top Blog Posts on… — 1:12 AM on October 9, 2007
[...] Away’ by Flock of Seagulls [Video] Aphex Twin : Avril 14th [Video] Aphex Twin : Windowlicker ‘I Ran So Far Away’ removed from YouTube Ahmadinejad: “We don’t have homosexuals like in your country” Iran President [...]

BEFORE i FORGET » I RAN SO FAR AWAY… — 6:10 AM on November 17, 2007
[...] this week isn’t the first time a digital short’s been kept offline — and, like last time, I’m guessing it was for music rights reasons. I’m just saying — if you have enough [...]

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