Wednesday, August 26, 2009

hornymanatee.com television and the internet.

Dec. 2006 gave birth to the site hornymanatee.com. And as the name suggests it is all about the exploits of a horny manatee ( a guy in a manatee suit); a manatee as a nurse, as an exhibitionist, as a dancer, in a manatee orgy (reminds me of that jolibee scandal.lol). Its a gag site not a porn site.

The more interesting about it and the reason im posting it is how the site came to be. It all started out as part of a sketch in Late Night with Conan O'Brian which involved the use of a manatee costume. Conan made a remark about having more manatee material available on hornymanatee.com which was of course not existent at the time. As the story goes because of his representation on television that there was such a site NBC was forced to purchase the address. I'm not sure but it has something to do with evading any sort of liability.

the ff: are some of the exerpts i was able to scrounge up:

"Horny ManateeDuring the airing of the usual "New College Mascots" sketch, a character called the FSU Webcam Manatee was featured. Conan, in an ad libbed statement, mentioned a then fictitious HornyManatee.com. The next night, Conan told viewers standards department for Late Night explained something to him: if he mentions a web site which doesn't exist, NBC may be held liable for the site's content and NBC to then purchase the domain name. Conan said Late Night then made the web site, giving it the appearance of a fake porn site. The site was bought for 10 years for 159$. Then they decided as they has spent money on it they should build the website. "

http://www.lonympics.co.uk/manatee.htm

"There was no hornymanatee .com on Dec. 4. But the name was mentioned during a gag, so NBC paid $159 for the site and then started to build it."
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/nation/stories/DN-manateedog_24nat.ART.State.Bulldog.3e0da5c.html

So in conclusion: if i were a tv host and mentioned a site that doesnt exist 1.) I'll get in some sort of trouble for some form of misdemeanor maybe misrepesentation 2.) In order to save my ass I would have to buy the address and set up a token site. I would understand NBC's concern if the show was a newscast and Late Night with Conan the TALL red haired barbarian is definitely not a newscast. Is this some sort of exception to the leniency granted statements made in jest. Of course it could just very well be that the lawyers wanted to avoid the hassle of going to court to prove it was made in jest. It is cheaper to just make the site.

-pauldennistangangco

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