Employee fired for posting THAT hilarious 1994 video of clueless Katie Couric asking: 'How does the internet work?'



The video has already become an internet hit after it was posted last week.

In hilarious 1994 footage of NBC's Today Show, the now-famous American television journalist Katie Couric asks her fellow co-hosts how the internet works.

But it seems NBC did not see the funny side, as the employee responsible for making it public has been fired from his job at the television station, according to a Washington Post reporter.



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Dumbfounded: Katie Couric, Bryant Gumble and Elizabeth Vargas try to figure out what the internet is in hilarious 1994 footage of NBC's Today Show

Joking around: The trio have a laugh while they try and solve the internet puzzle

The YouTube video shows Katie Couric, along with fellow anchors Bryant Gumbel and Elizabeth Vargas, talking about the ‘@’ sign and saying how ‘stupid’ it sounded to pronounce it as ‘at’.

But Washington Post journalist Rob Pegoraro revealed on Twitter that the employee has been fired.

He told followers: ‘The guy who posted the 1994 Today Show "What is internet?" clip on YouTube e-mailed to say he got canned for that. Ugh.’

Mr Pegoraro later added: ‘Yes, I share your befuddlement at this news. Said individual was an NBC employee, as noted in the post. I asked him if that was OK to mention without using his name - he said yes.’

NBC did not respond to requests for comment when MailOnline called this afternoon.



The video starts off with Bryant Gumbel, who spent 15 years as co-host of the show, talking about an email address that appears on screen as: ‘violence@nbc.ge.com'.

After viewing a screen flash of the address in which viewers are asked to write into, the trio go into deep discussion about the enigma.

Gumble seems particularly perturbed about the riddle, telling his co-hosts, 'I wasn't prepared to translate that... that little mark with the 'a' and the ring around it.'

Vargas then switches on to the meaning of the character, and suggests, 'at?'

Vintage 'at' symbol: The trio stare at this screen flash to try and figure out what the email address means

Looking at the vintage 'at' symbol, they continue their discussion.



Gumble agrees with her and says that Katie's first suggestion was incorrect.



He insists: 'That's what I said. Katie said she thought it was 'about.' I never heard it said and then it sounded stupid when I said it: 'at NBC!'

The next scene shows the presenters staring at the email address in disbelief.



Attempting to spell out the address, the question on all of the hosts' lips finally arises.



What does it mean? The trio look to a crew member for answers

'What is the internet anyway?' Gumble asks.



Vargas once again jumps in and attempts to explain the phenomenon.



'Internet is a massive computer aid, the one that is becoming really big now,' she says.



'What do you mean big? Do you write to it like mail?' questions Bryant.



Couric then chimes in with her suggestion: 'A lot of people use it and communicate with it.'



Still clueless, all three look to a crew member for answers who attempts to provide an explanation on how the internet started.

'It's a giant computer network made up... started from several universities all joined together and others can access it,' he explains. 'And it's getting bigger and bigger all of the time!'

Andrew Wallenstein, senior editor of website PaidContent, defended NBC's move to sack the employee.

He said: ‘What this is really about is NBC realising it (is) employing somebody reckless enough to take its intellectual property without permission and exhibit it in any way, shape or form on the internet.

But Matt Burns, a reporter on the website Crunch Gear, said: ‘Seriously, NBC. No one was laughing at your then-star hosts. We were all laughing with them. It’s not like they were asking questions about the Internet now. This was 1994.'

Night and day: a computer from the mid-seventies (left) looks a far-cry from equipment looks like these days

A computer at the University of California was the first computer to connect to the internet, with more processors subsequently joining.

Internet savvy: these days Katie Couric is the host of @katiecouric, a web-show on CBSNews.com

But the internet started long before that.

In the United States during the late 1950's, it was founded by a group of researchers and scientists at the newly formed Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA).

Their invention was provoked when the former Soviet Union launched the satellite Sputnik, as they realized that the US had suffered a great technological blow by allowing the USSR to hold the first successful satellite launch.



The group then set out to create a brand new technology to outdo the Russians.

Over time the internet continuously evolved, and after the very first connection at the University of California, three more computers connected to the Internet in 1969.

This lead to the start of the Internet revolution.

Commercialization eventually came by the 1990s when an international network popularized and incorporated it into virtually every aspect of modern human life.



It is said as of 2009, an estimated quarter of Earth's population used the services of the Internet.

Ironically these days, Katie who is managing editor of the CBS Evening News and a correspondent for 60 Minutes, is also the host of @katiecouric, a web-show on CBSNews.com.