Stop the presses! NBC discovers social media!

Apparently at the end of a skit on Late Night, Conan O'Brien threw out a fake Web site. Well, that meant NBC had to buy www.hornymanatee.com and put something up there, which the folks at Late Night did, in their very humorous way.

What happened next shouldn't surprise anyone who has been following social media: people started contributing. In fact, they contributed some pretty good stuff that ended up being used on Late Night.

So, why do I find this amusing? Because the New York Times found it interesting enough for an article and Conan's quote seems to fit well with how big-media companies are slowly discovering this new world:

Reached by telephone at NBC yesterday, Mr. O’Brien said he was stunned and overwhelmed by the viewers’ response to what had initially been a throwaway line, and by what that response, collectively, suggested about how the digital world was affecting traditional media like television.

“We couldn’t have done this two years ago, three years ago,” Mr. O’Brien said. “It’s sort of this weird comedy dialogue with the audience.”

It's not so weird... it's the way things are. Then again, O'Brien later joked that he still owns an abacus.