Katie Couric And Bryant Gumbel Struggle To Understand 'What Is Internet' (VIDEO)

Before Twitter and Facebook hijacked our lives, before we read the news on a screen and Susan Boyle became an overnight celebrity, Katie Couric and Bryant Gumbel pondered a simpler question for their "Today Show" viewers:

"Can you explain what 'Internet' is?" a dumbfounded Couric asks during this hilarious vintage clip the folks at Buzzfeed were kind enough to resurrect today.

The daytime TV hosts continue by expressing their bemusement at such features as the "@" symbol ("That little mark with the 'a' and the ring around it? Katie thought that was 'about.'") and e-mail messages ("What do you write to it? Like...mail?").

Check out the full segment below and feel nostalgic for a more innocent era.

WATCH:

Comments

[Ameliamarie]

11:36 AM on 02/02/2011

A few comments, actually:
1. The short headline on the Huffpost splash page now mentions ONLY Katie Couric struggling to understand -- yesterday they all were. Watch the sexism, folks!
2. 17 years ago, not many in the "Today" audience would have known what the internet is -- the purpose of the piece was *educational*!
3. Television is theater!! Just because the anchors *say* they're puzzled about this newfangled internet thing, that doesn't mean they *are.* Feigning ignorance was a good way to bond with the viewing audience.
Puh-lease!!

[RageCage]

10:06 AM on 02/02/2011

I

[dkinton49]

11:47 PM on 02/01/2011

My brother-in-law lives in Gaithersburg, just outside of DC, and I used the ArcNet at his house in the early 80's. It was a forerunner of the Internet and was available to those who knew it existed. We were on a dial-up modem and logged into (I believe) a computer on the campus of GW, which got us to a Carnegie-Mellon server. The ArcNet was used by colleges/universities and the government at research facilities for word processing and they had been using it for a period of time. The UNIX OS was invented Bell Labs and powered the ArcNet. It is still a primary OS used on many Internet servers.

[CharlesDevell]

11:34 PM on 02/01/2011

IT"S A SERIES OF TUBES!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f99PcP0aFNE

[dkinton49]

11:26 PM on 02/01/2011

If you are not sure what the Internet is about, just ask Al Gore because he invented it!

[BlueFloyd]

11:04 AM on 02/02/2011

Don't you have anything better? Anything actually fact-based??

F&F'd!! (Flagged and given the Finger).

[Natalee]

08:08 PM on 02/01/2011

LOL!

[MrBinkster]

08:46 AM on 02/01/2011

This is a little sad. I had a web page in 1994.
(It was on CompuServe but it was a web page)
This isn't really cutting edge journalism.

[maxwellinformed]

01:21 PM on 02/01/2011

Yeah but, you're a nerd. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0WCHKbZPRI

[MrBinkster]

07:35 PM on 02/01/2011

Actually I'm not.

[noaxe397]

08:06 AM on 02/01/2011

There was a commercial back in the mid 90s for AOL where a guy is at a party and sees a cute girl he'd like to get to know.
 
He asks for her number.  She writes it down and he coolly stuffs the slip of paper in his pocket.
 
After she leaves the party he takes out the slip of paper and on it is an email address.
 
Today, no big deal.  In 1994; WOW!
 
Remember when a business wanted to give its email address back in the mid 90s?
 
"That's Joe's Plumbing at http, colon, double backslash, www, dot, Joe's Plumbing, dot, com."
 
Today's version:
 
"Check out Joe's Plumbing on the web."
 

[coop09]

12:41 AM on 02/01/2011

In 1995 I earned my Master's Degree in English. I wrote my thesis on a word processor, and I remember the secretary of the English Dept explaining to me what email was and my asking her how it worked and how it would be used. I myself did not get my first computer until 2003. It took awhile for me to join the revolution, but here we are, and I can only marvel at the fact that now, the Internet is an integral part of our lives.

[noaxe397]

07:58 AM on 02/01/2011

Well said.  I remember trying to navigate early 90s computers with DOS.
 
Recently I was cleaning out some old cabinets at work and found a box with software for Calander Creator.
 
I've used CC before and thought it might be nice to load it again.
 
I opened the box and discovered the software was on those 5 inch, soft magnetic "floppies!"

[mykebee]

09:53 PM on 01/31/2011

Gopher, Archie, Veronica and Yahoo...Oy vey!

[edejan]

09:49 PM on 01/31/2011

What's so amazing? EVERYONE struggled to understand what the internet was back in the day.

[editor]

09:01 PM on 01/31/2011

These were some example of humans from the ancient year of 1994; when people used to still get their news from soggy wet sheets of black ink stained paper hurled against their front door.

[BlueFloyd]

11:06 AM on 02/02/2011

the lunatic is on the grass (now web).

[Xylem44]

08:45 PM on 01/31/2011

Uhmaaaayzing! Catie had a Pal!n moment.

(Go ahead moderator, I dare you to block me).

[ogaraj]

09:00 PM on 01/31/2011

not quite.... It would only be a 'Palin moment' if Couric made these comments in 2004, not in 1994.

[N8tracks]

12:08 AM on 02/01/2011

Weak.

[jeremylh1]

08:38 PM on 01/31/2011

classic

[Sean Dominish]

08:07 PM on 01/31/2011

Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back : "WT F is the internet?"