September 28, 2019

I’m Obsessed With This 1994 Today Show Clip About “Internet”

“That little mark, with the ‘A’, and then the ring around it.”

Today Show

Today Show

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.

It’s a lazy Saturday so let’s talk about this bonkers Today Show clip from 1994:

Where to start?

  1. Bryan Gumbel asking: “What is internet, anyway?”
  2. Katie Couric—if we can trust Gumbel, and maybe we can’t—thinking the “@” sign means either “about” or “around.” Katie, what the hell!
  3. Gumbel describing the “@” as “that little mark, with the ‘A’, and then the ring around it.”
  4. Gumbel very passive aggressively dismissing the female producer for not being able to explain anything in “ten seconds.”
  5. “I’ve never heard it said, I’ve only seen the mark!”
  6. “GE–com.” No “dot.” That’s a whole other argument for sure.

In all seriousness, Gumbel sounds genuinely upset about the existence of the internet. Maybe he knew then where all this was headed. Maybe he should have warned us.

GREAT JOURNALISM, SLOW FUNDRAISING

Our team has been on fire lately—publishing sweeping, one-of-a-kind investigations, ambitious, groundbreaking projects, and even releasing “the holy shit documentary of the year.” And that’s on top of protecting free and fair elections and standing up to bullies and BS when others in the media don’t.

Yet, we just came up pretty short on our first big fundraising campaign since Mother Jones and the Center for Investigative Reporting joined forces.

So, two things:

1) If you value the journalism we do but haven’t pitched in over the last few months, please consider doing so now—we urgently need a lot of help to make up for lost ground.

2) If you’re not ready to donate but you’re interested enough in our work to be reading this, please consider signing up for our free Mother Jones Daily newsletter to get to know us and our reporting better. Maybe once you do, you’ll see it’s something worth supporting.

payment methods

GREAT JOURNALISM, SLOW FUNDRAISING

Our team has been on fire lately—publishing sweeping, one-of-a-kind investigations, ambitious, groundbreaking projects, and even releasing “the holy shit documentary of the year.” And that’s on top of protecting free and fair elections and standing up to bullies and BS when others in the media don’t.

Yet, we just came up pretty short on our first big fundraising campaign since Mother Jones and the Center for Investigative Reporting joined forces.

So, two things:

1) If you value the journalism we do but haven’t pitched in over the last few months, please consider doing so now—we urgently need a lot of help to make up for lost ground.

2) If you’re not ready to donate but you’re interested enough in our work to be reading this, please consider signing up for our free Mother Jones Daily newsletter to get to know us and our reporting better. Maybe once you do, you’ll see it’s something worth supporting.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate