Who Made NBC Cave? SNL Video Clip Vanishes From NBC.Com, Hulu

UPDATE: NBC tells Nikke Finke, and confirms with us, that they took the clip down on their own:

"Upon review, we caught certain elements in the sketch that didn't meet our standards. We took it down and made some minor changes and it will be back online soon." Specifically, NBC said it has edited out the chyron on-screen text, "People who should be shot" that appeared beneath the Sandler' lookalikes, as well as the "allegations of corruption" made against the couple.

Meanwhile, anything that gets yanked from NBC.com automatically gets yanked from Hulu. We expect both sites to have it up at the same time.

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Earlier:

We have been praising NBC.com and Hulu for making it easy to get Web video clips of Saturday Night Live. But now there's one clip NBC no longer wants us to watch anymore: Saturday's sketch parodying the bailout bill. It's vanished from both NBC.com and Hulu, the JV co-owned by NBC and Fox.

What's going on? Mashable has the details and a theory -- NBC caved to either political or legal pressure from George Soros and/or Herb and Marion Sandler, all of whom were skewered during the bit. We've asked NBC and Hulu for comment, and will update if we hear back.

But you can still see unauthorized versions of the clip on YouTube, and we assume that as the clip becomes a political story, it's going to be very hard *not* to find it on the Web. Here's a version that was working as of 8:10 am. (UPDATE: That video got pulled off YouTube, we've replaced it with one that was working as of 2:00 p.m.).

See Also: Intelligent Life At NBC!