POP CULTURE: WhoseTube?

But that was six years ago, when do-it-yourself media on the Internet was still limited mostly to hot lists and cybersex. Now it's a new era. YouTube's a parasite of monstrous proportions, and no doubt that's part of its utility. It can instantly retrieve that clip of Bill Clinton's testy exchange with Fox News' Chris Wallace if you missed it the 2,700 times it played on TV. It can travel back to 1993 and resurrect a classic PJ Harvey appearance on The Tonight Show, or aggregate deleted scenes from the new Borat movie.

But it also has a vital life apart from Hollywood and the traditional entertainment industry. If you pulled the plug on the hundreds of SNL clips that YouTubers have posted without permission; if you removed every parkour or skateboarder clip that is scored to the beat of copyright-protected songs, there would still be thousands of clips to look at and millions of people looking.

Through the first half of October, for example, "Weird Al" Yankovic's latest music video was among YouTube's most popular clips, but the post that received the most views was a montage of a guy hugging strangers in Australia. Other top-rated clips included footage of a demented Tickle Me Elmo doll terrorizing a bewildered beagle and the latest episode of Redneck TV, a home-brewed talk show whose hosts make Larry the Cable Guy look like Noel Coward.

Will such grassroots efforts be weeded out to make room for more lucrative corporate-media cash crops as YouTube starts pursuing profitability, or at least a bona fide revenue stream, in the wake of its Google deal? Some YouTube old-timers fear as much, but they have nothing to worry about. Indeed, why would YouTube, or any of the media behemoths it's cutting deals with, jeopardize its greatest asset? At YouTube, the users don't just create the content and serve as the audience. They also serve as the editorial staff and the marketing group, and even assume the copyright-infringement liability. In short, it's an entertainment-industry executive's dream! They get all the profits; the talent works harder and more cheaply than migrant laborers.

And, theoretically, the good times should last forever. Give a million monkeys a million video cameras, and you still won't end up with Citizen Kane, or even an Ashlee Simpson video. But you'll get at least 10 hilarious YouTube clips, guaranteed. And because there will always be plenty of people (and a few terrified beagles) who can figure out some way to be compelling for 30 seconds, even the most talented among them will never have much leverage. Whenever Brookers, Geriatric1927 or some other YouTube sensation starts wondering why the company's founders are billionaires and all they're getting out of the deal (from YouTube, at least) is creepy stalker e-mail, there'll be a thousand other eager hopefuls more than willing to take their places in the YouTube pantheon. Oh, well. No one ever said it was easy being a nerd.