CNN: More Coverage for "BP Spills Coffee"

"BP Spills Coffee" -- the video that has garnered over 4.7 million views on YouTube (and counting) -- was prominently featured on CNN.com in an article about comedians mocking BP. (Read it!)

The article is not the first time CNN has covered the UCB Comedy sketch -- last Saturday, three members of the team behind "BP Spills Coffee" (Kate McKinnon, John Frusciante, and Erik Tanouye) were interviewed by CNN's Don Lemon on the air.

Erik Tanouye recounts the live interview:

I arrived before John and Kate, and I was placed in a dark room with no video monitor. Bright rectangular white lights shined on me. The producer connected me to an ear piece, but I could no hear anything through it. Luckily I asked her to hand me my iPhone before she left.

Then I sat in the darkness for 20 minutes. It felt a bit like an experiment in sensory depravation. Eventually, an intern showed up to check my ear piece. She thought it might be broken. I thought she was correct as I had not heard anything for the entire 20 minutes. But she said it was working fine, then left me alone again. Close to the end of hour, I finally heard some voices through my ear piece. I never saw what was happening on the air. I was asked to count to five, and then 10, and then 10 again, in order to check my levels. Just before we went on the air, I heard John and Kate discussing the commercials that were airing on CNN. I couldn't see them (the people or the commercials). There was some friendly banter with Don Lemon about the sponsors that I could not enjoy. Then Don Lemon teased our segment and told us all to wave. I did not wave.

Perhaps I am a jerk, but I had been sitting in a dark room with no human contact for a long time and as a result did not obey the voice in my ear. Apparently we were all on the air at that time, and as soon as we went to commercial, Don Lemon asked why I didn't wave.

After commercial, Don checked his cufflinks and began the interview. I think that John and Kate had a longer audio delay in their ears than I did, but at the same time, they could see what was on the air while I was still sitting in a dark room. So that might explain some of the cross-talking and audio delays in the interview.

We made it through the interview and I managed to plug both theaters, the website, and our classes, and felt pretty professional as a result. Eventually, I was released from my darkened chamber and I stumbled down a hallway, across a newsroom, and found John and Kate. We took a few pictures, then I headed to Astoria where I watched television with some friends, including Kevin Cragg, who played a BP executive in the video. He is the man who says "Don't worry, it's a small spill on a very large table."