NO LAUGHING MATTER

‘Saturday Night Live’ Accused of Plagiarizing Comedy Group’s Sketches

Two comedians claim SNL ripped off their skits from YouTube.

“Saturday Night Live” faces allegations that two popular sketches were plagiarized from a New York City comedy group, Variety reports. Nick Ruggia and Ryan Hoffman claim that an SNL sketch involving pumpkin patch workers who have sex with produce, as well as a sketch about a product that keeps pets from watching their owners have sex, were copied from videos posted to their YouTube Channel. Ruggia and Hoffman, who founded the sketch troupe Temple Horses, claim the SNL bits effectively mirrored the plots of their videos, which are named “Not Trying to F--k This Pumpkin” and “Pet Blinders.” Variety notes that Ruggia and Hoffman’s pumpkin and pet videos were posted in 2014 and 2011, respectively; SNL’s “Pumpkin Patch” and “Pound Puppy” aired in October 2018 and February 2019, respectively.  An NBC lawyer told the duo’s attorney that SNL independently came up with the ideas, per Variety.

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