Is ‘Saturday Night Live’ sketch too similar to one from Groundlings comics?
There’s some controversy brewing when it comes to this past edition of “Saturday Night Live,” and on this occasion, it does not have to do with the lack of really hilarious sketches so far this season.
Instead, we are talking about the obvious similarities between a sketch that aired during the Sarah Silverman-hosted episode over the weekend, and one that was previously performed by Kimberly Condict and Vanessa Ragland of the comedy group the Groundlings. Both involve women given performances of “Proud Mary,” and talk about many of their woes in the process. also, both involve Tina Turner costumes. The “SNL” version featured Kenan Thompson alongside Silverman, Cecily Strong, and Sasheer Zamata.
Most likely due to rights issues (which is typically the case for music-related sketches), the “SNL” sketch is not available online. However, you can view the Groundlings’ sketch below.
Per Entertainment Weekly, a source close to the show has already released a statement on the subject, and stands by their sketch, insisting that the similarities between the two are merely coincidental:
“It’s a common idea, Tina Turner is such an iconic figure. The similarities represent parallel thinking, it’s an example of great minds thinking alike.”
If we were Condict and Ragland, we can certainly understand if they feel somewhat slighted or frustrated today. However, from the outside we don’t really feel like there is enough information to make an educated opinion one way or the other. All we would say is that if someone at “SNL” knew about the original sketch at the time they were making this show, wouldn’t they know that they would get called out on it? This is the age of modern media. We’ll leave this to you in the comments.
If you want to see our full review for this past episode, head over to the link here today. Also, you can sign up to get some further TV updates on everything we cover right now via our CarterMatt Newsletter.
Photo: NBC