‘SNL’ Accused of Plagiarism After Airing the Prophet Muhammad Skit
The ‘Picture Perfect’ skit, starring Reese Witherspoon, apparently has similarities to an earlier, ‘This Hour Has 22 Minutes.’
SNL sparked controversy after airing a comedy skit. Now, the TV series is hot water for allegedly stealing a comedy skit about Prophet Muhammad.
From The Hollywood Reporter:
The NBC sketch comedy show allegedly ripped off the punchline for its Picture Perfect skit fromThis Hour Has 22 Minutes, a Canadian sketch comedy show from indie producer DHX Media that aired its own Prophet Muhammad game show skit in January.
“While imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery, DHX Media Ltd. takes infringement of its intellectual property very seriously,” DHX Media executive chairman Michael Donovan told The Hollywood Reporter in a statement.
In the Saturday Night Live segment, Pictionary contestants are asked to draw for a $1 million prize, and one character panics when he’s asked to depict the Prophet Muhammad.
“C’mon honey,” Witherspoon’s character begs, “you can draw it!” After another contestant, played by Kenan Thompson, also refuses to draw the character, Witherspoon’s character guesses correctly that it is the Prophet Muhammad.
The Skit ‘This Hour Has 22 Minutes,’ has a contestant, this time played by Canadian comic Mark Critch, also refusing to draw after being asked to depict “Muhammad.” “I can’t draw this,” Critch’s character tells his wife, who then guesses it is the Prophet Muhammad.
Here are the two skits:
The SNL skit comes after two gunmen were killed after they opened fire on a security officers outside a Texas cartoon contest to depict the Prophet Muhammad for a $10,000 prize.
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