Members of the Los Angeles-based comedy troupe claim the 'Saturday Night Live' Tina Turner sketch ripped off their sketch, but an insider of the show denies the accusation.
- Oct 7, 2014
AceShowbiz - Did "Saturday Night Live" steal a Tina Turner sketch from The Groundlings. Some members of the Los Angeles-based comedy troupe claimed the "SNL" Tina Turner sketch ripped off a sketch performed for weeks at their establishment, but an individual close to the show denies this.
The sketch in question which aired as part of the NBC series' 40th season premiere featured host Sarah Silverman as well as cast members Cecily Strong and Sasheer Zamata playing Tina Turner impersonators on a Nebraska riverboat. The three ladies shared sob stories while performing Turner's "Proud Mary".
After the episode aired, people began pointing out the similarities between the "SNL" sketch and the one performed by The Groundlings for six weeks. Writer/director John Irwin wrote on Facebook, "For several weeks at the Groundlings, Vanessa Bruiser Ragland and Kimberly Condict performed the heck out of their brilliant and hillarious sketch featuring a Tina Turner tribute band singing 'Rollin' ' at a casino with their musings during the music pauses about the establishment's food, the bad hands life dealt them, and a past gig on a Nebraska river boat - the sketch ends with the MC piping in." He added that the sketch on "SNL" sketch featured many of the same elements.
Groundings teacher Ian Gary also wrote on his own Facebook, "[O]ver the years, I have seen MANY MANY sketches flat out stolen from my friends by Saturday Night Live. Nearly verbatim. Word for word. Everyone in our community goes, 'Oh man, that sucks,' and nobody says anything because I guess SNL is still some dream for some people or they don't want to get involved, or a million other reasonable things that stop people from standing up for each other when things are blatantly wrong." He angrily said, "This is f**ked up. This is stupid."
However, the individual close to the show tells multiple media outlets that the "SNL" writers were unfamiliar with The Groundlings sketch in question. The source argues, "It's a common idea since Tina Turner is such an iconic figure. The similarities represent parallel thinking in the comedy world."
"Saturday Night Live" Tina Turner sketch:
The Groundlings' Tina Turner sketch:
