One of the funnier sketches from this week’s edition of Saturday Night Live came when host Louis C.K. played a guy who hires a clown — played by Bobby Moynahan — who slowly comes to realize that there are no children at the birthday party at which he’s performing, just one middle-aged dude.
The sketch ends on a hilariously creepy note when C.K.’s character leads his clown companion into the kitchen so he can “chop you up into little pieces and put you in the fridge.”
While the sketch was generally well received, fans of standup comic Tig Notaro are quick to point out that the premise is nearly identical to a short film she wrote, directed and starred in, titled Clown Service.
RELATED: Amy Schumer in hot water for allegedly lifting a Zach Galifianakis joke
In her film — which she says is based on actual events — a depressed Notaro calls up a service and orders a clown to come over to her house in hopes it’ll cheer her up.
Notaro’s fans quickly took to Twitter to accuse SNL of stealing her concept, with comments including the accusation that the sketch is a “straight-up rip-off.”
In any case, don’t expect the sketch to cause any bad blood between the two comics; C.K. is actually an executive producer on Notaro’s Amazon Prime series One Mississippi. And while Notaro hasn’t commented on the similarity between her film and the SNL sketch, it can’t be coincidental that she tweeted out the Clown Service video on Twitter the day after the sketch aired on TV.
Comments