I’ve seen a couple of skits on Saturday Night Live that came straight out of the Onion. A while back they had a “Who Wants to Eat” gameshow skit, right after an Onion article did the same thing. Then there was the “I had a really weird dream last night” MLK Jr. speech, a premise which came straight out of Our Dumb Century. How does this happen? Do they buy the right to do the skit?
No; they both do topical humor about items that are currently in the news. It’s inevitable that they’re have the same reaction to a news story every once in a while.
Hehe. The Onion article was pretty funny, but so was the SNL sketch. I saw it last night. Christina Ricchi played “Sonja” from Bosnia. Tim Meadows was “Kimba,” a starving Ethiopian- though he didn’t get to play. They were both good ideas. I liked how on the onion article, random Russian questions were considered easy. It’s funny 'cause it’s true. Of course, SNL had the last question about anorexia. “You mean there are people who have food, but they will not eat it because they are afraid of getting fat?” 
I’m a little bit more cynical than lissener. While I certainly acknolwedge that similar events may elicit similar reactions, I’ve also seen students in acting classes get As for improvisation when all they did was recite entire patches of Monty Python verbatim from memory, knowledge not shared by the grading instructor.
So, yeah. If the writers get so taken with an idea that they can’t let it alone, or if they read something that nestles somewhere in the backs of their minds until they legitimately forget where they got it from, or if they just plain get lazy … I’d say there’s a good chance of that kind of thing happening.
I don’t think it’s the same as Leno and Letterman having the exact same monologue joke on the same night, which happens quite often (most recently about a week ago). I don’t know about the MLK thing, but I remember the one about the gameshow, and it was about two weeks after the Onion did the same thing.
I doubt SNL ripped them off, but I wouldn’t put it past them, especially if knock knock is right about the MLK speech. Comedy has a full history of people blatantly stealing other comedians’ material, and it’s not considered a big deal. Magicians do it all the time, once they figure out how to repeat the trick.
SNL has a specific policy of refusing to read any mail that’s sent to them with suggestions for skits. They do this specifically because they often get the same ideas that are in the mail, and don’t want to be sued for plagiarism. Extend this to the OP, and though I’m basically a pretty cynical person, I imagine they practice this policy across the board.
Although the gags are similar (starving country’s citizens go on TV to win food), The Onion’s Who Wants to Eat A Meal? is a Russian show, and SNL’s Who Wants to Eat? is Indian, IIRC.
Yes, they are from different nations.
Wouldn’t you do something like that to avoid BEING SUED?
Do I remember an episode of History Bites depicting a Who wants to… where the prize was half a potatoe.
Did anyone else notice that Letterman and Conan had the exact same monologue joke last night about the airline two seats thing?
They should check with each other before going on the air, like women comparing outfits before going to the same party. I can’t wait to see what acts of synchonicity reveal themselves tonight.
Can jokes be copyrighted?
I don’t know, the “two meals” joke was probably just too obvious. It only got mention like a dozen times in the Fark thread about that story.
Damn, Dennis Miller even made the “two meals” joke last night. Just when you think you know somebody, too …
Neptune wrote:
So History Bites was also borrowing its material from Dan Quayle, I see. 
Not only is the two seats=two meals thing an obvious joke, according to one site, it’s inaccurate. Southwest doesn’t serve meals on its flights
SNL must rip the Onion off or have a working relationship with them, as I remember seeing a “Great moments from history” or something segment.
It had the first landing on the moon.
With the whole “Jesus. H. Christ in a chicken basket” bit which has the exact wording that’s also in “Our Dumb Century” an Onion compilation book.