This SNL sketch has 22 seconds in common with This Hour Has 22 Minutes sketch #DrawMuhammad

When Saturday Night Live presented a Win, Lose or Draw game show spoof that perplexed a contestant with the dilemma of drawing the Islamic prophet Muhammad, I noted simply: Topical.

After all, the Muslim-haters in Texas had just incited a shooting the week before with a “Draw Muhammad” contest.

What others noted: That SNL sketch looked and felt a lot, premise-wise, to a sketch Canada’s CBC-based This Hour Has 22 Minutes show produced back in January.

Premise-wise, yes, it’s exactly the same. Using the old game show Win, Lose or Draw, and the idea of a million dollars on the line, does the contestant draw Muhammad (no), and despite not doing so, does the contestant’s playing partner guess the correct answer (yes).

SNL’s adds the celebrity impersonations for teammates (Cecily Strong as Rosie Perez, and Kenan Thompson as Reginald VelJohnson) and calls the game show “Picture Perfect” to avoid other comparisons.

SNL denies any other comparisons to the This Hour sketch. For their part across the border, comedian Shaun Majumder (who played the game-show host in his sketch), Tweeted out: “You’ve got to admit it’s s (sic) little too close for comfort.” His show, meanwhile, quipped on Facebook: “In regards to the SNL sketch debate, we’re waiting for SNL to say something and then we’ll say the same thing later – just shorter.”

Here are the two sketches again, just in case you feel like debating this some more:

In my mind, this wasn’t quite as egregious or as clear-cut as the Proud Mary sketch from the beginning of this season on SNL that came out of nowhere unless you’d seen The Groundlings.

Sean L. McCarthy

Editor and publisher since 2007, when he was named New York's Funniest Reporter. Former newspaper reporter at the New York Daily News, Boston Herald and smaller dailies and community papers across America. Loves comedy so much he founded this site.

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One thought on “This SNL sketch has 22 seconds in common with This Hour Has 22 Minutes sketch #DrawMuhammad

  1. Really, this is the second time recently that they were busted stealing. Lorne gettin lazy

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