Did SNL really copy a sketch from YouTuber Joel Haver?

YouTuber Joel Haver is reacting to accusations that Saturday Night Live stole the idea for one of its sketches from his YouTube channel.

Haver has been a staple of the YouTube community since 2010, slowly racking up a fan base of more than 1.6 million strong via his comedy and sketch uploads. He tends to share his humor in both live action and animation, riffing on a huge range of topics that stretch from comic books to real-world interactions.

Fans of his flavor of comedy caught a whiff of it in a recent SNL sketch, and quickly took to the web to point fingers. They’re accusing the longstanding late-night show of theft, and riling up Haver’s fanbase in the process. But are any of these accusations actually true, and what are Haver’s thoughts on the matter?

Did SNL really copy a Joel Haver sketch?

In its first show of October, Saturday Night Live aired an amusing bit about the bears from Charmin toilet paper ad campaigns. The sketch pokes fun at the bears’ unceasing fascination with toilet paper, poising one of its characters with an acceptance letter to “toilet paper college” only to dig into the complicated family dynamics of a TP-obsessed family. The eldest Charmin child wants more than “twerking because our asses are clean,” and pushes his family to accept his dream of real, artistic dance. It’s goofy, at least a little funny, and overall classic SNL fare.

Haver’s take on Charmin comedy released several months ago, back in July. It’s animated, and titled “Toilet Paper Bears” as opposed to SNL‘s “Charmin Bears,” and details a startlingly similar premise to that shown in SNL‘s skit.

Setting the scene with a house absolutely drenched in toilet paper decor, Haver’s video presents viewers with his own messy family conversation—complete with a desire to pursue dance. There are a few less bears involved, but Haver’s story is strikingly similar to that in SNL‘s latest episode. Even the dialogue feels familiar, with the young bear’s father assuring him that “we don’t do theatre, we don’t do music, we don’t do acting, we wipe our butts.”

There’s no denying a stark similarity between the sketches — down to the father bear’s glasses and the flower on the mother’s head — and given the several-month difference between their releases, Haver’s video does appear to be the inspiration behind SNL‘s recent offering. NBC has yet to directly respond to the comparisons being drawn, but Entertainment Weekly reports that “sources close to the NBC show told EW that the sketch writer was unaware of Haver’s ‘Toilet Paper Bears’ video.”

So, at least according to NBC, the idea for “Charmin Bears” didn’t come from Joel Haver. Haver’s fans aren’t so sure, however, and they’ve continued to push back against the network’s claims. Haver himself even responded to the pushback, answering fans’ questions via a video titled “SNL stole my video.”

What is Haver’s response

Lucky for SNL, Haver doesn’t seem too rankled by its apparent joke theft. He responded to accusations in an 8-minute video on Oct. 4, noting that his followers made him aware of the issue via social media. He noted that, when it comes to “stealing accusations,” he tends to “err on the side of coincidence.”

“I think parallel thinking does happen more often than not,” he said, before noting that he waited to view the video for himself before drawing any conclusions. He found what he saw “pretty alarming,” pointing out that “usually when these things come up I’m like, able to see ‘oh its the same concept but they took it somewhere different…’ but this one was a little weird.”

This line of thinking doesn’t result in condemnation, however. Haver goes on to draw parallels to his own experiences, noting that he himself was accused of copying a joke awhile back. He’d never seen the original, instead explaining the similarities as simple mirrored thinking, and notes that this could be the case with the Charmin videos.

“When it comes to the Charmin bears thing, there’s a lot of coincidences that would have to line up to make it truly a coincidence, but I don’t think it was malicious. It was either a subconscious borrowing from somebody on their writers’ staff who saw my video, or it was a wild coincidence.”

Haver’s video has upwards of a hundred thousand more upvotes on YouTube as compared to the SNL bit, and has in total been viewed several hundred thousand times more. His brand isn’t hurting much from the joke mirroring, but he notes in his video that, were he a smaller creator, he’d likely feel differently.

“If I still was a smaller creator, which I was for a long time, I could see it rubbing me the wrong way and me being a little more likely to believe they did steal it,” he said. “I have to recognize I’m in a position to not be bothered by it.”

Ultimately, Haver took the controversy as an opportunity to do some good for his community, ending his reaction video by highlighting some of YouTube’s smaller creators that he feels deserve more recognition. He noted that he feels no ill will toward SNL or the writers behind the bit, and urged his fans — and Lorne Michaels — not to punish anyone for a minor mistake.