YouTuber Joel Haver Addresses Claims That Saturday Night Live Stole His Sketch

After Oct. 1's Saturday Night Live episode, fans began noticing similarities between the episode's "Charmin Bears" skit and an animated video by YouTuber Joel Haver. Watch his response here.

By Charlotte Walsh Oct 05, 2022 8:39 PMTags
Watch: YouTuber Joel Haver Addresses Claims SNL Stole His Sketch

Joel Haver is setting the record straight on that Saturday Night Live sketch.

After Oct. 1's season 48 premiere hosted by Miles Teller, eagle-eyed comedy fans noticed some similarities between the episode's "Charmin Bears" sketch and a July animated video posted to YouTube by Haver called "Toilet Paper Bears." In both clips, a father bear disapproves of his son going to college and not getting into the family business (a.k.a. wiping their own butts), instead wanting to dance. Additionally, both mother bears side with their husbands in the sketches. SNL's sketch starred Teller as the concerned son, Kenan Thompson as his father and Heidi Gardner as his mother. 

After receiving comments from concerned fans, Haver addressed the claims in a response video posted Oct. 3 that has already racked up over a million views. After calling the two videos "very similar," the YouTuber went on to say that he understands where similar lines of thinking can occur.

Because there's so much content online, Haver said it's "inevitable you're gonna do something that's already been done."

"I don't think it was malicious," the filmmaker explained. "It was either a subconscious borrowing from somebody on their writers' staff who saw my video, or it was a wild coincidence."

A source close to the show confirmed to E! News that it was "parallel thinking" from the writers' room.

photos
Saturday Night Live's Most Memorable Hosts

 

But Haver isn't upset about the similarities, instead noting that their deliveries were different (Haver said he enjoyed his more dry take, while SNL's was "louder than life"). The filmmaker then used his video to turn attention to smaller creators whose work he admires, explaining that if he had a smaller audience, he would be more bothered about the similarities between the sketches. Haver currently has over 1.5 million subscribers on YouTube.

"In the event that SNL did steal from me, I'm lucky to be in a position to have my stuff seen by enough people that that would even happen," Haver said. "Whether or not a writer did subconsciously borrow it, I wish them no ill will. Please, Lorne Michaels, I beg of you, don't punish anyone."

Saturday Night Live airs Saturdays at 11:30 p.m. ET on NBC.

(NBC and E! News are both part of the NBCUniversal family.)

Get the drama behind the scenes. Sign up for TV Scoop!