Saturday Night Live Embroiled in Pumpkin-Fucking Plagiarism Scandal 

A New York sketch comedy troupe is accusing SNL writers of cribbing their pumpkin orgy material and giving the world not one, but two sketches exploring the hilarity inherent in the idea of putting a dick in a pumpkin.

Nick Ruggia and Ryan Hoffman, founders of the comedy troupe Temple Horses, say that SNL writers plagiarized two of their sketches “Not Trying to Fuck This Pumpkin” and “Pet Blinders,” according to Variety:

“Imagine, one day you come home and it looks like somebody’s robbed your house,” Hoffman told Variety. “What do you want from that situation? We feel like somebody took our stuff, and this isn’t the kind of thing where you can just get it back or call your insurance company to have it replaced, so at this point we’re just speaking out about it.”

Temple Horses says the gourd sex-centric sketches are similar in that they feature pumpkin patches, one man plus a woman doing the pumpkin fucking, a dude who isn’t into it, and eventual banishment from the premises:

Temple Horses is also alleging that the SNL sketch “Pound Puppy” rips off their sketch “Pet Blinders,” as both use a mock-infomercial style to sell products that keep pets from watching their owners bone, as well as “‘[three] separate settings for pet-interruption, introducing the pet owners’ dilemma.’” Each sketch uses a dog’s-eye-view and reverse shot. In each, a labrador retriever, a mid-size dog, and a custom-breed dog is used.”

NBC says different writers are responsible for the sketches in question, but the network declined to name which writers. Ruggio and Hoffman say that a lawyer for NBC verbally responded to a letter from their attorney outlining the similarities by saying that a review of the sketches in question found nothing that violated copyright law. An SNL source says the network is currently in the process of drawing up a formal statement that will reiterate that response.