Did Budweiser steal from a NYC sketch group for one of its Super Bowl ads?
The comedy troupe The Whitest Kids U’Know claims that the Bud Light ad in which fist bumping is replaced by face slapping as a new kind of greeting looks more than a little similar to a sketch on the group’s Web site called “The New Thing.” The Whitest Kids are consulting with lawyers. Their rep said, “They are very upset. They are considering their options.”
Decide for yourself by watching both clips. [via The Apiary]
At The Whitest Kids site, one member wrote, “Hey! Budweiser just ran an ad during the SuperBowl that is a rip off of our ‘New Thing’ sketch. This has happened to us a couple times before but this one is pretty blatant. So suck it Budweiser. Drink Coors.” Later on, a member of the group says, “There’s more to the Budweiser story than just random coincidence, which we’ll probably post about in the next day or so.”
Some commenters aren’t buying it though: “Relax! my friends and I have been doing something called ‘slap club’ for years (way before your skit). I’m not saying they didn’t see your skit but seriously though, it’s not that original to begin with. I’m sick of people whining everytime something like this happens. Don’t do the, unfortunately, american thing and waste your time complaining or ‘seeing what kind of legal action to take’ but rather put your energy into the thing you love and think of new material.”
What do you think?
Update: Fwiw, the supposed “smoking gun”: “A while back, like in June or so, Budweiser contacted us through WMA [William Morris, their agent] and asked if we were interested in doing a regular show for them on what is I suppose called BudTV. We didn’t respond because we were already working with FUSE but DVDs were sent out anyways.”
Jake Good
on 07 Feb 07I immediately saw the similarities… but what was my initial reaction? Wow! That’s a huge compliment that a large company wants to mimic a popular web video…
:: shrugs ::
jake
justin
on 07 Feb 07yeah I was doing the slap thing with my friends during college days, way before both these stupid commercials.
get over it.
Uh...
on 07 Feb 07Seems like a stretch to me… Maybe the initial idea is the same of making a “new thing,” but the execution is far different. Looks like Bud’s agency took an idea and decided to make it actually funny. The best part of the Whitest Guys sketch is Hitler at the end. Bud should have kept Hitler.
Dave
on 07 Feb 07The Whitest Kids skit was pretty funny, but I don’t think they have a case against Bud Light. They didn’t have anything about “fist pounds being out.”
Jim
on 07 Feb 07The TV show “How I met your mother” had an entire episode about “slap bets”.
If anything, it’s closer to that than this video.
Winsmith
on 07 Feb 07To be honest, I can’t really see any similarites other than that a situation is created in which people are slapped in the face. If the creators of the Budweiser ad even saw the sketch I’d still say the ad is only inspired by the sketch without being a ripoff.
Jake Good: If it were more clearly a copy of the existing sketch, I would understand the Whitest Kids’ anger very well.
Jon Gales
on 07 Feb 07They just smell some money and want to get lucky. The commercial is in no way a “rip-off”. On the WhitestKids website one of the creators said:
Completely false. The first portion of the Budweiser ad is all about how the hand bump is out. The first portion of the sketch is all about the new guy being confused as to why he’s being slapped in the face.
Not me mention that comedy sketches are almost always “rip offs” of things before it. That’s how creative content happens. Grow up guys.
Andrew
on 07 Feb 07It’s not what you do, it’s how it’s done. Nothing new under the sun.
Nick
on 07 Feb 07I say let’s copyright and patent the shit out of everything. I mean, it’s worked for Amazon, Microsoft and Chevrolet. I like living in a world where I can safely assume that any idea I come up with was probably patented or copyrighted by one of three companies. It makes life so much easier.
In other words quit bitching and make more sketch comedy, if that’s what you do. If you want to sue people sketch comedy is the wrong line of work. I mean, everybody hates to have their ideas or code or methods ripped off; we all know of cases where that has genuinely happened. But this? This is not that.
This is more like when two cultures, seperated by some impassable body of water or craggy frozen land mass, both independently invent an indentical form of virility dance. Only in this case the dance is kind of lame and not funny.
Dave
on 07 Feb 07Woo, we made a similar sketch and now we get free publicity by making it seem like Budweiser completely stole from us!
BizSnype
on 07 Feb 07It’s all about execution. The truth is that there is nothing new under the sun. But someone thinks of something and believes he’s the only person that ever had that thought or idea and suddenly they own every instance of it.
It’s like these jackasses that patent obscure ideas without the faintest idea on how to make them reality. And then 10 years later when someone gets the idea themselves and actually does it the jackasses come out of the woodwork claiming their patent was infringed upon.
Get over it! BizSnype
Eddie
on 07 Feb 07Great. Now I’ve heard of “The Whitest Kids” which I was trying to avoid.
(...yeah I know)
Karl N
on 07 Feb 07That commercial was terrible. Why would you want the credit for it?
Ben Sandofsky
on 07 Feb 07Many years ago, when Tina Fey and Rachael Dratch were performing at The Second City in Chicago, their group wrote a sketch involving NPR. They were directed by the improv/sketch guru Mick Napier.
One night backstage, moments before the show starts, SNL’s NPR sketch aired on the television in the greenroom. Up to that moment, nobody had seen that sketch.
The next day, the group had a meeting. The concern was half about plagiarism, and half about banality.
Napier writes, “Sometimes it’s not even a particular scene that’s been done, but a type of scene or a genre. I wouldn’t want to do a talk show parody or a song parody or a celebrity parody at this point….(or even ten years ago, to be honest). It’s too easy and not challenging and way too done.”
They decided to keep the sketch, despite the similarity.
I live in Hollywood. I’m surrounded by people with “a great idea for a movie.” They go nowhere, because ideas are a dime a dozen. It’s all about execution.
Leo
on 07 Feb 07Seems like kind of an obvious joke…it’s not like those “Whitest Kids” are so original in the first place. They definetly won’t stand a chance against Budweiser…
Caleb mardini
on 07 Feb 07I’d say that it looks like the Budwiser ad was inspired by the whitest kids.
Christopher Hawkins
on 07 Feb 07No similarity.
Brandon
on 07 Feb 07Outside of face slapping, I don’t see a whole lot in common. In fact, the Bud version is a better story. I’m fairly certain that no one can lay claim to the face slap as being some sort of special idea.
Someone mentioned that the whitest kids smell money. I think they smell money and cheap advertising. While they are getting some pub, they aren’t going to get any money. Are people really this lame?
Colin
on 07 Feb 07About as similar as a great dane is to a toy poodle.
Knock Knock! Who’s there? [slap in the face]
...sue me.
Ian
on 07 Feb 07There is no problem with the commercial. NONE. The slap is just “in” in the Bud ad, where as in the comedy skit it is the “new thing” that must be done after something said (i.e. ending a question in a one syllable word).
Both are funny and sufficiently different. Although I found the Bud commercial much funnier. As for the camera angles allegedly being the same, that is ridiculous. How many angles can you show one guy walking up to another.
The creators of the skit claiming there is a problem, it is only because money is involved. And that is LAME.
I suggest they STFU and watch The Three Stooges.
Richard D. Bartlett
on 08 Feb 07Uh, one is a joke about the fist-bump and the other is a joke about grammar. You might say they are “two separate jokes”.
AK
on 08 Feb 07As Ian says: “I suggest they STFU and watch The Three Stooges.”
Say no more.
Darrel
on 09 Feb 07It likely is a direct rip off. But that’s show the industry works.
indi
on 09 Feb 07If they truly believe they were ripped off and have money coming then they are in for a rude awakening to the realities of life.
Chris
on 11 Feb 07That Whitest Kids sketch is painful to watch. The Budweiser ad is not. Not a copy.
Luke
on 12 Feb 07Not that into either of them. These guys sound like a bunch of whiners. Won’t watch their show either.
Etc
on 12 Feb 07It’s not a debate here. It IS a rip off. Whitest Kids gave Budweiser a DVD with THAT sketch on it 6 months prior to the commercial.
It is NOT a coincidence.
The “fist pound” stuff is their way of hiding it, but it is a rip off.
Etc
on 12 Feb 07It’s not a debate here. It IS a rip off. Whitest Kids gave Budweiser a DVD with THAT sketch on it 6 months prior to the commercial.
It is NOT a coincidence.
The “fist pound” stuff is their way of hiding it, but it is a rip off.
Jason
on 14 Feb 07Etc is who?
This discussion is closed.