Falling Together – “Parallel Thinking” // Documentary 2020 (SNL steals sketch)

After finding out Melissa Villaseñor and her writers/producers created a sketch (Melissa’s Big Date or Melissa Seals The Deal) that was eerily similar to our short film from 2015, Sincerely Kevin, Marshall shares Melissa’s SNL sketch with Rob only to find out that he’s only flattered and not remotely upset about it. This escalates into an argument where Marshall leaves Rob’s apartment.

Are we parallel thinking with SNL or did SNL steal our sketch? You decide.

*For all the haters that claim there is nothing in common with our sketch and the SNL sketch, you are fundamentally wrong.

Our short film, Sincerely Kevin (2015) is about a man that has a relationship with an invisible woman. https://youtu.be/XGdnPHDO-8g

The SNL sketch, Melissa Seals The Deal (2020) is about a woman that has a date and sleeps with an invisible man.

The core comedic device is that the character playing opposite the lead is invisible. If you take that device away from either sketch, the jokes become less funny or in many cases, not funny at all. Both sketches reveal the invisible character in the first 10 seconds, which is used to grab attention.

You can tear each sketch apart and point out many minor differences, but the core idea of the sketch is the same.

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11 thoughts on “Falling Together – “Parallel Thinking” // Documentary 2020 (SNL steals sketch)”

  1. It's really hard to tell what tone you are going for. I have no idea whether to take this serious or not like if the camera man is legitimately mad about this or if this is a bit. Maybe that's why you guys didn't make money off of the Sincerely Kevin vid

  2. Without commenting on which ("Melissa Seals the Deal" vs. "Sincerely Kevin") I found funnier, I think "stealing" is way too strong and provocative a word to describe the connection between the two works. They share the same conceptual jump-off point–protagonist interacting with invisible love interest–but in terms of everything else–tone, style, scripting, and jokes–they seem completely different to me.

    1. Haha, it's hard to say, but I would probably still find it funny because the jokes in the SNL sketch are so unexpected and silly in in a way that hits my weak points, humor wise. The tiny tongue joke makes me laugh thinking about it. Also Melissa brings a lot of charm to it and that helps lift the jokes and make them feel good. If there was an actual person, it would probably lose some humor, though.

    2. I respect that and don’t disagree with you at all. I hate that this came across as directed at her. I think I am a little “butt hurt” because I’m at the age (37) where my time has already passed to work on SNL. For the past 12 years, I have had a lot of my work directly ripped off from big companies (60 Second Mocks vs Mini Mocks) and see a lot of parallels in the concepts in SNL and my own work. Anyway, thanks for the thoughtful comment.

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