Conan says sorry for Rudolph sketch 'plagiarism'

American chat show host Conan O'Brien has apologised after running a comedy sketch very similar to one that previously ran on a rival show.

On Wednesday night’s show O’Brien spliced together footage from Sarah Palin's series Alaska with the claymation film Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer to make it look like the former vice-presidential candidate had shot the festive favourite.

But an almost identical sketch had appeared on Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show two weeks earlier.

After the similarities were pointed out, O’Brien recorded a special message online.

He said: ‘Hey there internet, I have something important to talk about. Last night, on our show, we aired a piece of tape that one of our staffers put together, and it showed Sarah Palin shooting Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer

Well, we come in this morning and we find that Jimmy Kimmel did the same idea two weeks ago. So of course we apologise for that, we weren’t aware.

‘The staff member responsible has been fired. He has immediately been re-hired by Jimmy Kimmel, so I think everything worked out… Apologies to the gang at Kimmel.’

The clip had also been removed from O’Brien’s website, but it has been posted here:

And here is the Jimmy Kimmel version:

Here is the apology, in which O’Brien also jokes about previous supposed plagiarisms:

Published: 24 Dec 2010