Show writer says similarities are few, but net users disagree.
By Yin Yijun
A video making fun of socially awkward situations has racked up thousands of likes and shares on Chinese social media since it was posted last week. But some net users were quick to point out the whole skit was suspiciously similar to an episode of U.S. show Saturday Night Live.
“Listen to your heart and don’t compromise!” is the text that jumps out at the start of the 4-minute clip. Six scenarios taken from Chinese daily life follow. A young man is asked to stand up for an elderly lady on the bus, another man is urged to drink a glass of alcohol with a friend, and another is asked for money by a beggar.
A screenshot from the funny video shows a young man lifting a crutch in front of an elderly lady on the bus.
The twist is that, instead of reacting polity as one would be expected to, the protagonists bluntly speak their minds: No, I won’t stand up, I won’t drink, and I won’t give you any money. After every scene, the characters break out in song and dance. “This is the feeling of freedom,” the lyrics go.
The clip is part of an episode of web TV show “Yes Boss,” which started airing in 2013 and is coproduced by UniMedia and Youku Tudou, one of China’s biggest video websites. The show this year aired a second season, and every episode has on average been viewed some 10 million times.
The scene aims to showcase Chinese social conflicts and traditional values, Ke Da, the show’s main writer, told Sixth Tone. Respecting the old is regarded as a virtue in China, and when someone offers to drink, you drink. But in the clip the opposite happens.
Net users were quick to share and like the video on microblog platform Weibo, lamenting they wish they dared speak their mind in similar situations. “I was just talking about how annoying this kind of social blackmailing is,” wrote one user. “Now that I’ve watched this video I feel great.”
But other users pointed out they thought the clip was almost a near copy from a 2015 sketch by Saturday Night Live (SNL), a popular comedy program from the U.S. All that was changed were the language and the situations — in the SNL clip one character refuses to share his phone number with an old acquaintance, and another calls out a friend for not paying enough when splitting the bill.
A screenshot from the funny video (above) shows all the characters coming together, cheering and laughing, which shares the same scene designing concept to that of the SNL version (below).
In both shows, the blunt words are followed by slow-motion shots of the protagonists jumping from excitement and joining each other in dance, reveling in their freedom from social conventions. Both skits carry the same message. In the SNL version, the song’s lyrics go “Say what you wanna say, let the words fall out.” In the end of both videos all the characters come together, cheering and laughing.
“Yes, I have watched the show,” Ke said when asked about the similarities between “Yes Boss” and SNL. “It is the model we consulted.” He added that they had wanted to put the story in a Chinese context. “You can’t say it is a rip-off just because of some similarities in their story structure,” he explained.
Opinions on Weibo were less sanguine. One user, who pointed out where people could watch the SNL episode, wrote “I don’t even have to explain. Everyone just watch and you’ll see.”
(Header image: A screenshot from the funny video shows a man counting money in front of a beggar.)
