A Saturday Night Live Charmin Bears sketch has become bizarrely controversial
A skit where Miles Teller plays an artistic young Charmin has drawn criticism for possibly pilfered material and it's placement directly ahead of a Charmin ad
Saturday Night Live has a masterful knack for making headlines for any reason other than producing good sketches, and last weekend’s Miles Teller-led premiere was no exception. This time, the problem stems from a skit that plays on the lovable Charmin bears, blue toilet paper mascots known for their passion for wiping. In the sketch, Miles Teller plays a young Charmin nervously revealing to his family (Kenan Thompson, Heidi Gardner, and Punkie Johnson) that he doesn’t want to attend Toilet Paper College.
Admittedly a pretty softball skit, the Charmin Bears bit still managed to stir up some controversy for two main reasons. The first is a Charmin toilet paper ad that, per Variety, aired directly next to the sketch on the show’s live Peacock stream. The not-so-subliminal messaging sparked conversation over just how much reach advertisers have into SNL’s content (although NBC asserts the choice was “coincidental”).
Beyond the advertising, the series has also drawn criticism for apparently heavily lifting concepts from an animated sketch made last summer by YouTube creator Joel Haver. The skit, “Toilet Paper Bears,” also follows a Charmin family with an artistic son attempting to leave the family business. Although Haver calls the similarities between the two bits “pretty alarming,” he also sees it as a case of “parallel thinking.”