Two sketches with very similar ideas

The winner of a £3,000 online video competition bears remarkable similarities to another sketch posted six months earlier.

Megan Heffernan and Sophie Fletcher won the prize earlier this month in the Short And Funnies competition, run by top producers Hat Trick.

Their sketch shows a friend visiting a new mum, discussing some graphic details of childbirth and then being asked to hold the newborn. When the mother is out of the room, the visitor accidentally knocks the child’s head off.

But comedy duo Toby – aka sisters Sarah and Lizzie Daykin – recorded a similar scenes months earlier for rival production house Roughcut TV... the difference being that their child spontaneously combusts.

The pair said: ‘We have to say the resemblance to our sketch is uncanny, wish we'd won three grand!’

But even Roughcut say it’s unlikely Heffernan and Fletcher would have seen the earlier footage, as it only had a limited release.

And a spokeswoman for Hat Trick, which ran the competition through its Bad Teeth online channel, said: ‘This is definitely a coincidence.’

Agents for Heffernan and Fletcher both added that any resemblance was a coincidence, and added: ‘Megan and Sophie hadn't seen this video prior to filming their sketch.’

Here is their winning sketch:

And here is the Toby version:

Published: 10 Apr 2013