BBC accused of plagiarising ... the BBC

A BBC sketch has been accused of ripping off … another BBC sketch.

When BBC Three posted a 'quickie' on social media, When Ppl Hold Doors For You, online commentators were swift to point out its similarity to an eight-year-old sketch from Limmy's Show, entitled 'Right, ta!'.

Here are the two sketches, which both revolve around the familiar social awkwardness surrounding the etiquette of holding a door open:

It's time to introduce some rules on the holding open of doors. pic.twitter.com/Y0lbbRc7S7

— BBC Three (@bbcthree) January 18, 2018

Although one commentator called the sketch 'disgusting pattertheft’, the Glaswegian comic refused to be drawn into the debate.

But @carbootgame sarcastically observed that: 'Limmy will be pleased his content is being remade into a less funny and overexplained version of his original work with no credit.’

@murray_lothian suggested: 'If you’re going to plagiarise maybe don’t do it with your own talent.’

When Ppl Hold Doors For You is made by production company Third Leg Studios and stars battle rapper Shuffle-T, aka Adam Woollard.

It features much more dialogue and a different payoff to the 2010 Limmy skit, which aired in the second series of his BBC Two Scotland show.

But that didn’t satisfy Limmy’s fans that it was different enough.

In a heavily liked post, @chrishop said: 'This is embarrassingly derivative. And not only have they stolen @DaftLimmy content, but they've added in pointless dialogue to really over explain the joke. I don't pay my licence fee for this etc.'

And the BBC Three sketch was accused of 'losing confidence in their actual idea, adding dialogue to explain the joke and then just throwing some Gervais awkwardness in there to top it off.'

Limmy is unlikely to mind too much though as the Twitter feed of complaints featured several memes of his sketches.

Published: 22 Jan 2018