Gag Me: Web TV Channel Slaps 'SNL' With Cease-and-Desist Order

Stashwax, a Web TV comedy channel, has accused NBC's long-running "Saturday Night Live" of copyright infringement, and sent a cease-and-desist order to the program's executive producer, Lorne Michaels.

The order demands that "SNL" end all visibility of its short video skit "SNL Apocalypto Re-Cut," which Stashwax claims rips off the concept and content of a similar skit created and released by the Web channel months earlier.

Both clips use footage from existing Mel Gibson-directed films to mock the Oscar-winning auteur and actor's notorious anti-Semitic tirade following his Malibu arrest for drunk driving.

In a statement, Lloyd Grenache, president of Stashwax, said to NBC: "Stay off our gags, Michaels. Gibson is our anti-Semite. Go find your own."

NBC was far more serious.

"Their claim has no merit," wrote a network spokesperson in response to an email query. "NBC Legal will be responding to them shortly."

Stashwax argues that the "SNL" "Apocalypto" parody, which aired Dec. 9, bears a striking resemblance to a skit Stashwax posted on YouTube in August, which uses footage from "Braveheart" to make similar jokes.

In addition to the general concept of altering a film trailer for comic material, both parodies quote some of Gibson's actual comments during his arrest, exploit the derogatory term "sugar tits" to refer to women, and employs Jewish stereotypes, like a fondness for bagels, for laughs.

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