Tina Turner tribute act on a riverboat
Saturday Night Live , compared with Kimberly Condict & Vanessa Ragland
Tina Turner impersonators stop between verses of "Proud Mary" to confess how they ended up in a sad gig, which includes a riverboat.
“Actually, when I say I left a good job, I really did leave a good job. Not only did I leave it, I burned that bridge to the ground.”
SNL — "River Sisters" Tina Turner sketch (Sarah Silverman episode), 2014quote source ↗find on YouTube ↗
Performed for six weeks in summer 2014: a Tina tribute duo muses between verses of "Proud Mary," and one secret from their past is a riverboat gig. (paraphrase)
Groundlings Sunday Company stage sketch, 2014▶ watch ↗
Same frame of Tina impersonators confessing between Proud Mary verses, with a riverboat in both, but the jokes inside reportedly differ.
- Premise 36/40
- Structure 25/30
- Punchline 12/30
- Premise36/40Both have Tina Turner impersonators pausing Proud Mary to confess their sad lives, including a riverboat gig.
- Structure25/30Same device of confessions between Proud Mary verses, which a Groundlings teacher called beat-for-beat.
- Punchline12/30Critics noted the jokes differed; only SNL's lines are on record, the Groundlings' are not.
Setup
Three Tina impersonators perform Proud Mary on a Nebraska riverboat casino.
Setup
A Tina tribute duo performs Proud Mary.
Turn
Between verses they lament how their lives ended up here.
Turn
Between verses they muse on their pasts.
Punchline
Confessions like burning the good job they left; specific gags differ.
Punchline
A secret from their past turns out to be a riverboat gig.
Scores and beats are our editorial reading of the public record, not a ruling.
Context
When and where
Kimberly Condict and Vanessa Ragland performed their Tina Turner tribute-band sketch for several weeks with the Groundlings Sunday Company in Los Angeles in summer 2014. SNL's version, with Cecily Strong, Sasheer Zamata and Sarah Silverman, aired on October 4, 2014.
What followed
Groundlings teacher Ian Gary called it "beat-for-beat" and said SNL had taken his friends' sketches before. A source close to SNL called it parallel thinking around an iconic figure, and some critics noted the jokes themselves differed.