Tom Green Shades Jimmy Kimmel for ‘Ripping off’ His Prank for Late-Night Show

Jimmy Kimmel is in hot water after comedian Tom Green accused him of stealing the concept for one of his pranks. Green hosted his own show called The Tom Green Show throughout the late 90s, yet fans have not forgotten his on-screen antics. Many recognized it when a bit re-appeared on Kimmel’s show.

The prank in question involved messing with each host’s family. This week, Kimmel posted a throwback of a 2010 skin in which he he painted his Aunt Chippy’s house a garish orange and green. It was made for The Jimmy Kimmel Show, which he hosted at the time before getting his job on ABC‘s Jimmy Kimmel Live.

Many fans got a fresh laugh out of the old skit, but for Green it reopened fresh wounds. He was able to demonstrate that, in 1994, they did an eerily similar skit for The Tom Green Show in which they painted his parents’ house an odd, paisley pattern.

Green responded with a video on Instagram. In it, he spoke directly into the camera about how it felt to have his bit copied on another show. He implied that this has happened to him before, wondering why “everybody” feels the need to copy segments from his show.

“Hey [Jimmy Kimmel] just saw your latest Instagram post where you painted your aunt’s house. Wonder where ya got that idea?” Green wrote, calling out the other comedian. “Sometimes I don’t understand why people can copy all of my classic bits from The Tom Green Show and get no push back?”

“If a stand up comic steals material they are crucified!! Love ya Jimmy but I want a writers credit. Have me on the show sometime and we can talk about it,” he added. “In the meantime I want all my Tom Green Show fans to go leave a comment on Jimmy’s post and let him know what ya think.”

Green ended by offering fans a link to a video of his original skit, which was markedly similar to Kimmel’s 2010 bit. However, in the comments many fans wondered whether it was possible that both comedians simply had the same idea separately, without having seen each other’s work.

“Sometimes it’s like, maybe it was such a solid joke that just two people thought of it independently..?” one person wrote.

“You know Tom, I don’t think you were the first person to do it either really. I had friends 30 years ago that did this to someone in their family. Did you contact them before you did it? Settle down.”

Green’s show ran from 1994 to 2000 on MTV and The Comedy Network. The show is available on DVD, and many segments are streaming on YouTube and on Green’s website.