Maybe it was plagiarism or maybe it was a coincidence, but for whatever reason, Conan ended up airing a short in which Sarah Palin hunts and shoots Rudolph after Jimmy Kimmel did the same thing two weeks before. In the video embedded below, Conan O’Brien apologizes for the mishap.

Well, he sorta-apologizes, at least. Conan deflects blame for the incident, joking that the responsible staffer has been fired and re-hired by Kimmel.

Deadline lined up the offending Conan piece alongside Kimmel’s recent clip of Palin shooting Rudolph, as well as Kimmel’s claymation take on the same subject from 2008.

Hmm. Maybe Kimmel needs to apologize for recycling jokes. Here’s the Conan apology:

Conan And Kimmel With Dueling Bits On Sarah Palin Shooting Rudolph [Deadline]

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