Plagiarism of the Week featuring Patton Oswalt & Barack Obama

This has been a busy week in uncovering plagiarism.
For more on these stories:

Columbia Valedictorian Brian Corman vs. Patton Oswalt
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/25/brian-corman-columbia-val_n_589339.html

Vaughn Ward vs. Barack Obama
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-tv/ryan-grim-discusses-gop-c_b_588934.html

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• plagiarism
• speech
• columbia
• valedictorian
• brian
• corman
• patton
• oswalt
• physics
• for
• poets
• steal
• thief
• vaughn
• ward
• barack
• obama
• tea
• party

[RentAnEducation]

Good god! Where did you get that font???

[EDLTV]

@RentAnEducation yes its kind of annoying, sorry

[boskymba]

Breath-taking. Great work slicing these together.

[EDLTV]

@boskymba  thanks

[wiregreyhounds]

What a piece of trash that Brian Corman is. Really makes you wonder how he got to be valedictorian in the first place.

[moschtastic]

Only a moron would ever consider hiring Brian Corman: Plagiarist.

[eric8542011]

Senator Obama was so much better than President Obama.

[Cajaquarius]

@wiregreyhounds I had a friend back in high school that used the English translation of the Latin bit sung during the fight in the game FInal Fantasy 7 for a poetry assignment and it wound up getting in a state-wide anthology. He even had to read it in front of the university (to a standing ovation). As far as I know, it is still in the anthology too. If you steal from an obscure/nerdy source, most schools won't even notice. Unfortunately for Corman, Patton isn't that obscure.

[dumb14wanker]

I dont really care about the politicians ripping off one anothers campaign speeches as they didn't write the damn things anyway, but its pretty scumby to steal a joke like that and act like youre the funny bastard that wrote it

[hannahbanana2633]

The Cardigans don't plagiarize.

[LPkeykey2010]

Idiot

[Cabochon1360]

No, it's not "borrowing". Not when you're using it in as public a presentation as a valedictorian address. When you use that much of somebody else's work without giving attribution, that's plagiarism.

[teskio]

hey Vaughn Ward I hope u gt rapes in the ass...

[Shotgunnova]

@aha45 Of course it's "borrowing" -- the guy used it once, will probably only use it once, and it'll only be associated to him by the thinnest degree. It's nice to call it blatant thievery out of respect for Patton's awesometasticness, but Brian's no stand-up genius so that's going a bit overboard.

[aha45]

@haasermark

You would think, wouldn't you? But in a country where Elliot Spitzer and Michael Vick are seeing new careers, I doubt it.

[aha45]

@Shotgunnova

Stoneczar explained it pretty well - this wasn't a mere 'borrowing of a joke' but a full fledged theft of a comedy routine. Ivies like Columbia would have us believe they only accept the finest young people in the world; the fact that Corman, the best of the best, is a plagiarist, only reaffirms my belief that elite American colleges are largely an old-boys club.