South Park Creator Apologizes For Plagiarism 'Mistake'

If last week’s episode of South Park seemed familiar, it’s because you might have already seen the jokes and dialogue when they were first created, for a College Humor video.

South Park co-creator Matt Stone acknowledged that the episode, which mocks the convoluted plotting of the movie Inception, copied dialogue from College Humor’s Inception Characters Don’t Understand Inception. Stone apologized for the incident Friday, explaining that he and co-creator Trey Parker copied the dialogue by mistake, not realizing that the College Humor lines weren’t directly lifted from the movie.

Here’s one of multiple examples of one of the “mistakes,” as reported by the New York Times:

CollegeHumor: “That doesn’t sound so hard.”

“It is.”

“Why?”

[a character groans in pain]

“We don’t have time for this.”

“O.K., fine, so next we’re going into Arthur’s dream, and then what?”

“Then we go into Fischer’s dreams.”

“O.K., got it.”

“But Fischer will think we’re in Browning’s dream.”

“O.K. Wait, who’s Browning?”

South Park: “That doesn’t sound very difficult.”

“It is.”

“Why?”

[a character groans in pain]

“We don’t have time for this.”

“O.K., fine, so you’re going to take my son to a dream within the dream, and then what?”

“Then we go into your husband’s dreams.”

“O.K.”

“But your husband will think we’re in Hasselbeck’s dream.”

“O.K. Wait, who’s Hasselbeck?”

How does the plagiarism change your opinion about the show?

‘South Park’ Apologizes for Lifted Material in ‘Inception’ Parody [The New York Times]

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