Re: Accidental Plagiarism: An Open Letter to Thomas Murray

See Joshua Heller’s original letter.

Joshua Heller:

In an endeavor to plead ignorance to my claim of plagiarism, you have effectively made yourself look like a huge tool. Let me explain.

I made a comment on your article claiming I saw a remarkably similar skit on Mad TV once (don’t judge me, sometimes there isn’t anything to do on Wednesday afternoons). Don’t you think you could’ve just replied to my comment instead of writing an entire article on it? Maybe even message me? Guess not.

My only reservation against your article was that is was almost identical to the skit I saw. Don’t get me wrong, unless I really thought it was plagiarism, I wouldn’t make a fuss. See Sarah Schneider’s last article, for example. She was accused of plagiarism for merely mentioning “Purple Drink,” which Dave Chapelle joked about once. That was not plagiarism. In fact, it was an entirely different scenario. However, this, in my humble opinion, was nearly a mirror of the Mad TV skit in question.

Nonetheless, it’s one man’s opinion. You really don’t have to pay attention to me if you choose not to. Hell, the fact that you got so defensive makes me wonder. Well, I’ve never done anything to you but make a simple statement. I don’t think I’ve done anything wrong, maybe you’re just having a bad week. Either way, you look like a douchebag by attempting to call me out.

Love,
Thomas Murray

p.s. Good luck getting your panties un-bunched.

p.p.s. See what I did with that picture there? It’s MC Hammer and it says “You’re a tool.” Get it? Hammer, tool. Hahaha. You’ll get it eventually.