I steal from Patton Oswalt all the time, but when I do it, it’s awesome. And while I occasionally incorporate certain words or phrases I’ve heard him use that have since become a part of my personal lexicon– because that’s what fans do — I don’t tell stories from Patton’s life and pass them off as my own. Because that’s what serial killers do.
Enter Columbia School of General Studies (Columbia’s part-time undergraduate program for working adults) valedictorian Brian Corman. Corman apparently hadn’t seen Patton Oswalt’s recent public shaming of a comedian in Iowa who’d been stealing his act. Or maybe Corman did see it, and thought it’d be a great idea to try to pull off the same trick, only this time in front of 10 times as many people, at a filmed event, in New York City. Brilliant. In the video above, you can see Corman lift pretty much word for word Patton’s “Physics for Poets” bit (which I’ve included below). What I don’t understand is, isn’t ‘Physics for Poets’ not a class a Columbia? And of all people, wouldn’t it be your fellow students who’d know that? It doesn’t make any sense, dude. (Psst, just say it was performance art).




