A number of French stand-up comedians alongside Gad Elmaleh and Jamal Debbouze are accused of plagiarism. According to videos made by a channel called CopyComic and published on Youtube, several French comedians were overly inspired by their American counterparts, reports Le Monde.
Among them, Malik Bentalha, a French-Moroccan comedian who reproduced the same content as Jerry Seinfeld, Yacine Belhousse who used the same jokes as David Bernner, and Tomer Sisley.
On the other hand, two Moroccan-French humorists namely Gad Elmaleh and Jamel Debbouze are also on the list. One of the videos published by the chain CopyComic shows that Gad Elmaleh coppied Jerry Seinfeld while another one reveals the fact that Debbouze was highly inspired by a Dave Chappelle’s show in 2004.
The discoverer of humorists Gerard Sibelle said : «It remained a secret for more than 15 years. All possible weapons are used to become known. To be inspired by Americans is one thing, but to copy their scripts is another thing.»
«That was known in the field, says Antoinette Colin, artistic director of Point Virgule in Paris. But today, everything is on the Internet; it would be stupid to continue to copying».